UFO Info Week-End

Still statuesque at over six feet tall Savage – sporting his signature fedora hat his

Still statuesque at over six feet tall, Savage – sporting his signature fedora hat, his head held high – has countless anecdotes. The fashion PR Percy Savage’s half-century of work on both sides of the Channel has produced some of the most poignant moments in fashion. Debut developments in Rugby and Chorley have sold quickly, and a third scheme at Castle Vale, Birmingham, is about to go on the market.When the housebuilding industry finally proves it can weather a downturn without the carnage of the early Nineties, share prices will get their overdue re-rating and Redrow, as one of the sector’s stars, is worth keeping for that.. It has already sold 60 per cent of the homes it expects for the year, and is still expanding its number of sites, to more than 120 by the spring.Redrow has one of the strongest land banks in the industry and some of the more innovative approaches to building In particular, its Debut brand looks well-positioned. These offer extra-cheap flats starting from as little as £55,000 and targeted specifically at the first-time buyer. With house prices flatter, margins are declining, and the next six-month results will show profits below those of last year.So Redrow will have some catching up to do in the second half but, despite the share price reaction, there is no sense yet that it will miss market forecasts for broadly flat profits for the year as a whole. The remainder of our investment is up a further 23 per cent since then.But play-it-safe shareholders were at it again yesterday, selling the shares down 11p to 455p after a cautious-sounding statement from management at the company’s annual meeting.Redrow, in common with other builders, is having to offer incentives (throwing in extras, offering part-exchange deals, etc) to entice buyers and consumer confidence remains difficult to gauge.

Sell.Hold on to Redrow as it builds for the futureNo investor came to any harm by taking a profit, and we advised banking a 70 per cent-plus gain on Redrow when we last wrote on the housebuilder in March last year. Share buy-backs have pushed them back above that level, but Wiseman’s margin squeeze, its lack of diversification from milk, and a dividend yield of just 3 per cent mean the stock looks past its best before date. The cost of fuel used in transportation to and from the dairies will surely stay high, though, and Wiseman’s new energy contracts are about to kick in, adding a further £1m to annual costs. Redundancies in Scotland (a downsizing resulting from a lost contract with Morrisons) and a new, better-located distribution centre will not be enough to keep margins up in the rest of the financial year and beyond.Perhaps Tesco, facing a gathering bandwagon of criticism on its might, will agree to accept higher prices to help Wiseman out, but don’t bet heavily on it.We advised you to steer clear of Wiseman shares in March, when Morrisons was deliberating whether to drop the company as a supplier, and the shares slid when it finally did. Designers hope the sale will repeat the success of earlier 7th On Sales in 1990, 1992 and 1995, which raised $11m (£6.3m) for Aids/HIV causes.

The proceeds of this year’s – the first online auction – will go towards education and prevention.The organisers read like a roll-call of the rich and powerful in fashion: Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan and Anna Wintour. Among the designers giving away their products are Prada, Versace, Dior, Burberry, Moschino, Alexander McQueen and Calvin Klein.Kenneth Cole, one of the chairmen, lamented that more than 20 years after its discovery no cure had been found for Aids. “Forty-two million people are infected with HIV/Aids and the largest statistic of all is ‘0′. That is the number of people who have been cured,” the designer said.”To reach as many people as possible in this fight, the use of the internet was a logical and uncircumventable conclusion.”On Monday, a preliminary sale of nine “fashion adventures” began, offering the chance to celebrate the reinvention of the iconic Playboy costume with the designer Roberto Cavalli in Las Vegas or stay in a Brioni-designed suite at the Four Seasons in Milan.Among the garments for sale are a tulle halter dress by BCBG Max Azria worn by Keira Knightley (valued at $15,000), a Carolina Herrera silk gown modelled by Zellweger ($5,490) and a Donna Karan jersey dress worn by Susan Sarandon. Unfortunately, these giants of the grocery trade forced Wiseman to accept lower prices for the privilege, and pre-tax profits were down 22 per cent to £12.1m. Wiseman has managed to get its own suppliers to agree to a price cut, but investors should brace themselves for some messy negotiations if it tries to get another one in the new year.The company is keeping its fingers crossed that an unprecedented 30 per cent leap last month in the cost of a resin used in its containers will be reversed.