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Tesco and why ShareSoc members should not have been surprised

After we published some previous comments on Tesco, Warren Buffett publicly admitted that his investment was a "huge mistake". He currently has about a 4% stake in the company, and may have lost over $800 million at the current share price after first buying it in 2007. It's perhaps worth reminding ShareSoc members and others of the fact they could have read a report on the Tesco 2013 Annual General Meeting in June 2013 which spelled out some of the problems the ...

Sainsbury and Tesco (do they need a pressure group?)

Following on from the debacle at Tesco, Sainsbury produced some quite awful trading figures yesterday (1/10/2014). Here's a review of some of the news on those and other retailers. Tesco The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are undertaking an investigation into Tesco's "overstatement of expected profit". Making misleading statements to the market is potentially a criminal offence. How long that will take to reach any conclusions is anyone's guess. The result of such investigations are often reported to investors so late in the day ...

Inheritance tax giveaway by the Chancellor

The announcement by George Osborne yesterday (29/9/2014), that a tax on pension funds is to be scrapped is a major giveaway for investors. It would seem we are already into the 2015 election campaign. At present anyone holding a SIPP (the most cost effective way to hold your pension fund) or other defined contribution pensions (e.g. personal pensions), faces a hefty tax bill when they die after the age of 75, or earlier if the fund is already in "drawdown", i.e. paying ...

Globo Interims and evaluating software companies

Globo issued some Interim Results this morning (29/9/2014). The announcement created quite a debate on some bulletin boards because of varying interpretation of the results. It only merits some comments from me because ShareSoc has published articles on this company before, particularly after it came under attack from shorters who primarily questioned the poor cash flow, capitalisation of development costs and several other aspects of the company's operations (see our November 2013 newsletter). That caused the share price to collapse from ...

The Tesco Board – fit for purpose?

There was a very good article in the Financial Times today by Luke Johnson. It covers the problems at Tesco and suggests that "the stewardship at Tesco has been woeful".  A particular focus is on the experience of board members, of which only one is executive (recently appointed Dave Lewis). It says "Like every single other director on the main board, he has no executive experience as a retailer whatsoever". Luke suggests they might have a wide and impressive set of ...