Akers’ halo slips as Concha slides
From hero to zero. Just like sacked Chelsea FC boss Jose mourinho, multi-millionaire entrepreneur Chris Akers is now fully aware that it doesn’t take long for the halo to slip.
As chairman of AIm-listed investment company Concha, he was feted last year when the shares were the second best market performer with a staggering gain of 2,260pc.
Twelve months later and the stock is probably one of the worst after crashing a further 2p or 76pc to 0.6250p on a desperately disappointing announcement.
retail investors and fans of Akers, who have followed him since he played the dot-com boom to perfection by selling a £25,000 startup Sports Internet Group to BSkyB in 2000 for £300m, have lost their shirts.
They had piled in after Concha revealed that it was engaged in negotiations about a ‘global’ opportunity within its investment scope.
Wham! Yesterday, the company announced that following further discussions with the target trustee company, the board had met to discuss the status and complexity of the proposed transaction as well as the likely timescale for its completion. It finally decided it was in both parties’ interests to terminate discussions immediately.
Those who had not already paid heed to the continuous sell advice from infamous bear raider Evil Knievel, who never believed a game- changing deal was on the cards, sprinted for the exit.
The board’s accompanying remarks that it has, and will continue to assess the number of other potential investment opportunities in line with the company’s investment policy fell on deaf ears.
Akers and the board will have a lot of explaining to do when full-year results for the year ending June 30 are revealed on Tuesday.
relieved that the Fed did what every man and his dog had expected by raising US inter- est rates for the first time in almost a decade, the Footsie jumped 100 points before closing 41.35 points higher at 6,102.54, while the FTSE 250 rose 101.34 points to 17,177.28.
Wall Street succumbed to profit-taking and lost all Wednesday’s dearer money-inspired gain of 224 points, closing down 253.25 at 17495.84.
International bank Standard Chartered featured a gain of 37.2p to close at 549.9p after investment company Temasek, a 17pc shareholder, said it was willing to give the board time to work on its turnaround strategy before deciding what to do with its holding.
The bank has hired HSBC veteran Simon Cooper to head its corporate and institutional banking division. He is due to join in April following regulatory approval. reflect- ing a recovery in the South African rand following the appointment of Pravin Gordhan as the new finance minister and the US rate rise, insurer Old Mutual added 6.8p to 171.8p and asset manager Investec 16.5p to 469.5p.
But there was no respite for friendless miners. Anglo American lost 14.65p to close at 263.55p and Glencore 3.49p to 80.86p. Randgold Resources fell 143p to 3977p in sympathy with a decline in the gold price to just $1,052.8 an ounce.
Amid continuing concern about growing competition from foreign discounters Aldi and Lidl, Tesco shed 3.15p more to close at an 18-year low of 144.85p.
Southend airport-owner Stobart improved 2p to 110p after acquiring two sites in Speke, near Liverpool’s airport, for £18m, funded through a 5pc re-issue of treasury stock to funds managed by Woodford Investment management.
Redde, the professional services group in which Woodford Investment management owns 18pc, accelerated 21.25p to 191.25p.
Buyers climbed aboard after it said it was anticipating trading profits for the six months to the end of December to exceed earlier expectations, and were likely to be ‘materially ahead’ of the corresponding period last year. It expects to declare an interim dividend of no less than 4.4p per share.
Top fund manager Neil Woodford has also been a long-term 25pc shareholder of Purplebricks, which yesterday became the first online estate agency to float on the junior AIm market. Its debut proved somewhat disappointing as the shares closed at 93p, a 7pc discount to the £1 flotation price. other major shareholders include Paul Pindar, former chief executive of Capita, and Errol Damelin, founder of payday lender Wonga.
Leisure airline and package holiday company Dart improved a penny to 561p after agreeing to buy three new Boeing 737-800NG planes on top of the 27 announced in early September. The total value of the deal is £190m at current prices and will be funded through internal resources and debt.
TP Group, which focuses on the aerospace and defence sectors, rose 14pc to 3.12p after winning two defence orders from Babcock valued at £1.95m.
÷ DAILY Mirror publisher Trinity Mirror cheapened 2.25p to 162.5p after losing its appeal against a £1.2m payout to victims of the phone hacking scandal. Following the judgment, Trinity said it planned to appeal to the Supreme Court. But as a consequence of the decision and the continued uncertainty as to how matters will progress, the board increased its provision to deal with the issue by £13m, taking its total provision amount to a hefty £41m.