Sunday, Mar 23, 2008
And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
The Telegraph: HBOS directors bought stock at bargain prices
Andy Hornby, the chief executive of HBOS, spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on shares in the high street lender in the days surrounding last week's share price plunge, writes Mark Kleinman...........CORRUPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by titaniccaptain @ 10:12 AM (926 views) Add Comment
12 Comments
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1. p. doff said...
"Given the viciousness of the rumours and the timing just after [the collapse of] Bear Stearns, the fact we've had no customer reaction in branches, no change at all to daily trading flows is a testament to the strength of the business."
Strength of the business!! So why have the shares dropped from £11ish to £5ish before the rumour and Bear stearns debacle?
I'm getting my excess money on deposit out anyway although I do think the directors are right that the rumour created a buying opportunity and there will be some nice gains.
2. denzil said...
This stinks! As each day passes it seems as though the banking sector has little more by way of professionalism and scruples than your bargain basement fly-by-night second-hand car dealer.
In the case of Northern Rock, their pathetic business model led to the taxpayer having to saddle the debt of propping up this close to worthless company. If there were some assets worth having then it wouldn't have been quite so bad, but the thing is anything of worth from NR is not in the bit that the taxpayer is saddled with.
3. quiet guy said...
Hmm... Perhaps we are going a bit over the top here? In this particular situation, as long as the directors were not involved in the planted false rumours, then I cannot see a reason to stop them making these purchases. The only potential problem is if they sell them off shortly before a share price drop: would that be a demonstration of superior investment judgement or inside knowledge?
4. plato said...
How to weave the words of a language and lie without liying :
"The purchases were a way of demonstrating confidence in the bank," said one source.
5. titaniccaptain said...
"The purchases were a way of demonstrating confidence in the bank," said one source.
If they had made a press release demonstrating their faith in their bank via their nobel buying of shares then the above comment may have had some validity however it also states "HBOS declined to comment last night on directors' share dealings."...............confidence so high that they dont even want to comment on it....best wait till they can get some spin on the story "The Sunday Telegraph has learned the purchases will be disclosed in a statement this week.".......enough time to come up with another story about demonstrating confidence.........off with their heads
6. sold 2 rent 1 said...
How history repeats.
STEEL REPORT BLAMES MORGAN; Calls 1907 Panic Artificial and Says Roosevelt Aided Corporation.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B0DE6D71231E233A25750C0A96E9C946396D6CF
7. little professor said...
Doesn't sound like corruption at all. They bought shares when they were cheap. They did nothing to drive the price down beforehand - they even did their best to dispel the malicious rumours.
If they had sold their shares before the price had crashed, or if they had been involved in spreading the rumours then you might have a point. Otherwise, it seems like they were just behaving like responsible company directors, demonstrating faith in their own business.
8. techieman said...
LP - i really dont buy this at all. Malicious rumours hmmm - my intuition says there is something not quite right about all of this, the more that gets aired the more it smells. There are always rumours in the markets, i take the point that BS denied they were in trouble so - i suppose the rumours can have more weight than "normal", but i'm sorry i still dont believe there is a group of traders that have stung HBOS and shorted, and bought back for 100s of bars. If that were the case why havent we heard anything about unusual blocks of sales in the period. Am watching developments with interest.
9. harold said...
Were not the FSA looking for the rogues who were spreading malicious rumours about HBOS? I think we might have found their men.
10. matt_the_hat said...
Before all this started (the previous weekend) there were scare stories that HBOS was raising capital at 9.5%. Is that not a sign of trouble when a bank pays a high premium for money like that!!
11. Orwell said...
I do think they are in trouble myself... call it a lawyer's sixth sense...
12. Chris said...
Hahaha. Only an HPC financial uber-bear could come up with this kind of conspiracy.
RBS top execs bought up loads of stock after their share price began to drop in October last year. Since then it's continued to plummet (as with most of the banks).
No chief exec is going to trash their company just to buy up shares more cheaply.