Is this the most spectacularly incompetent annual meeting ever? There is a tiny AIM-quoted company called DataCash Group that allows companies to process payments around the world securely. The company had asked for permission to issue shares for cash and to buy them in the market where necessary. Purchases are subject to strict limits, set by shareholders, of course.
Except that someone seems to have put the decimal point in the wrong place. The company was forced to issue a shamefaced note yesterday admitting that shareholders had allowed it to issue half a million quid in shares, when it had meant to ask for only £50,000. Meanwhile, they had allowed it to buy 46 million shares, while it had meant to ask for 4.6 million.
Not one investor noticed, which says a lot about corporate governance on AIM. There’s no one driving, is there? The finance director doesn’t return my call. The message box of the woman who handles press calls is full up, so I can’t speak to her. The company prides itself, according to its website, on “its fraud and risk management solutions”. I couldn’t possibly comment.
Palinomics and the allure of falling revenues
Remember Sarah Palin? The Governor of Alaska has given an interview to Fox News in which she sets out her, well, unique take on public sector economics. She is asked about the rising price of oil, given that her state relies on oil for 85 per cent of its revenues. “I thank God it’s not at $140,” she says. “The fewer dollars that the state of Alaska government has, the fewer dollars we spend. And that’s good for our families, and for the private sector.” So the lower the state revenues, the better. I suppose if you advocate limited government, it makes a weird kind of sense. But she was at one stage nearly one heartbeat off the presidency ...
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— A heartfelt admission from Mark Phillips, chief executive of Paramount Restaurants, which owns Chez G?rard. He was at a conference with the likes of Luke Johnson. “Cash is king. Cash is REALLY king,” said Phillips. His new-found enthusiasm for financial discipline may have something to do with the appointment of debt specialists to Paramount in March, after a sharp outflow of cash.
— That pay dispute between BA and its cabin staff is getting nasty. There is rivalry between crews at Heathrow and Gatwick, according to a posting on the internet by a Gatwick staffer. “LHR [Heathrow] BA cabin crew are like Seville Oranges, look the same as LGW [Gatwick] but cost double and are incredibly bitter.”
In the blue corner: Richard Desmond
Mogul has his wings clipped
Some pretty odd people have drifted in and out of the Blair/Brown big tent, even before Sir Alan Sugar. But surely the oddest is Richard Desmond, pornographer and publisher of OK! and the Daily Express. Desmond contributed £100,000 to new Labour’s coffers, causing upset among the party faithful and moves to avoid future embarrassment by vetting donations more carefully.
He might not be in a position to repeat the gesture after having to get by on £641,000 last year, a pay rise of only £10,000, according to his parent group’s accounts - a far cry from the £50 million he used to award himself. Still, $56.5 million has been set aside for the Gulfstream jet he hopes to get in 2017; the manufacturers couldn’t deliver it with the first batch, due in 2012. It seems he was deemed insufficiently important.