Hello, Share Meshers. With respect to my brainy colleague Chris Bailey who seems to think that investing in tobacco companies is ok, I do not invest in anything which says on the packet that it might adversely affect health. But there is now a more pragmatic reason to consider for avoiding shares in tobacco companies...

Sorry for the late podcast but I have spent most of the day renovating another room in the Welsh Hovel. I may post some pictures later but it is far more entertaining than even writing about Neil Woodford's woes or Julie Meyer's lingerie. In today's podcast I look at Thomas Cook (TCG), Audioboom (BOOM), Kier (KIE), Staffline (STAF), Dev Clever (DEV) and the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), where, of course, I remain a loyal shareholder. Ho. ho. ho.

Having promised to raise funds in May, OsloBors-listed Thin Film (THIN) has finally got around to launching its tin-rattling exercise. But having been promising funding by the end of May (having admitted that it did not have sufficient funds for the year), the last we heard (on 31 May) was that it was in the process of finalizing details of the forthcoming equity issue to secure adequate financing which drew a cynical response from me. Well, the truth is out now…..

Having failed to get shareholder support to cancel its AIM admission last year, now a “Settlement of claim and Cancellation update” from MBL Group (MUBL)...

Purplebricks (PURP) screws  a large minority of customers by taking a fee and then failing to sell their property. As it burns its cash, shareholders are getting screwed too. To complete the hat-trick it seems that it is also screwing its staff. Just look at the employee reviews below. This is not, I suggest, a recipe for success.

Premier Technical Services Group (PTSG) has updated including “pleased to report that the group has seen continued sales growth and strong levels of orders in the year to date” and “the recent acquisitions of Guardian and Trinity are performing ahead of management expectations. This underscores our confidence in achieving a successful full year result in 2019”. The shares though, although well up from recent lows, are still down from more than 150p as recently as early this year to still sub 100p…

You heard it here first, folks: I said Kier would drop its dividend and today it has for the next two years. But worse still, it has now ‘fessed up that (even after the disaster that was the rights issue which fell to the underwriters) it is over-indebted. This morning’s statement is a horror show from start to finish.

I wrote on recruitment and training group Staffline (STAF) last month with the shares at around 400p; “Trading Update” dire… but worse to come? (what about the debt?!). They commenced today at 239p and are now further lower on the back of a “Notice of Results & Group Update”…

Spot the potential corporate problem. If there is a piece of government policy that pretty directly accounts for half of your profits, the smart thing to do as a CEO would be to try to sustain such a position for as long as possible. However as per Pete Redfern - chief executive of Taylor Wimpey (TW.) - Help to Buy is now a bad thing as it 'bought forward price growth significantly'…

The first interest rate cut in the US cycle usually coincides with the start of a US recession...

Hello, Share Plungers. Though my holding in the National Grid (NG.) is quite hefty, it usually disappoints. This giant outfit is probably too vital to our power supply for its share price to ever fall by much. But its progress is boringly slow...

In light of Saturday’s bombshell revelation HERE I have written to the Nomad of Versarien (VRS) suggesting a statement is needed pronto. The letter is below.

I wasted a fair amount of time yesterday attempting to set myself up for my first ever forex speculation. This was to be short the Hong Kong dollar against the US dollar St (at 7.82), to which it has been pegged for 36 years in the 7.75 to 7.85 range. The reasoning, as espoused by US hedgie Kyle Bass on an excellent podcast, was that the peg is unsustainable and sooner rather than later will break to the downside meaning that the risk/reward is extremely compelling in that the downside is limited to the strong end of the peg (7.75) and the upside is huge when the peg breaks. Better still…

Marketer and seller of RedLeg Spiced Rum, Blackwoods Gin and Vodka, Diva Vodka and Blavod Black Vodka, Distil (DIS) has announced results for its year ended 31^st March 2019 and that “investment in our brands and commercial infrastructure will increase to capture new markets and new consumers”…

Last weekend I started a series of articles asking the question as to whether Hargreaves Lansdwon (HL.) was encouraging its users to buy Neil Woodford’s now stricken flagship fund, the Equity Income fund (WEIF), whilst dumping it from its own house funds.

The support services and related sector has had a shocker over recent years and now it appears that two of the remaining (and i use the phrase in an ironic fashion) leading lights - Babcock (BAB) and Serco (SRP) are potentially set to merge, at least as per deadwood press suggestions.  

We have speculated about how much cash Neil Woodford needs to raise within his sunken flagship fund, the suspended Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF), in order to get the current gating lifted. Of course, because it wasn’t really an equity income fund at all due to the massive exposure to unlisted and illiquid holdings in companies that not only offered no dividend but actually need feeding so that will be quite an ask. We know that it had been suffering redemptions at a rate of about £10 million a day until the shutters came down when Kent County Council asked for its £238 million back on June 3rd. So that’s about £250 million (Kent plus that day’s redemption requests) already.

Is there anything better than sitting back and reading a well-written article on a lazy Sunday? Every week ShareProphets features some long form journalism that you'll find of interest. Grab your cuppa and enjoy these five articles.   

In today's bearcast I look at "lucky" luke red flags and patisserie v alerie, Neil Woodford, Babcock (BAB) and sumbag, lying or disingeneous, pond life journalist scum such as Ali Hussein, Sabah Meddings, Jamie Nimmo and the fraudster's fave Ben Harrington.

You, dear reader, know that the Neil Woodford story has largely been driven by ShareProphets (in particular, Nigel Somerville, Cynical Bear, and Tom Winnifrith) over the past two years so I hope that you are shocked by the lack of recognition we get from the Mainstream Press now that they have discovered the story.