Over the past three articles it has become obvious that two out of the three Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) multi-manager funds I have looked at were dumping Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund (WEIF) even though the funds themselves were growing, whilst HL was still promoting WEIF to its private clients. The third I felt was too close to call. In part four I look at the Hargreaves Lansdown Multi-Manager Special Situations Trust (HL MM SS).

In a private email to key clients a top broker has today suggested that, £600 million capitalised (at 460p),  On The Beach (OTB) will have served up THREE profits warnings by early 2021 and that the shares are worth 300p, tops. I have obtained that email which is below:

As you may recall, the 30^th firm of lawyers to act for Julie “Lingerie on Expenses” Meyer, the ;previous 29 having gone unpaid, is trying to stop me writing about her by sending me a fascist lawyers letter. But I am afraid that before I respond to that, I have breaking news which is very much in the public interest to reveal. For Julie the news is in part good and in part terrible.

This morning’s data from Neil Woodford’s Income Focus Fund (IFF) must be a worry as redemptions are still piling in. How long can it be before liquidity dries up and the fund is gated, like its bigger brother the Woodford Equity Income Fund.

An intra-day announcement typically is not good news but that’s not the case for one made at a 12:27pm from KEFI Minerals (KEFI)…

Hello, Share Finders. The value of my holding in Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) & (RDSB) has increased by enough for me to consider top slicing profits. It’s never a good idea to hold more than 10% of your bundle in one company and that’s where I find myself today here...

A recording glitch. The hot rumour is at 20 minutes, ignore the gap beforehand. Elsewhere, I look at Neil Woodford, Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), Eve Group (EVE), Xeros (XSG), RM2 (RM2), Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.), BlueJay (JAY), Thomas Cook (TCG) Agronomics (ANIC) and the sodomising of Mail on Sunday reader;s portfolios by prize shit Ben Harrington and at Avereso (ASO).

A “Holding(s) in Company” announcement from Time Out Group (TMO) shows last week Woodford Investment Management reduced its holding from 16.06% to “less than 5%”. The shares then falling from just above 90p to just below, and a circa £120 million market cap…

I am delighted to say that my good friends at the Financial Reporting Council have acknowledged receipt of my dossier on Diversified Gas & Oil (DGOC) and are now looking at accounts which clearly need massive restatements. Meanwhile I see that the company is hosting a lunch for private investors on June 26 in London. Sadly I’m busy that day, as it is the day major renovations start at my Welsh hovel but if you want to attend email James Husband DGO@buchanan.uk.com . More pressing are the forthcoming interims….

I see that the spin doctors for Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) told their poodles in the deadwood press (the FT) to run a fake news article suggesting that vultures were circling looking to bid for the company and its assets. No-one, not even the PR cocksuckers at the Financial Times, believes that for a minute and the shares have slumped again today to 59p, despite, or perhaps in part because of, the weediest of statements from WPCT.

In part one of this series I showed that the HL Multi-Manager Income and Growth fund had been dumping Woodford Equity Income fund since the end of January whilst HL was still recommending Woodford via its Wealth 50 list. Part two – the HL MM Equity and Bond fund was inconclusive, although I did show that its % allocation had fallen. In part three I look at the HL Multi-Manager UK Equity fund (HL MM UK Eq).

Avanti Communications (AVN) has announced results, with CEO Kyle Whitehill emphasising “we can look forward to a positive future. We have an enviable network of assets, demand in our coverage is growing and the actions taken in the last 12 months to re-focus the business and to bring in new commercial talent to the executive team should bring rewards in the near term”. The shares have responded… er, by remaining down at 1.625p…

Yesterday I showed quite clearly that the Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) Multi-Manager Income and growth fund has been dumping Neil Woodford’s sunken flagship Equity Income Fund whilst HL retained Woodford on its Wealth 50 list of recommended funds offered to its private investors. This was in terms of cash value, in terms of the % of the HL fund and in terms of the number of units in Woodford’s fund – yet all the while the HL fund had been increasing in size. Today I move on to the HL Multi-Manager Equity and Bond fund (HL MM E&B).

Agronomics (ANIC) is an AIM listed firm which knew full well on Friday that it was set to raise £4.5 million at 5p - as against a 5.5p mid. So here is what to do. Leak the story to the fraudsters fave journalist, Ben Harrington, who will give it an utterly misleading write-up in the Mail on Sunday in return for the "scoop." MoS readers fill their boots on Monday and the shares move higher - they are now 6.5p. So Harrington and the Fail on Sunday get another "scoop", the Spiv clients of broker Peterhouse get to flip the stock and thank Peterhouse which earns 5% to pay for the coke and hookers and the company is cashed up.  The only folk who get screwed are readers of the Fail on Sunday who are buying shares on the basis of completely fake news.

Obviously today's comedy regulatory news update came from Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), but I will leave others to write on that piece of PR puffery... A couple of notches down on the regulatory news angst scale was the acknowledgement by recent dog Thomas Cook (TCG) that - as per weekend press comments - it is in takeover talks (with 18% shareholder Chinese conglomerate Fosun)…

Billionaire Stan Druckenmiller said last week that he could see the Fed funds rate going to zero in the next 18 months if the economy softens and that he recently piled into Treasuries as the U.S. trade war with China escalated. “When the Trump tweet went out, I went from 93% invested to net flat, and bought a bunch of Treasuries,” Druckenmiller said Monday evening, referring to the May 5 tweet from President Donald Trump threatening an increase in tariffs on China...

Hello, Share Crunchers. In line with my oft-quoted policy of favouring companies which do boring things - and so are often below the radar - I offer for your consideration IMI (IMI). This Birmingham engineer is described as a ‘flow control specialist’...

I said the debacle involving the gating of Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund was going to get messy and it gives me no pleasure at all to write this article because I am myself a client of Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.). But the question has to be asked: has Hargreaves been selling Woodford’s Equity Income Fund whilst at the same time advising clients to buy it.

I start with Bryce Elder at the FT. What a knob. Then it is onto new explosive revelations about Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) was  selling Woodford funds for months while urging its retail clients to buy.

I know  that I have been (an incorrect) fanboy of Kingfisher (KGF) for the last year or so when the shares have hardly covered themselves in glory but I still see an opportunity prospectively here to make money.  As I noted back in March  'look at the cash flow and hope that finally the Chairman (Andy Cosslett) is getting it. Ditching the CEO is just stage one', I read in today's deadwood press that 'the former head of Direct Line is in early talks with B&Q owner Kingfisher about taking over as chief executive'.