This is a packet of super-absorbent Spontex thick moppets, which retail at around £1.80.
And this is a snapshot of the Connaught share register at the start of the month:
Based on that spreadsheet, from JunctionRDS, the shareholder analysis group, the FT calculates that over 60 per cent of Connaught’s equity was in the hands of moppet retail investors when it collapsed:
Institutional investors had dominated the shareholder register before the company’s original profit warning in June but only three remained in the top 10 as of the start of this month.
Instead, retail and private client brokers – including Barclays Wealth, TD Waterhouse and Halifax Share Dealing – held more than 62 per cent of Connaught’s equity as of the start of this month.
Richard Jenkinson, managing director at JunctionRDS, the shareholder analysis group that compiled the figures, said: “It’s not unusual to see private individuals go in for the bet after a heavy share price fall, but what is unusual at Connaught is the scale of it”.
Will they ever learn?
Related link:
C(onn)aught out for the last time – FT Alphaville