Poundland difficulties?

Attradius, who are one of the largest credit insurers, have reduced cover on Poundland, citing “accounting irregularities” at their South African parent company.

Taking a quick look at Poundlands accounts in isolation, there would be very little cause for concern. They are straightfoward and whilst there have been a couple of loss making years, the net worth is decent. If the worst came to worst there is no doubt that a buyer could be found for what is a strong brand, even if it could not exactly be described as premium

So what will be the effect of Attradius’s decision? The possible issue here is that defensive actions can generate more uncertainty. The suppliers are obviously going to be concerned and it would appear already that a number are having to restrict deliveries. More concerning is that if this became contageous amongst other insurers and suppliers, then Poundland could be struggling for stock which could possibly start a dangerous spiral

 

 

 

Anger between a broker and lender

It would be remiss for me to go into the details of a case on which I have only second hand details but a major semi public row has broken out between a broker and a single invoice discounter over commission. The details can be found on linkedin

The broker is quite high profile and he clearly has no regrets burning his bridges. The lender in question is one who I have used a number of times in the past but will no longer do so. The issue I had differed but was indicative of a serious attitude problem.

In this particular case the broker introduced the client to the lender. Commission was paid but after a period of time the borrower moved the facility to another lender. That didnt work out and they then returned to the original lender.

Nothing unusual except that upon the return (after a just a few weeks) the lender refused to resurrect the commission.

Being fairly substantial this angered the broker.

A grey area maybe but the lender in question will clearly not get any further leads in what is a competitive market and has found themselves to be publicly outed on a linkedin group used by many brokers and many in the industry

You can work out for yourself whether that was a good decision

It will be interesting to see how this develops

 

 

 

More on the RBS report

This is extraordinary

A spokesperson for the action group said: “The regulator is supposed to be there to protect customers, not banks. Yet in these minutes the FCA’s board describes as a ‘risk’ the possibility that banking customers might seek to obtain redress for the actions of RBS’ rogue bankers.

As an aside, I had the misfortune of being seated next to a deeply arrogant bore at a dinner (which is why i so often avoid these events) who regaled me with contempt for peer to peer lenders who “were all going to go bust” and repeatedly rubbished company directors and entrepreneurs.

Admitedly his career had not been at RBS but was at those two other major 2008 success stories Lloyds and Bank of Scotland

 

 

 

RBS. Contempt for SME’s a leaked report

I understand this is appearing in the Daily Mail but thanks to the excellent Businessadvice.co.uk site for this content

Breath deeply before you absorb this

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the city watchdog now undertaking a second inquest into claims RBS’ Global Restructuring Group (GRG) deliberately pushed small firms into disrepair, has so far unpublished its initial report in full.

However, an early leak to the BBC suggested “inappropriate action” – such as interest rates being raised and dubious fees – was encountered by 92 per cent of all businesses working with the GRG.

And as if that wasnt enough

he FCA cited evidence of training material issued to GRG staff advising them to target “basket cases”. It is claimed the manual instructed staff to “let customers hang themselves”, and “missed opportunities mean missed bonuses”.

I am not going to add any comment. There really is nothing more that can be said.

 

 

 

Palmer and Harvey shambles

There will be many that will claim that what goes on within a private business is their business provided no law is broken and there will be others who might even admire the gall of the Palmer and Huntley directors in taking out huge sums from a failing business. I even knew someone who virulently defended Philip Green’s handling of the BHS pension fund.

Thats fine but it should be understood that most of the public will abosrb the headlines. And they are not good

Palmer & Harvey paid out more than £70m in cash as debt racked up

Details are here but the key is public perception. How many more times are directors going to be able to take out huge sums from businesses they seemingly have little regard for? Philip Green couldnt care less about the future of BHS and even more disgracefully, the health and security of their pensioners, so long as he could buy another yacht. P and H directors just kept paying themselves huge dividends whilst they just let the business slide into collapse.

So why does this matter?

It matters because there are those waiting in the wings who despise all private enterprise and will gladly exploit dissatisfaction and lack of trust from the public. If the private sector and their cheerleaders wish for it to thrive then there has to be some reform to prevent these seedy events repeating over and over again