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There’s nothing like a bit of sunshine to cheer all London’s grumpy commuters up a bit. Not surprisingly, as it warms up we head outdoors. Rather more oddly, as the economy cools we go outside even more. In one of those conundrums that I know should make sense but somehow just doesn’t quite, when every UK economic indicator is pointing south, we all spend money on our gardens. Why, when we’re supposed to be tightening our belts, new garden furniture, fountains and features should attract our money is beyond me. Perhaps we cut back spending on going out and if we stay at home we get bored, and notice the terrible state the garden is in – which is great news for gardening companies, whose cash registers ring out every time there’s bad news.
Aim certainly has bad news. The small companies market is celebrating, if that’s the right word, its 10th birthday this weekend. But the recent scandal at Regal Petroleum, which turned out not to have the oil reserves it was meant to and lost 80% of its value, has brought both Aim and the banks that advise on flotations into the limelight.
Regal was advised by Evolution, whose intriguing chief executive, Alex Snow, the 6’7” former England B team and Harlequins rugby player, boasts that his company has doubled revenues every year for four years. But this hasn’t helped its reputation.
After being fined for insider trading last Autumn, everyone thought Evolution was finished. But it came back – and it has advised on 14 floats this year. This latest episode has brought a lot of Aim flotations into question – but there are lots that don’t deserve to be tarred with the same brush. For our cover story this week, Tom Bulford has trawled the market to find five stocks that could make you good money, and he also tells us how to avoid howlers like Regal.
To get away from all this doom and gloom, there is nothing like a little light entertainment. But I don’t think I’ll be finding any by playing Monopoly any more. However unrealistic, buying Mayfair for £400 was always deeply satisfying, and then for under a thousand you could build your own hotel and charge fantastic rent. But the new board is supposed to reflect modern life in London, and this just seems to be another attempt to remind us all that the market is too expensive to buy any property we’d actually want. Mayfair has gone, but in its place is the City – for £4m. Now that’s house-price inflation. But as house prices fell 0.8% in April, perhaps – if things carry on downwards – there will come a day when once again we can at least imagine buying the Old Kent Road.
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Annunziata Rees-Mogg
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