Volkswagen, the naughty carmaker caught cheating on its emission tests last year, has a newfound humility.
We know this because the company modestly told us so in December when it axed its old corporate slogan – Das Auto – because it was pretentious. It now simply uses the line “Volkswagen” under its famous badge.
No doubt Volkswagen’s boffins can categorically prove that this small cosmetic switch has consigned all the company’s woes to history, simply by feeding marketing data into one of their clever machines that churns out the answers that the company’s execs want to hear.
Unusually, however, the company might have to deal with answers that have not been pre-approved this week, when the disgraced car group holds its annual general meeting.
Shareholder groups are recommending votes against the company’s bosses in the wake of the emissions scandal – with Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), plus rival advisory firm Pirc, both advising their clients to oppose Volkswagen’s management board.
It sets things up nicely for an entertaining meeting – with it appearing likely that there will be a fair amount of dissent, plus a chunk of shareholders voting against the carmaker’s bosses.
Still, what will the data show?
Bruno’s crystal ball fogged up by Tesco
It is now around 18 months since one of the most memorable analyst notes of recent times: the cracking research on Tesco penned by Sanford C Bernstein analyst Bruno “Mystic” Monteyne following months of the City beating up the grocer’s shares.
In November 2014, Monteyne courageously broke from consensus and wrote that there was little Tesco “can do wrong in the next two years that isn’t in [the share] price”, a point he reiterated to the Times the following month when he mused: “The discussion now is whether we’ll merely see Tesco stabilise or whether this is the start of a major recovery”.
Sadly for Monteyne, those final thoughts were published on the same day that the supermarket chain unveiled another massive profits warning, and while the shares have since been higher, they are now about 16% cheaper than when Bruno spoke.
Which brings us to the grocer reporting on trading this week, and Bruno’s latest Tesco note – which understandably shies away from giving his views, but instead asks investors for theirs. The conclusion? There is “not even consensus on whether Tesco is winning or losing”, Bruno says. Genius.
Has Gormley opened a new bottle at Majestic?
We’ve all been there. The drink is flowing, we think we’re tremendously clever and our jokes are utterly hilarious. Nothing can possibly change – only, then, it does. The booze stops, the jokes turn out to be at best predictable (and at worst seriously misjudged) and you’ve got a stinking headache.
That, essentially, was the story of Majestic Wine as a public company. The wine dealer’s shares soared almost fivefold between 2009 and 2013, only to almost halve over the next 18 months.
Steve Lewis, who had been at the firm for 29 years and six as chief executive, stepped down in February last year and the hangover was so big that the group spent £70m buying online rival Naked Wines, in a deal that also acquired it a new chief executive in Rowan Gormley.
Gormley, a former sidekick of Sir Richard Branson, looks to have pepped the company up again and will be unveiling full-year results this week. “Prelims on 20 June should demonstrate an encouraging first year under new management,” wrote analysts at Investec, as they gushed about the performance of Naked Wines while predicting improvements in Majestic’s retail operations.
The shares are up almost 45% this year. Is the party starting again?
