SEBASTIAN CLIFTON
1964
31
Sunday evening
CEDRIC LOOKED around the table, but didn’t speak until everyone had settled.
‘I’m sorry to drag you all in at such short notice, but Martinez has left me with no choice.’ Suddenly everyone was fully alert. ‘I have good reason to believe,’ he continued, ‘that Martinez is planning to offload his entire shareholding in Barrington’s when the Stock Exchange opens a week tomorrow. He’s hoping to get as much of his original investment back as possible while the shares are riding high, and at the same time to bring the company to its knees. He’ll be doing this exactly one week before the AGM, at the very time when we most need the public to have confidence in us. If he were to pull it off, Barrington’s could be bankrupt in a matter of days.’
‘Is that legal?’ asked Harry.
Cedric turned to his son, who was sitting on his right. ‘He would only be breaking the law,’ said Arnold, ‘if he intends to buy the shares back at a lower price, and that clearly isn’t his game plan.’
‘But could the share price really be hit that badly? After all, it’s only one person who’s putting his stock on the market.’
‘If any shareholder who had a representative on a company’s board were to put over a million of its shares on the market without warning or explanation, the City would assume the worst, and there would be a stampede to get out of the stock. The share price could halve in a matter of hours, even minutes.’ Cedric waited for the implications of his words to sink in before he added, ‘However, we are not beaten yet, because we have one thing going for us.’
‘And what might that be?’ asked Emma, trying to remain calm.
‘We know exactly what he’s up to, so we can play him at his own game. But if we are to do that, we’ll have to move fast, and we can’t hope to succeed unless everyone around this table is willing to accept my recommendations and the risks that go with them.’
‘Before you tell us what you have in mind,’ said Emma, ‘I should warn you, that’s not the only thing Martinez has planned for that week.’ Cedric sat back. ‘Alex Fisher is going to resign as a non-executive director on the Friday, just three days before the AGM.’
‘Is that such a bad thing?’ asked Giles. ‘After all, Fisher has never really supported you or the company.’
‘In normal circumstances I’d agree with you, Giles, but in his resignation letter, which I haven’t yet received, although I know it’s dated the Friday before the AGM, Fisher claims he’s been left with no choice but to resign, because he believes the company is facing bankruptcy, and his only responsibility is to protect the interests of the shareholders.’
‘That will be a first,’ said Giles. ‘In any case, it’s simply not true, and should be easy to refute.’
‘You’d have thought so, Giles,’ said Emma. ‘But how many of your colleagues in the House of Commons still believe you had a heart attack in Brussels, despite you denying it a thousand times?’ Giles didn’t respond.
‘How do you know Fisher is going to resign if you haven’t received the letter?’ asked Cedric.
‘I can’t answer that question, but I can assure you that my source is impeccable.’
‘So Martinez plans to hit us on Monday week when he sells his stock,’ said Cedric, ‘and to follow it up on the following Friday with Fisher’s resignation.’
‘Which would leave me with no choice,’ said Emma, ‘but to postpone the naming ceremony with the Queen Mother, not to mention the date of the maiden voyage.’
‘Game, set and match Martinez,’ said Sebastian.
‘What are you advising we should do, Cedric?’ asked Emma, ignoring her son.
‘Kick him in the balls,’ said Giles, ‘and preferably when he’s not looking.’
‘I couldn’t have put it better myself,’ said Cedric, ‘and frankly, that’s exactly what I have in mind. Let us assume that Martinez is planning to place all his shares on the market in eight days’ time, and then follow it up four days later with Fisher’s resignation, which he hopes will be a double-whammy that will both bring the company down and cause Emma to resign. In order to counter this, we must land the first punch, and it has to be a sucker punch delivered when he least expects it. With that in mind, I plan to sell all my own shares, three hundred and eighty thousand of them, this Friday, for whatever price I can get.’
‘But how will that help?’ asked Giles.
‘I’m hoping that I will have caused the shares to collapse by the following Monday, so that when Martinez’s stock comes on the market at nine o’clock that morning, he’ll stand to lose a fortune. That’s when I intend to kick him in the balls, because I already have a buyer lined up for his million shares at the new low price, so they shouldn’t be on the market for more than a few minutes.’
‘Is this the man none of us knows, but who hates Martinez as much as we do?’ asked Harry.
Arnold Hardcastle put a hand on his father’s arm and whispered, ‘Don’t answer that question, Pop.’
‘Even if you pull it off,’ said Emma, ‘I’ll still have to explain to the press and the shareholders at the AGM a week later why the share price has collapsed.’
‘Not if I return to the market the moment Martinez’s shares have been picked up, and start buying aggressively, only stopping when the price has returned to its present level.’
‘But you told us that was against the law.’
‘When I said “I”, what I meant was—’
‘Don’t say another word, Pop,’ said Arnold firmly.
‘But if Martinez was to discover what you were up to . . .’ began Emma.
‘We won’t let him,’ said Cedric, ‘because we’re all going to work to his timetable, as Seb will now explain.’
Sebastian rose from his place, and faced the toughest first-night audience in the West End. ‘Martinez plans to travel up to Scotland at the weekend for some grouse-shooting, and he won’t be returning to London until Tuesday morning.’
‘How can you be so sure, Seb?’ asked his father.
‘Because his entire art collection is coming up for sale at Agnew’s on the Monday night, and he’s told the proprietor of the gallery that he can’t attend, as he won’t be back in London by then.’
‘I find it strange,’ said Emma, ‘that he doesn’t want to be around on the day he’s getting rid of all his shares in the company, and selling his art collection.’
‘That’s easy to explain,’ said Cedric. ‘If Barrington’s looks as if it’s in trouble, he will want to be as far away as possible, preferably somewhere where no one will be able to contact him, leaving you to handle the baying press and the irate shareholders.’
‘Do we know where he’ll be staying in Scotland?’ asked Giles.
‘Not at the moment,’ said Cedric, ‘but I called Ross Buchanan last night. He’s a first-class shot himself, and tells me there are only about six hotels and shooting lodges north of the border that Martinez would consider good enough for him to celebrate the glorious twelfth. Ross is going to spend the next couple of days visiting all of them until he discovers which one Martinez is booked into.’
‘Is there anything the rest of us can do to help?’ asked Harry.
‘Just act normally. Especially you, Emma. You must appear to be preparing for the AGM and the launching of the Buckingham. Leave Seb and me to fine-tune the rest of the operation.’
‘But even if you did manage to pull off the share coup,’ said Giles, ‘that still wouldn’t solve the problem of Fisher’s resignation.’
‘I’ve already set a plan in motion for dealing with Fisher.’
Everyone waited expectantly.
‘You’re not going to tell us what you’re up to, are you?’ said Emma eventually.
‘No,’ replied Cedric. ‘My lawyer,’ he added, touching his son’s arm, ‘has advised against it.’