Hello, Share Smashers. Insurance companies are in the news after the nasty flooding around my home town of Doncaster. As can happen with such disasters, the shares of insurance outfits might do the unexpected in the circumstances. They can rise. This could be because more people feel insecure and start buying policies...

Earlier this week I noted on Tissue Regenix (TRX) a further nightmare for shareholders including (natch) Neil Woodford investors – that with the company set to fail a financial covenant test and thus having to discuss with a weak hand - with also its latest results having shown it heavily loss-making with net cash down to £4.3 million - with loan facility provider MidCap Financial Trust. Now though Executive Chairman John Samuel reckons he’s “very pleased that Midcap have shown their support for the company by entering this revised agreement” – and the shares have responded further higher above 1p…

In today's podcast I look at PureCircle (PURE), the roll call of shame and who should be publicly executed. I also look at Dev Clever (DEV), Tissue Regenix (TRX) and, once again, at Blackmore Bond a mini bond car crash which appears imminent and is another part of what will be one of the biggest financial scandals for years.

Previously writing on homewares group Portmeirion (PMP), in May I noted after less than 2 months ago “we look forward into 2019 with confidence” … a significantly below market expectations profit warning, concluding, with the shares lower towards 900p, and with I also having previously noted from “expect profit before tax to be in line with market expectations for the full year” to “pre-tax profits are expected to be materially below” in less than two months, to avoid. The first ‘Headline’ of its 1st August-announced interims was “First half results are in line with our expectations set out in the 14 May 2019 trading update and we anticipate achieving full year expectations” – and now a “Trading Update”…

Mr Market giving you a kicking now and again keeps you suitably humble. Back in August I self-congratulated HERE about how 'one of my better portfolio performers year-to-date has been FirstGroup (FGP) which I have loved up a number of times in the last eighteen odd months on these pages, ever since the bus and rail company was silly enough (admittedly under a different management team) to turn down a bid from private equity'. Well that was all fine and dandy with both an activist shareholder AND the company coming up with its own plans to create value by splitting the company up. However today's update has pushed the shares down 20% odd percent as I write. So what has gone wrong given the value creation plans continue apace and full year numbers were reconfirmed?...

Labour has today said that it will, if elected, close the Gender Pay Gap by 2030. No doubt the liberal media, notably the BBC, will lap this up. But the hard data shows exactly why on this matter, as on so many other matters, Jeremy Corbyn is talking unmitigated bollocks. Two years ago I gave a lecture to sociology students at Bath Spa which gave the hard data which shows the lie at the heart of what Labour says. Naturally, offering facts rather than woke nonsense landed me in an Orwellian soup which I will give full details on one day. The lecture was recorded and with its slides is below.

I have warned before that Wellesley Finance was yet another mini bond provider to avoid like the plague. Now another red flag emerges....

We have been warning that Purecircle (PURE), a company once valued at a billion dollars was a disaster waiting to happen for more than six years. The shares were already suspended over the inventory fraud, now other “matters of concern” have emerged and the CEO is stepping aside pro tem.  This company is almost certainly toast. City adbisors named below should hang their heads in shame and return fees, directors should go to jail.

I have never been a fan of this dog from the AIM Casino kennels as my scathing coverage on this website demonstrates. But now a shareholder appears to show that Scotgold Resources (SGZ) has committed market abuse. I'd go further, I believe that it has deceived investors on an industrial scale as to its cash needs, ahead of an equity refinancing. After publication of the company's annual report the shareholder has written to regulators flagging up the issue. I will now be contacting regulators and also the company's shameless and disgraced Nomad SP Angel of MySquar and BlueJay Mining infamy, to pursue this matter. The shareholder, Mr C, writes:

Columbus Energy Resources (CERP) “is pleased to announce that it has agreed to terms for a new convertible loan agreement with Lind Global Macro Fund LP”. Hmmm – what’s the detail?...

Hello, Share Minders. Amid the mild gloom surrounding the stock market, there are still a few golden firms that quietly continue to reward us with rising share prices. One such company is Creightons (CRL). It makes stuff we put in our shopping bags, even though we can do without it. Like fake tanning lotions and car deodorants. The share price has soared by nearly 50% since October 7th...

Having as recently as June been sub 50p, shares in self-styled “a leader in the discovery, development and delivery of novel RNA therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases” Silence Therapeutics (SLN) spiked above 100p in July on the back of announcements of a collaboration with, and investment from, Mallinckrodt (NYSE - MNK). The shares have in the last month sparked significantly further – to a current near 400p, giving a more than £300 million market cap. However…

I discuss Malcolm Graham Wood and his analysis of Sound Energy (SOU), Versarien (VRS) and its need for a statement, Amur (AMC) and its latest silly statement, Big Dish (DISH) and the threat of a visit from the Sith Lord Zak Mir to the Welsh Hovelm Plutus Powergen (PPG) and Bonhill (BONH) and what its statement does NOT say.

Writing on B2B media group Bonhill (BONH) in July I concluded, with the shares then around 65p, with a still more than £30 million market cap, the noted risks to expectations (a £4 million+ full-year profit has been anticipated) see me avoid. The shares closed yesterday at 53.5p and now a “Trading Update”…

A media leak has forced Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) to admit that it has received a tentative refinancing proposal and it is one that suggests an 80%+ wipeout for shareholders, notably lucky holders of funds formerly managed by disgraced Neil Woodford.

Eco Atlantic (ECO) provided an update today on the Jethro and Joe oil discoveries in Guyana advising both discoveries are heavy sour crude. The market has reacted savagely with the shares more than halving as I type. Despite some positives, I do not see the current share price as attractive. Don't bottom fish! Here's why...

There are a lot of numbers out today but the regulatory disclosure that struck me the most was the comment from consumer staple behemoth Unilever (ULVR) that 'Marijn Dekkers has decided to step down as Chairman of the Board with immediate effect. Nils Andersen, Non-Executive Director, has been appointed by the Board to succeed Marijn as Chairman of Unilever'. Now at face value this appears rather boring but let us dig a little bit deeper…

So much for the #BoycottWetherspoons campaign pushed by Remoaning drips. JD Wetherspoon (JDW) Q1 like for like sales grew by 5.3% and overall sales were up by 5.6%. When pro-Brexit parties win the election I know where I am going for a celebratory pint. In bringing us this good news, my hero Tim Martin also lashes out at the woke Brigade of corporate governance bores, notably the rank hypocrisy of the commie sociologist (I kid you not) who runs PIRC. This is brilliant stuff and I have highlighted the PIRC section as sheer genius as the deadwood press has long quoted PIRC time and time again to create non-stories. Martin brilliantly exposes PIRC as Charlatans. The greatest living Englishman writes:

Each writer on this site contributes independently of the others – we write about investment cases that grab our attention. Negative investment cases are often easy – a piece of shite is just that. I would suggest it is not often several of us agree on a positive investment case. Looks like Jadestone Energy (JSE) is one. I will try to be brief. I keep telling myself, and Tom, an objective of less words is good, along with calling companies singular and finding negative investment cases that keeps Tom’s pecker up in his lustful ambitions on Cheryl Cole…

We live in a world where lying and deceiving of others is now deemed acceptable. Whether in politics or business, sport or indeed any aspect of life, the ninth commandment is now seen as something that need not be obeyed. I do not regard this as progress and that brings me to AIM Casino dog Plutus PowerGen (PPG), its colourful directors James Longley and Charles Tatnall who have featured here many times and its pliant Nomad Allenby which will sign off on almost anything...