Dark Room

A Case of Caveat Investor?

If anyone needed a reminder that investmenis can go down as well as up, they received it yesterday when Franchise Holdings (FH), the property development group, suffered a temporary drop in the value of its shares, following a rumor that Adam Kingsley, 66, founder and chairman, was about to resign. FH has been a rare success story amidst the spectacular property group failures of the nineties.

The rumor was apparently generated by a remark made by Kingsley in a BBC interview on Tuesday night. Referring to his daughter, Jane's, recent car accident, he said: "There are always times in one's life when one asks, has it all been worth it?" But Kingsley, nicknamed the Great White Shark when he snapped up Charford Gordon Associates eight years ago, has now sunk his jaws into the BBC.

It is his policy to make private tape recordings of interviews, and he has issued a typescript of the one on Tuesday. This includes a follow-up sentence which was edited out of the broadcast. "This is not one of those times," he went on to say. The matter is under investigation by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.

However, the extraordinary episode has highlighted City fears about the long-term future of Franchise Holdings. As one analyst said: "Adam Kingsley is a master juggler. No one knows how many balls there are in the air at any one time. Frankly, it's difficult to imagine who will catch them safely when he finally leaves the stage."

Daily Tetegraph-23rd June