The privileged few
I HOPE you did not take the ferry to France to make sure of Eurotunnel shares to lay down for your godson. The tale was put about that, since so many people were going to apply for Eurotunnel here, you would stand a better chance of getting some by walking into a branch of Banque Indosuez and asking nicely. Nothing gets a sale away like promoting a spurious shor- tage. The same tale was told about British Gas, and at one point there was even supposed to be a shortage of British Petroleum. The promoters should now accept that they face diminishing returns, and give us and their story a rest. If, as I suggested, you have laid down some Euro- tunnel, put it away in your cellar, let it mature, and take your eye off the share price for a while. The travel privileges are not transferable, and are lost at the mo- ment when a share changes hands. So the shares being traded in the market are by definition worth less than yours — or, to put it the other way round, shares which carry privileges must be in genuinely re- ducing supply.
Previous page
