A Salutary Tale of a Dog Stock22 Mar 2017 14:35
Back in the heady days of late 2013 I was enjoying reasonable growth in the various holdings I had which were at that time exclusively invested in Unit Trusts (or OEICS as they are now known). Seemingly frustrated with the steady but unspectacular pace of growth I decided to be a smart ass and began rsearch into what specific stock holdings each fund had. Which is where I cam upon the name QUINDELL.
I now look back in horror at the path I took. Stupidly selling each and every one of my steady unit trusts I fell hook line and sinker for the Quindell story of incredible growth and possibility of a full listing potentially even on the FTSE 100. I started my fateful journey in January 2014 with my first share purchase at what was then the old price of 22.23 p. Seeing an immediate heady growth into 36 to 37 p I began to buy even more shares. Then came the fateful April 2014 crash. Which is when I began the emotional attachment to this stock, refusing to believe the critique coming from various quarters and stupidly and in hindsight blindly being taken in by the various discussion board commentaries denigrating the original investigators into what turned out to be a nest of corrupt vipers..
Thus began the falling knife saga of yet more purchases throughout 2014 as the stock price headed every south. As many longer term investors here will recall there was a "consolidation" in mid 2014 of 1 share for every 15 originally purchased. Still I held on in the hope that this stock would recover.
I continued to suffer never ending price falls throughout 2015 although continued to hold all my original purchases.
All in all my original costs of all the shares I bought in Quindell/Watchstone amounted to almost £ 64300.
There was some sense of relief when S&G eventually decided to buy the Legal Services division of Quindell and the promise then was of at least some return of our capital to "at least £ 1.00 per share. We eventually received just 90 p. My eventual capital return amounted to just £15516.
Following the latest 10:1 "consolidation: I am now left with shares valued at just £ 2779.
The promise of the other 10p from the escrow account, which would have translated to £ 1.00 per share pre-consolidation has now gone the way of every other promise given by this company and will be stuck in arbitration for months if not years and is more than likely to be swallowed up in settlement costs with S&G.
The only people who ever made any money out of this stock are the directors. What happened to Rob Terry after he swannned off with his millions ? Sod all ! And yet he and his band of merry men are responsible for the biggest con I have ever had occasion to witness.
As for the current board, I see no direction at all where this company is going. No growth from the existing motley range of subsidiaries, the promise of no profits until 2018, yet more "jam tomorrow".
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