Good morning!

It's just me reporting today & tomorrow. Then on Friday, Graham will cover anything interesting that crops up on the RNS.


I trust you've had a relaxing & enjoyable break over Christmas. I certainly have - although we always have some kind of drama at this time of year. Last year it was Mum having a heart attack and pneumonia. This year, she slipped down the stairs in the night, breaking one toe, and dislocated another. Thankfully A&E was quiet, and Leighton Hospital in Crewe did a marvellous job in patching her up on Boxing Day.

So instead of catching the remarkably quick train back to London today, as a dutiful son, I've hired a car to drive Mum back home to Bournemouth.

Apparently the roads aren't too busy, because people are not bothering so much with the High Street sales, but instead going online for their seasonal bargains. Thus continuing a long-term trend of business leaking away from the High Street to the internet. The only solution is for rents to come down, hence why I would not be investing in any property companies exposed to the High Street.

Also, I feel that only the best retailers are likely to be able to maintain, let alone increase, their earnings in the next few years. So there are plenty of value traps to avoid in the retailing sector - i.e. companies which appear cheap on historic earnings, but may end up expensive (or even bust) as business declines.



Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO)

Share price: 136p (up 2.9% today)
No. shares: 1,123.3m
Market cap: £1,527.7m

(I hold a small residual long position in this share, indirectly through a local share club of which I am a member)

This share is now way out of my small cap territory, but is a stock which many readers still hold, I understand. This stock has obviously been a huge success for us in 2015 and 2016, yet the share price continues to make new highs, on continued positive newsflow.

Today comes news of a proposed acquisition - of the brand & customer database of bankrupt American online fashion company, Nasty Gal. I'm not familiar with the process by which American bankrupt companies are sold off, but a brief overview is given in BooHoo's announcement today. It seems to be a 30 day auction process, with BooHoo having bid $20m as a "stalking…

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