In a week where, unbeknown to him at the time, he and his fiancée were
about to win a dream break in one of the world's top hotels thanks to Call
Sign's "stress beating" competition, John Dixon (B67), resplendent in
his DaC polo shirt, had to appear on The Money Program of the satellite TV
station, Bloomberg Channel, to explain to their viewers why the Taxi Drivers
Fiscal Club's portfolio wasn't doing as well as it should have done! As the
club's Chairman, John was selected as the one to go to the studio to get some
friendly advice from Andy Brough of Schroder's Investment Bank.
Arriving at Bloomberg's Finsbury Square HQ, John was whisked into
'make-up' before going live on the 6-minute interview covering the groups'
long-term holdings, achievements to date and sources of information.
Dissecting the group's portfolio - consisting of High Street
store
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Allders,
Vodafone and The Royal Bank of Scotland plus Oystertec and Alkana, Andy
considered that only Allders were making the group any money.
"During the economic downturn," said Andy, "RBoS were being
very forceful with large loans but that as a long-tern investment,
Barclays seemed to be showing more promise."
John - who thought that the club weren't doing as bad as Andy had
suggested - also explained that using his eyes as he drove around looking
for fares, he noticed that Sainsbury's seemed to be building lots of
stores and he wondered if perhaps they were worth a look, something that
Schroder's man though to be reasonable. John and the club were also
looking at Scottish house builders Henry Boot; again Andy Brough
didn't
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disagree, although he thought that there were a few other similar
companies.
But the last word went to Andy Brough who told John that he and other
cabbies drove a £30,000 TX1 and had little choice, so why not take a
chance on Manganese Bronze Holdings, who were now a long way down from
their highest price and must be a reasonable investment?
Call Sign recently told of the deal between MBH and Chinese
company Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd (CBA). In it, CBA signed
an agreement allowing them to provide an exclusive licence to manufacture
and sell a taxi based on the TXI into the Chinese markets including the
territories of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for the next 20 years.
"Seems a reasonable investment," said Andy Brough
as a final word with the MBH price hovering around 110p. No doubt the
Fiscal club will be keeping an eye on it...
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