Queen’s rug firm Victoria floored as crisis deepens
Carpeting company Victoria, a rug supplier to the Queen, has plummeted for the second day in a row.
the 123-year-old firm, which is listed on London’s junior market aiM, fell another 14.3pc yesterday, closing down another 65p at 390p, taking loss so far this week to more than 35pc.
the rout, which has wiped £268.4m off the value of the company, came after a bleak warning on Monday that it was not making as much profit on each sale as expected.
it was a sharp turn of fortunes for Victoria, which has delivered some of the best returns for investors of any listed UK company this decade. in the ten years leading up to august 2018, its shares had soared a massive 4708.5pc.
the recent slump will be bad news for executive chairman geoff Wilding, who owns 21.4m shares.
His stake would have been worth £177m just three months ago but has fallen to £83.4m today, and 2.8m of his shares are still being held as security against a personal loan he took out with Jp Morgan in June. Wilding’s bank balance should still be looking relatively healthy, however.
He made the canny move of selling 5m shares in august to a mysterious US investor called Spruce House Capital, following what the company called excess investor demand for its shares.
He made £41.4m from the sale at the time, and Spruce House – which is also a top-ten shareholder in Metro Bank – has since scooped up more shares. as Victoria crashed on Monday, the shady new York firm increased its stake from 7.9pc to 9.6pc. it was a better day for the
FTSE 100. the blue- chip index climbed 0.1pc, or 9.5 points, to 7035.9 points as strength at the major housebuilders after the government renewed its Help to Buy scheme helped to draw investors in. philip Hammond’s Budget also boosted Kier Group, which could see multiple benefits from the policies announced by the Chancellor.
russ Mould, investment director at aJ Bell, explained: ‘extra funding for high-speed broadband in rural areas could give a boost to Kier’s infrastructure business where it is a major supplier to Virgin Media. Kier is also a key partner to local authorities across the UK with pothole repairs.’
the FtSe 250 firm’s shares jumped 4.7pc, or 40p, to 895p.
Oil-well engineer Hunting was the weakest performer on the mid-sized index, as the company warned ‘geopolitical tensions’ were weighing on sentiment and causing companies to slow their investment.
the firm, which relies on oil firms wanting to build and service wells, said its trading was still in line with expectations, but investors took a wary stance as shares slipped 5.2pc or 36.5p to 661p.
Back on aiM, oil and gas exploration company Ascent Resources plunged as it threatened to take the Slovenian government to court in the eU. ascent has been seeking an environmental permit to launch its petisovci project for five years, and said it had received repeated private assurances from senior officials at Slovenia’s environment agency saying the permits would be confirmed.
But more recently, it had failed to get ‘ any meaningful comment’ from the agency or Slovenia’s new environment minister Jure Leben.
Chief executive Colin Hutchinson said the company was exploring options to challenge both Leben and Slovenia in the eU courts.
Shareholders seemed unconvinced that this would produce any positive results and shares fell by 33.3pc, or 0.25p, to 0.5p.
Stem cell firm Widecells, on the other hand, shot up by 50pc, or 0.15p, to 0.45p, as it said it would save £400,000 per year from slimming down its gp education unit.