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Earthport Accounts, City of London IT and Patisserie

Post Date: November 2, 2018

Earthport (EPO) is the latest AIM company to report that its past accounts are not all they should have been. Following a review by the new CEO and CFO, it seems there have been errors in reporting of forward foreign exchange transactions. This will result in fair value adjustments and a reduction of £6.3 million to £16.6 million in the net assets of the group at June 2017. Likewise adjustments are required to previous years. Reported earnings are also reduced although ...

Patisserie General Meeting – No Excitement But Few Questions Answered Either

Post Date: November 1, 2018

I attended the General Meeting of Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) this morning at the ungodly time of 9.00 am – presumably chosen to deter attendance. An announcement earlier from the company will also have deterred attendance as it said no questions on past events would be answered so as not to prejudice investigations by “multiple regulators and authorities”. But there were about 20 shareholders present, including some institutional representatives. This GM was to approve the second tranche of share placings and I expected ...

Are FTSE100 CEOs Overpaid?

Post Date: October 31, 2018

Comments on Deborah Hargreaves' new book and my conclusions thereon. by Cliff Weight, 30 October 2018. I read Deborah Hargreaves book "Are Chief Executives Overpaid? (The Future of Capitalism)" with great interest. It is an easy read and covers a vast amount of material which illustrates the complexity of any discussion of executive pay. I commend it to all. You can buy it on Amazon. I was on a panel of speakers at the CSFI event on 15 October where Deborah spoke and introduced her ...

Budget Summary – Austerity Coming to an End

Post Date: October 29, 2018

Philip Hammond’s budget today can be summarised as: More money for the NHS. More money for the MOD. Money for schools. More money to fix potholes. More money for housing. More money for the Universal Credit scheme. Yes “austerity” is being relaxed. Changes to taxation are relatively minor, but there will be a new tax on “digital platforms” which is clearly aimed at large companies such as Facebook and Alphabet (Google) who generate large revenues from their operations in the UK but ...

FCA investigations of hidden fees.

Post Date: October 9, 2018

34 fund managers are being investigated for ‘hiding’ their fees according to a story in the Sunday Times on 7 October, see https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/34-fund-managers-investigated-for-hiding-their-fees-l6kjwqhrz An investigation has been launched into 34 pension and investment companies for failing to meet new rules that force them to disclose the true cost of their funds. This is the first time the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has taken action against firms for not adopting rules intended to make it easier for savers to assess and ...