Shooting the messenger

Brunswick, the self-regarding City PR firm, presided over the recent flotation of Ocado when it assisted the internet grocer's persistent claims that it might be worth as much as 275p a share (it ended up slashing the price to 180p). It then merrily spun away as the shares have slumped below 140p. Now a fellow Slacker emails with a rumour doing the rounds that Brunswick might be about to lose the account. So harsh.

Dissing Missing Gissing

Everybody in the City knew that the Ocado emergency rights issue/float was a dog - unless, of course, they worked for the company, its spinners Brunswick or the plethora of investment banks the online grocer paid to keep quiet about the offer (all of which are sell signs on their own).

Still, with hindsight, another red flag occurs. My old friend, Jason "Missing" Gissing, the group's newly anonymous co-founder and former finance director, now has the job of Ocado's "Director of People, Culture and Communications". Would anybody invest in a company employing directors with such pretentious titles?

Betting on a float

More on the planned Betfair float. Headhunters are currently compiling a list of candidates to become the betting exchange's new head of of corporate communications. Developing...

Return of a Gissing person

Has Ocado co-founder, Jason "Missing" Gissing, really got nothing better to do?

The Bullingdon Club boy was once the online grocer's frontman but, strangely, has had a remarkably low profile during the company's emergency rights issue/float and did not even make the team-sheet for last week's all important US investor roadshow.

I simply wondered where he'd got to, and it seems my innocent musings have touched a nerve as Missing has actually bothered to reply.

"Dear Slackbelly," he writes, during a rare piece of downtime. "Thank you for speculating on whether Gissing has gone missing. I am pleased to inform you that I am very much alive and well, and present!"

"If things get quiet over the summer, perhaps you would like to come to Hatfield, where I spend most of my time helping run Ocado and looking after the welfare of our 4000+ workforce. I suspect it might make a change from most of your company visits. I also suspect that you will find our people happy that I haven’t actually gone missing as I am spending much of my time improving the internal workings of Ocado (including staff welfare). It doesn’t make for good reading, but its [sic] just as important as meeting potential new investors in our IPO! Best regards, Jason."

Most self-effacing - and this from an entrepreneur who is desperately trying to float his (unprofitable) company in two days' time. Get on with it man!

How flotations work...

"The great vampire squid, Goldman Sachs, has been appointed to handle [Betfair's] £1.5bn listing." SlackBelly, October 19, 2009.

"Speculation about a flotation comes up regularly. But we are not about to appoint an adviser." Mark Davies, managing director of Betfair, tells the Evening Standard, November 30, 2009.

"Betfair has selected two investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to advise it on a £1.5 billion stock-market flotation." Sunday Times January 24, 2010.

Betfair backs vampire squid in flotation stakes

The flotation of online betting exchange, Betfair, is a saga that has run and run. But is it now under starter's orders?
I'm told that the great vampire squid, Goldman Sachs, has been appointed to handle the £1.5bn listing...