The curse of the curse

It's March, so time for those lazy pieces about the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year award being cursed. Is it really?

Sure, Nikki Beckett of NSB Retail Systems issued a profit warning shortly after collecting her gong in 2000 - a setback that came after 1988 winner Sophie Mirman saw her Sock Shop slip into administration.

But, since inception in 1974, that's about it, while other winners include Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick (1985), Stagecoach's Ann Gloag (1990), Pearson's Dame Marj Scardino (1998), LK Bennett's Linda Bennett (2003) and Alexander Mann's Rosaleen Blair (2007).

Some curse.

Fancy that...

No mention in the Daily Mail this morning that Viscount Rothermere, chairman of Daily Mail and General Trust, has joined the likes of Michael Spencer at ICAP, Tim Martin at JD Wetherspoon and Brian Souter at Stagecoach, in pledging shares as security for a loan.
So we best go back to Ben Laurence's Mail column of January 10, to find out what the newspaper really thinks about this practice.
Then Laurence wrote: "The upshot is that directors who have used shares as collateral to obtain a loan without disclosing the fact will escape any penalty whatsoever. Frankly, this looks like a shambles. Too often, the regulatory regime covering the City and financial services looks rickety. The fact that people who have patently broken the directors' code and violated the spirit of the disclosure requirements are now going to escape censure or punishment is lamentable."
Oh well.