Regular readers of Spy will be aware of the ramblings and rantings of Andrew Perloff, chairman of property group Panther Securities, whose annual report to shareholders is a joy to read.
Now he has exceeded even his usual exuberance after his finance director Simon Peters was unceremoniously ejected from the board of department stores group Beales.
Panther is Beales’ largest shareholder with a 29.7% stake and Beales rents 11 of its properties, or 58% of its trading spec, from Panther. Perloff is not happy at the treatment of Peters. In a somewhat threatening way Panther said it would continue to “support Beales while it is conducive to do so”. Perloff then said:
“I have long held the view that:
1) It is foolish to upset your Landlord.
2) It is foolish to upset those that provide you with finance.
3) It is foolish for a quoted company to upset its largest shareholder.
4) It is foolish to sack a Director who is knowledgeable, well connected and who does not charge a salary or any expenses.
In one fell swoop Beales has managed all of these, which must be some type of record! It is hard to understand their logic.”
No sleep till Congleton in Phil's early days
Spy can’t let the departure of Tesco boss Phil Clarke, pictured, go without noting his ground-breaking contribution to social media in his early days as chief executive.
The flame was brief but burned brightly as he shook the Twittersphere with such gems as “Congleton store visit this evening. Long drive home now.” Or “Handforth Dean. Attended opening in 1995. About to see it again.”
Best of all was when Clarke let his hair down on the road when visiting the grocer’s international empire: “Istanbul on a Thursday night. Time for store visits.”
German goal glut costs Spreadex
How about this for an expensive night?
Spread-betting firm Spreadex, run by former City dealer Jonathan Hufford, had a good World Cup but tells Spy it took a £300,000 hit on Brazil’s 7-1 humiliation by Germany.
Spreadex was hammered by the scoreline as spread-betting punters usually bet on games being lively by “buying” total goals and the total minutes of the goal times — leading to profits of many times the original stake.
Oscar’s last-minute consolation for Brazil cost the group nearly £100,000 alone.
Luckily, Spreadex made the money back on the other, boring, goalless semi-final and the final, which was locked at 0-0 after 90 minutes.
