Hardwick/Vins15 Dec 2008 17:21
I'll continue to watch this one, wouldn't rule out getting back in at some stage, but the SP at the moment seems relentlessly downwards. And that's not something you can attribute to the current market, the price has fallen steadily since early '07. Even looking shorter term, the current price is 10% of what it was a year ago. Tough times generally, but these seem to be taking a bigger pasting than most - it's a drop comparable with the banks, but at least the banks have HMG to bail them out.
BTW, the director buys I referred to were negligible, less than 500 shares each, so cold comfort I'm afraid. It's a pretty nasty combination of falling property prices and a lot of their retail tenants struggling too. That said, after financials, analysts expect retail will be the next to recover. If they survive into April I think they could be a decent bet.