In the 15 minutes it took to write this article, David Wilson lost 拢3m.
Wilson, the former boss of Wilson Bowden, got 拢271m in shares when Barratt paid 拢2.2bn for his company last February. In a quarter of an hour on Tuesday afternoon those shares dropped from 102p to 85p and were in freefall (falling to 69p by Wednesday morning).
In all, Wilson鈥檚 quarter-of-a-billion had dwindled to 拢19m by Tuesday, as Barratt鈥檚 shareprice fell from 拢10.34 in a year.
As rumours of land writedowns, breached banking covenants and rights issues persisted, newly-instated chairman Bob Lawson must have been wondering what he鈥檇 got into.
It prompted Alastair Stewart, analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, to issue an investor鈥檚 note entitled: 鈥淒on鈥檛 buy (at any price) until financial picture becomes clear.鈥�
He said: 鈥淲e do not rule out some means by which a 鈥榳hite knight鈥� may support Barratt, but the bottom line is whoever supports it still has to inject an extra 拢1bn approximately.鈥�
Step forward a Middle East sovereign wealth fund?
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