Of course, many in the travel industry rushed to buy Thomson shares. The City made a good job of selling the issue and no doubt made a lot of money in fees. How dare they now declare the company a poor risk.
A very disgruntled AITO member was telling me that, last month, he received a dividend of £4.27 on his 513 Thomson shares from the Share Centre. Not bad you may think. At least it’s not all bad news.
But wait, the tax deducted amounted to 43p, leaving £3.85 net. Then, this illustrious money-making machine called the Share Centre deducted their modest fee of £2.94 including VAT to leave the princely sum of 91p.
But that is not where it ends because the Share Centre, whose motto is Gateway to Opportunities, then deducted a 50p cheque charge and enclosed their cheque for 41p.
The friend concerned did not rush off to cash his cheque because his bank would charge him 20p to do so and his accountants would probably charge him a pound or two for adding the transaction to his tax return. So, he has thrown the cheque away, although he had considered returning the whole sheet to the Share Centre with an alternative suggestion as the paper is apparently quite soft and conveniently perforated about half way up.
However, as the stamp to send it back would cost 26p he decided against this.
The last time this happened the Share Centre had told him it was his fault for not having enough shares and advised that he add to his holding.
Really good advice it turned out to be too because at that time the share price stood at 139p and now its about 85p. He was pleased he didn’t follow their advice.
We discussed the matter and came to the conclusion that new Thomson chief executive Charles Gurassa should only pay out one dividend a year to anyone with less than a 1,000 shares (though this still doesn’t stop the Share Centre grabbing the dividend) or consider a scrip issue of a few shares a year.
It could then revert to paying out real money when they had managed to get the share price up above knee height. I really wonder where it’s all going. The gulf between ordinary folk and those who make vulgar amounts of money on the backs of everyone else seems to be growing by the day. Instead of lecturing us, those in the city should perhaps take a look at their own systems. I really wonder about these e-commerce shares too. It’s all hype and everyone’s falling for it.
Are these kids really worth all these millions?
I mean, what is the investor ever going to get apart from some capital appreciation, until the bubble bursts?
It’s almost as bad as the Cyprus stock market which seems to be on a self-perpetuating rise. The trouble is that those who start it all, those who dream up these values have taken their profits long before the inevitable correction comes.
It’s all a game. All monopoly money. Now we have had the Airtours results and we wait to see what they will buy next. Let’s hope that its something with a little substance and not just TV and computer screens and the ether in between!