Marshmallow maker
J. H. Vavasseur, I suppose, describes itself as a mini-conglomerate, which. I hate— though what one hates one takes seriously. kuu by a clever fellow called Jeremy Pinck- lieY, it bought companies by creating high value paper and it has progressed to having (1. eloloyable funds at its disposal for acquir- ing strategic holdings and for placing shares that they may have had to take back in making acquisitions. This has been helped ili
Y buying a small unit trust group—First
Investors and Savers—not much of a con. tributor to profit—for about £1 million.
The market capitalisation of J. H. Vavas- seur is £5.87 million and its yield 2.5 per cent through its PE ratio is 36.5, which if they are lucky enough to get future bids under- written for cash, means that they are poised for a paper expansion. In spite of this I think their situation is volatile though I accept that my distaste for conglomerates may be colouring my view—which is to recommend wariness over the shares at their present price.
More interesting is Siemussen Hunter Limited in which J. H. Vavasseur has a 30 per cent share holding. This company is capitalised at £975,000 and has a PE ratio of only 10.2 with a yield of 6.7 per cent. It has the valuable agency for Monte Cristo cigars (accepted by most of my cigar smok- ing friends as the best standby in a strange restaurant). They also own Hunters and Frankau Limited, cigar merchants remem- bered by a pre-war generation of teenagers through saucy novels like Peter Jackson Cigar Merchant, by a former partner, the late Gilbert Frankau.
Siemussen Hunter is headed by the re- spected figure of Mr Robert Freeman and assisted by his dashing son Mr Nicholas Freeman who is a chartered accountant trained to Harvard Business School discip- lines. Amongst Siemussen Hunter's subsi- diaries is H. W. Stewart Limited of Scot-
land—marshmallow manufacturers—em- ploying some seventy hands. Their produc- tion is the manufacture for Woolworths and other stores of marshmallows coloured white, pink and yellow. Already Mr Nicholas Free- man's eclectic methods have shown results. Output has increased and, most telling, the product range rationalised (after long and careful discussion) to just—white and pink.
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