It is the middle of the reporting season, where companies are announcing results for 2009 and giving investors an idea of prospects for 2010. This means there is a constant stream of representatives from companies visiting me and I have to read up to 15 announcements a day. But it means I get to catch up with a number of firms that I have written about.
Pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond is benefiting from the economic conditions. New management is building on the services of the division that buys gold items.
There is an investigation into internet buyers of gold, some of which are said to have been offering unfair prices, but Albemarle and Bond is not a part of this. This division has done really well as customers have been coming in with old gold earrings they have found down the back of sofas. The cash generated from melting down the gold and selling it is then used to expand the branch network. A double-digit increase provides an idea of how the firm views prospects for 2010.
The people from William Hill came for a cup of tea recently and though not being able to tell me who would win the 4.30 at Doncaster, they showed that the firm is getting to grips with the betting shops and phone betting. The key to the performance of the shops is what is happening to the online proposition. I left the meeting very excited by the prospects for this area.
Until Richard Hartman arrived at hotels group Millennium & Copthorne it was viewed as a real mixture of assets, with a chairman who owned 52% of the shares and was seen as dominating the board. Hartman arrived with an excellent reputation in the industry. He has put in some of the basic controls and operations that one would expect to see in a company such as M&C.
The company has benefited from a pick-up in occupancy and room rates. But the most important thing Hartman has done is to convince the key investor that the way to make the most money is to optimise returns on assets – this can involve selling assets as the profits from turning them into flats can far exceed the current returns. The firm recently appointed asset managers to boost returns.
I estimate that the net asset value could be nearly twice the share price, which was 420p at Friday’s close. I am happy to own these shares at this price.
Finally I’d like to apologise for an incorrect comment last week on easyJet. An anonymous caller left a message saying that easyJet does have unions. I had written that it did not. The difference seems to be that the members easyJet employs seem less strike-happy than their BA counterparts. Please feel free to contact me with any other comments.
•• Today’s guest on Andy’s Jazz In The City programme at 7pm on Jazz FM, which you can also hear at our new investment zone (thisis-money.co.uk/midas-extra), is Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management.
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