| | Wednesday 12 September 2012 ON THE SHARECRAZY BLOG  I founded t1ps.com in my bedroom 12 years ago. And now we part company for good. This will be my last article on t1ps.com or ShareCrazy.
I have been writing here on an unpaid basis for a while in the belief that there would be a change of management. On Monday Rivington Street Holdings decided not to sell t1ps to a group of investors. Thus, since I am not a charity, this is my last piece. Henceforth, I shall have no involvement at all with any aspect of t1ps.com, its websites and its conferences. I wish everyone - Jim Mellon, Mark Robertson and everyone at Rivington Street Holdings - the very best of luck. But that is it from me on these websites.
I started life as a writer and that is what I have been doing full time for three months now. When allowed free rein I enjoy writing more than anything else and my writings do appear to be in demand in quite a number of places. As such it is always better to look forward than back. To all those who have read my work over the past 12 years on these websites I say thank you and wish you the best fortune for the future.
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY  Hello Share Movers,
I have been very optimistic over the last few months about shares. And I am not alone in that. Quite a few City 'experts' have said that shares are still a good buy - both for their chances of rising in value and for the dividends. Some firms pay as much as 8%.
But at the same time as being cheery about shares, we must also bear in mind, gang, that Europe is still in a financial mess. Spain and Italy have to pay huge rates of interest because the big world investors do not rate them as safe a bet as the UK, to take just one example. The last time I checked Italy was being asked to pay 5.9%
It has eased since then, as that bloke from the European Central Bank said they would do what it takes to save the Euro. But we in Britain only pay only about 1.5% . Which makes it all the more mysterious - and a bit of an indictment of the UK government - that Britain is still in recession.
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FREE SHARE TIP OF THE DAY  A report from Growth Equities & Company Research
- Avesco Group has announced results for the three and nine months ended 30th June 2012 which continue to bear out its start of the year confidence that 2012 could be one of the biggest and most rewarding in the company's history.
- With the company believing its outlook "has never been better", the rating being attributed by the stock market continues to look materially too low.
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Paper round Insurance companies, Fed, Xstrata
Insurance companies risk being caught up in the regulatory crackdown caused by the rash of recent banking scandals, according to Richard Ward, chief executive of Lloyd's of London. Mr Ward said insurers were struggling with the "fallout" from moves by regulators to put in place rules to prevent new scandals. "You have the Libor scandal, all the stuff with Standard [Chartered] in the US - that doesn't help restore the image of financial services in the eyes of the public, the politicians and regulators," Mr Ward told Reuters. He said: "We are always having to deal with the fallout of the actions of others and the regulators responding accordingly." The banking industry has been hit by several scandals this year, including allegations that banks manipulated Libor, mis-sold complex interest rate derivatives to small businesses, and most recently over money laundering, The Telegraph reports.
Junk bond yields hit a fresh historic low as investors scrambled for higher returning assets ahead of a US Federal Reserve decision that could promise ultra-low interest rates for years to come. An index of high-yield corporate debt showed a yield of 6.48%, down from 8.35% at the start of this year. The inflows into junk bond funds that have been driving the buying spree look likely to set an annual record. Ed Marrinan, strategist at RBS Securities, said investors were expressing confidence that the Fed will ease monetary policy and that the German constitutional court will approve the European Stability Mechanism, the region's permanent bailout fund, The Financial Times explains.
Glencore would dispose of Xstrata's stake in platinum miner Lonmin if it can win over Qatari investors to its GBP23bn takeover. It came as Qatar, which fears an exodus of Xstrata's top talent, said its support for the deal was by no means guaranteed. A senior figure familiar with Glencore's plans said Xstrata, or its eventual owner, has a 'big decision' to make on Lonmin and should 'assess carefully' whether it was worth having a stake. 'Nothing has come out of that mine for four or five weeks,' the source added. Xstrata owns 25% of Lonmin (down 8p to 611p), which has been rocked by strike action and violence that has left 44 people dead. The value of the stake has fallen by GBP65m amid the unrest, while Lonmin has warned it may tap shareholders in a GBP650m rights issue that would further devalue Xstrata's holding, The Daily Mail says.
A panel of European officials would be given sweeping new powers to police the financial sector across the continent but also in the City of London. They would be given "full decision making powers" to impose EU law and to arbitrate disputes between Britain and the Eurozone over the risks posed by British banks, according to the proposals being tabled on Wednesday at the European Commission. Decisions taken by the powerful body would be automatically binding unless Britain was able to win the unlikely backing of a majority and overturn them. Rulings by the panel could create huge costs for the British government and banks if they were ordered to bail-out a struggling institution, contribute to cross-border bail-out funds, or allow the EU to rule over breaches of European law, The Telegraph writes.
Job losses at the Peugeot Citröen group are unavoidable if it is to safeguard its future, according to a report for the French Government. Commissioned by the Industry Ministry, the report accepts that an assembly line closure is "inevitable", but it criticises the company for deciding to close a plant near Paris without considering other options, including the closure of its Madrid plant. Two months ago, President Hollande branded the plan to cut 8,000 jobs by shutting the plant at Aulnay and scaling back another in Rennes as "not acceptable in its current form". Union officials who met with Arnaud Montebourg, the Industry Minister, yesterday said that he had acknowledged the company was "facing severe difficulties and needed to restructure". The report, compiled by the engineer Emmanuel Sartorius, said that it had been too slow to extract cost savings between its two core brands and had dithered over the forging of international alliances, leaving it overly reliant on the European market, The Times says.
Nick Buckles yesterday staked his future at G4S on the findings of an independent probe into the firm's Olympic failures. The chief executive could draw his 28-year career with the group to a close if he is found to be accountable for the company's failure to provide 10,000 guards for the Olympics. It came as Games organisers Locog laid out the firm's catalogue of failings before MPs. On its worst day, G4S provided less than two thirds of the required staff numbers, Locog's chief executive Paul Deighton told the Home Affairs Select Committee. During the Games more than 60% of venues were left with a 15% deficit in guard numbers - a level viewed by organisers as critical, he added. Appearing before the same group of MPs yesterday, Buckles admitted the buck stopped with him, The Daily Mail reports.
Building societies are expected to assume the role of regional banks as they capitalise on their greater reputation among the public and small businesses, according to a report. KPMG's 22nd annual Building Societies Database said almost half of the UK's 47 financial mutuals had increased their profit in the year to April 2012, and that they would benefit further from the end of free banking. Catherine Burnet, head of financial services at KPMG in Scotland, said that although the sector was still subject to potential mergers, it was the building societies' "time to shine". She said: "By 2020 we could see building societies fulfilling a new role as regional banks, capitalising on their attractiveness to smaller businesses and to customers, according to The Scotsman.
THE LATEST ON THE CRAZY BOARD The top 5 hot company threads on the Bulletin Board: Eckoh Falkland Oil & Gas Xcite Energy Paternoster Resources Running trading thread
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BOOK OF THE WEEK  By Nicolas Sarkis
A book review by James Faulkner of watshot.com "While less sophisticated players may well prefer to kneel and pray that the poor returns on stocks since 2000 will soon somehow be miraculously transformed into a new bull market, serious investors should instead delve into the history books." These are the words of warning Nicolas Sarkis conveys to his readers as he heralds a "lost era" for equities in the opening chapter of his refreshing appraisal of the investment landscape, Fear and Greed. Sarkis, the founder of investment firm AlphaOne Partners and notable for being the youngest ever Goldman Sachs Associate, sets out to equip readers with the insight necessary to avoid the pitfalls of investing in a "lost era"; indeed, he is well placed to do so, having preserved and increased his clients' wealth throughout the turbulent years of the financial crisis.
The book can broadly be divided into two parts; the first six chapters deal with specific investments and market themes - equities, deleveraging, gold, emerging markets, government defaults, and the euro - while the last four address some of the broad sweeping issues that will colour the investment environment for years to come - fearfulness among investors, regulation, fraudsters, and central bankers (perhaps he should have put the last two in the same chapter?). Sarkis is particularly bullish on gold due to the fact that it has a low correlation to equities, making it "a great asset for balancing out risks on equity investments and vice versa". However, for those looking to diversify into emerging markets he cautions that a renewed downturn would probably see them among the worst performing asset classes, particularly in Asia, where China shows many symptoms of a bubble.
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