Are Ethical Investors giving up on Wordsworth?

London Daily Bugle April 2010

Lily Vale, Finance Editor, comments in today's Finance and Economics section on the massive unloading of Wordsworth Energy shares over the last two days which dropped the price to 271.

"Large blocks of shares came on the market," writes Ms. Dale, "all apparently dumped by Ethical Investment Mutual Funds and private investors. The action was almost certainly triggered by the devastating report earlier in the week in the authoritative US newspaper The Washington Patriot which revealed a serious rift between Wordsworth's Chairman, Sir Conway Dalrymple and his old friend Sir Montague Tigg, Master of Milton College, Cambridge and Honorary President of the ecological campaign group "Friends of the Dwarf Tapir".

"Sir Montague tried to tip off Sir Eustace on the old boy network that Wordsworth would need to pay attention to this issue in Thibaw," writes Ms. Dale, "and back in January he asked for a reply in a week. Sir Eustace seems to have snubbed him and now he has gone public on the issue to the Patriot. It makes Wordsworth's commitment to its own much-trumpeted Ethical Principles look like so much hot air. And it's not wise to offend an Establishment figure such as Sir Montague who has such a high reputation in the more conservative end of teh NGO world."

There are indications that among the stocks unloaded were those held by the US's Bruce Wayne Foundation, which could have been as high as 2% of the total. Richard Grayson, the Foundation's CEO has refused to comment.

"The are some indications that Wordsworth shares are being snapped up by a single mystery buyer," adds Ms. Dale, "and this would not be surprising. There's long been talk of Wordsworth as an attractive acquisition target for larger companies."