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Open Season on Auditors?

I attended a joint ShareSoc/UKSA meeting hosted by PwC yesterday. There was a lively debate as one might expect of the problems of the audit profession where there have been just too many issues with listed company accounts in recent years. The latest is an investigation announced by the FRC into the audit of Conviviality but there have been lots of other problem cases in both large and small companies – Carillion, Interserve, BHS, BT, Rolls-Royce, Mitie, RSM Tenon, Connaught, Autonomy, ...

Book Review: Debtonator by Andrew McNally

Now here’s a book well worth reading on your summer holidays. It’s called Debtonator by Andrew McNally. Indeed if you are taking a long-haul flight to your holiday destination, you might be able to read it in one sitting. Like all good books it is short at only 98 pages excluding notes and index, and the format is small as well. But there is an enormous amount of information embodied in there. It covers the problems caused by excessive debt in the ...

Amati AIM VCT AGM and Retailers

Amati AIM VCT is one of those peculiar beasts – a Venture Capital Trust. Yesterday I attended their annual general meeting and here are some general comments on the company and the meeting: Amati AIM VCT (AMAT) is the result a merger of the two Amati VCTs. They had very similar portfolios so this made a lot of sense, and the result is a large VCT with total assets of £147 million. This figure was also boosted by excellent performance last year ...

The Battle for Petropavlovsk is over – for now….

So, the boardroom battle at Petropavlovsk finally reached a conclusion at today's AGM with the present board being ousted by the returning previous board. I note that the key votes were won by relatively small margins of a few percent and there was a very good turnout with c77% of all shares voted. So, is it a testament to true shareholder democracy or a disaster for the company's stability and future prospects with a rotating door at the top - what ...

Shorting Shares: Radio 4 programme

Mark Northway and Cliff Weight were interviewed as part of this programme which highlighted some of the benefits and issues surrounding short selling. Members may wish to listen to the programme which can be downloaded here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7fj3g#play "Falling Short - Fake News and Financial Markets File on 4 If fake news is poisoning public debate, then what is it doing to the financial markets? Short-sellers - investors who bet on a company's shares falling, not rising- have a mixed reputation. For some they play a vital ...