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This Greedy CEO Pays Too Much Tax

Find out why. May also contain big brags and a mega offer

Author

Tim Vollans
January 09, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

🧠 The Big Brain
It's not bragging if it's true

The Veteran had some amazing shouts last year. Single stock names that were unloved, unwanted and… discounted.

In today’s note, we revisit the performance of those stocks into year-end, yesterday’s rally, and most importantly, being LOUD when you think you’ve hooked a juicy one…

Pro Premium Members: click here to read.

_________________ 🚨 MEGA LIFETIME OFFER 🚨 _________________

⚡ The Spark
This Greedy CEO Pays Too Much Tax

In Britain, we have this weird little cultural quirk where anyone successful is ‘fair game’.

And the media LOVES to stoke the fires of envy.

So, when the CEO of a gambling company pays themselves a one billion pound salary across four years, those green eyes glow brighter than emeralds.

As usual, things aren’t as simple as they seem…

Here’s the Bet365 CEO’s numbers in chart form:

Yes, that’s a lot of money. No, we shouldn’t begrudge her it.

Seriously. This business was started from nothing.

In one of the grimmest places on Earth.

If permanent grey, misery & depression were a place, Stoke on Trent would be it:

Ms Coates founded the Bet365 website in a portable building in a Stoke-on-Trent car park more than 20 years ago. It is now the biggest private sector employer in the city.

Now, over 20 years later, she still owns a 57% stake in this wildly successful business. That she built from nothing.

Why shouldn’t she enjoy the fruits of her success?

Well, it turns out there are some issues within the gambling industry. Who knew?

So, we must be outraged!!!

Flip that switch. Brains off, angry eyes on…

OK. Brains back on.

Obviously, there are some people who struggle with gambling addiction.

But people LOVE a flutter!

Always have done. Always will.

Historians have traced our love affair with these games as far back as 3000BC and a set of dice discovered in an Ancient Mesopotamian tomb. Gambling is in our DNA. 

Financial speculation too. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was founded in 1611.

Anyhow, instead of optimising to avoid tax like so many others, the Coates trio is one of the UK’s biggest taxpayers…

According to the Sunday Times Tax List, the three (Coates) were said to have paid £460.2m to HM Revenue and Customs off the back of their earnings.

The best thing about all of this?

It’s a beautiful snapshot to analyse.

Let’s call it, the complexity of judgement.

Here we have a female CEO. Who founded a company from a temporary building in a forgotten, left behind, ‘ooop north’ city, turning it into a behemoth of the industry, employing over 7,000 people.

Who made a deliberate choice to become one of the UK’s biggest taxpayers rather than squirrelling that wealth away offshore.

It’s everything we’re supposed to celebrate…

But, she pays herself a big salary, and the industry is gambling…

“Judge not, lest ye be judged?”

💡 The Lightbulb
Hay jobs, don't make it bad

Take a sad report, and make it better.

Hays, the global recruitment giant reported earnings earlier. The market wasn’t impressed…

For us, it’s a chance to get a snapshot of employment trends from within the industry.

We’ve spoken many times about how unreliable the official data is due to falling survey responses and changing methodologies.

With Hays, we get it straight from the horse’s mouth (although it needs a little translation)

In Perm, markets were increasingly challenging, particularly in December, where we saw increased levels of placement decision deferrals from clients and candidates.

Overall, new job registrations remained down YoY but were broadly stable overall and in line with seasonal trends, however we have seen lower conversion of this activity into placements, and further increases in time-to-hire.

Permanent hiring is under pressure. Companies are deferring hiring decisions, and it’s taking longer to ‘matchmake’ recruits & positions.

All of which is broadly in line with the overall trends in jobs markets. Slowing, cautious, but not (yet?) a huge cause for concern…