Close shave

The Supreme Court has ruled on the enforceability of interest charged on loans to buy cars made by financiers who paid undisclosed introductory commission to car dealers.

Quite why Close (CBG) reckoned they could get away with failing to disclose in the first place I have no idea. But one idea may be that typically customers were perfectly happy to enter into an agreement provided they reckoned they could afford it. And I suspect that more than a few such customers really cannot now be bothered to search for the papers originslly issued in effect many years ago and, as a matter of pride, decline to spend any more time wondering as to what might have been. Do readers keep this sort of paperwork for close on twenty years?

All in all I decided that CBG will come through all this surprisingly well and this morning paid 502p. It promptly set out to trade at 459p. But has now recovered. Given that certainty may take another year to assert itself and that a dividend before then is unlikely many will hold back. But I reckon that that would be a mistake. The patient and persistent are likely to do well.