Had an interesting week one way or another. You see, I met two people hard at work in the real world each of whom gave me cause for a bit of personal reflection.
The first was especially revealing. To be fair to myself, it is quite easy to be immediately dismissive when a small Thai property REIT is put across your bows. You barely give it even a cursory glance. £300m issue. Forget it. Pants. But put under enough pressure by the investment bankers even the most idle of equity salesmen can be forced into action, by which I mean simply made to think about it. Well I suppose to my credit I did so. I even got to the point under my own steam where I had decided that if this thing was to get away then maybe it would have to be priced attractively and that even though it’s small it could make a difference to someone. So I found myself two seasoned, hardy and opportunistic investors and trawled around the West End yesterday morning with the company in tow. Now, I don’t think I can put into print much more detail than I have done already about the specifics of this business because there is an added technical complication that in theory could mean one was made party to MNPI affecting a large listed UK company if one met management, but my point is this. He wasn’t even really talking to me, and I didn’t raise it with him so I may be putting words into his mouth, but I overheard one of the management team I was with yesterday saying that the thing he has never been able to understand when dealing with investors is “your” apparent inability to accept that sometimes company’s just want to get things done. The impetus and considerations for a specific proposal can come from multiple sources and mean that in the end price can really be a surprisingly minor consideration. There you have it really. This guy struck me as super bright and impressive. He has an eye for detail and a grasp of numbers. He spends one week in two travelling mainly in Asia. He works his backside off and has a proper job. Furthermore the property portfolio in Thailand I am talking about can most probably not be bettered, in its particular sector of the economy, for location or covenant quality. If you met them you will want some of the action. But are you able to??
My reflections on the second person are more complicated I suppose. Wednesday night was the occasion for an annual dinner with a group of reprobates. The venue was Brinkley’s on Holywood Road. It turns out this is a rather smarter restaurant since I was last there which was for my stag night in 1988. Oh ok....have the photograph and a bit of a laugh.
There are others but not for publication. Somehow I can’t imagine what went on there that evening being repeated under current ownership. Anyway I have been in quite nostalgic mood for the last few weeks and sad though you may think this is, I send myself to sleep each evening reading through the diaries I kept from the age of 17and reminiscing about life at Glenalmond. Where was I? Oh, well in we walk to the restaurant and there was this guy who had been at school with me, four years older and head of house. Turns out he is now super wealthy having, over the last twenty years, built an incredible commodities trading and hedge fund business. And a nice bloke also. Jealousy is such a terrible thing. Made even worse when I asked my brother if he remembered him.......this was his reply:
Absolutely...good skier, pole vaulter...and nice cowboy boots. Quite a dude.
I can’t help wondering how people remember me from school? Tell you what, if my diary is anything to go by, its more a question of if rather than how. Though I did once trade in the oboe my parents had bought me for a much cheaper clarinet; pocketed the £60 difference and bought a fine pair of cowboy boots with the money. Oh yes. Go me. That was a cool moment.
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