Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/484780
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 25 MARCH 2015 12 Business Today Regular market closed – 24/03/2015 Symbol Code Volume Traded Value Traded Trades High Price Low Price Open Price Close Price Change Twap s 6PM 20000 14000.000 4 0.700 0.700 0.700 0.700 0.050 0.700 t BOV 47087 113019.970 19 2.419 2.390 2.419 2.400 -0.030 2.400 s FIM 20723 9625.350 6 0.470 0.450 0.450 0.470 0.030 0.464 l GO 66032 190264.660 13 2.900 2.880 2.880 2.880 0.000 2.881 l HSB 25052 51235.650 11 2.052 2.012 2.050 2.050 0.000 2.045 l MDI 5000 1400.000 1 0.280 0.280 0.280 0.280 0.000 0.280 s MDS 24950 42914.000 2 1.720 1.720 1.720 1.720 0.070 1.720 l MIA 14650 50928.900 6 3.500 3.451 3.499 3.500 0.000 3.476 t MLT 50000 45770.130 3 0.920 0.915 0.920 0.915 -0.014 0.915 l MSI 430 498.800 1 1.160 1.160 1.160 1.160 0.000 1.160 l MTP 2031 2863.710 1 1.410 1.410 1.410 1.410 0.000 1.410 s PZC 50000 46500.000 2 0.930 0.930 0.930 0.930 0.010 0.930 t RS2 24078 70789.320 4 2.940 2.940 2.940 2.940 -0.020 2.940 s G15F 10000 10252.000 1 102.520 102.520 102.520 102.520 0.020 102.520 t G16A 11647 12408.710 1 106.540 106.540 106.540 106.540 -0.010 106.540 l G17C 30000 33126.000 3 110.420 110.420 110.420 110.420 0.000 110.420 t G22A 5824 7549.070 1 129.620 129.620 129.620 129.620 -0.180 129.620 t G28A 75000 102412.500 1 136.550 136.550 136.550 136.550 -0.170 136.550 t G28B 10000 13290.000 1 132.900 132.900 132.900 132.900 -0.150 132.900 l G29A 5000 7027.500 1 140.550 140.550 140.550 140.550 0.000 140.550 t G30A 75000 107010.000 1 142.680 142.680 142.680 142.680 -0.320 142.680 s G31A 90000 128148.000 2 143.000 141.620 141.620 143.000 1.390 142.390 s G32A 15000 20007.000 1 133.380 133.380 133.380 133.380 0.140 133.380 s G32B 25000 32821.000 4 132.000 130.420 130.420 132.000 1.600 131.280 s G33A 40000 52300.000 2 131.000 130.000 130.000 131.000 3.380 130.750 s G34A 41600 54044.900 6 131.000 128.900 128.900 131.000 2.000 129.920 s G40AA 1288900 1472135.500 99 116.000 110.550 110.550 116.000 16.000 114.220 l AX24A 5200 5694.000 1 109.500 109.500 109.500 109.500 0.000 109.500 s BV19A 10000 11259.780 4 113.970 110.900 110.900 113.970 2.970 112.600 s HB17A 355800 375369.000 3 105.500 105.500 105.500 105.500 0.300 105.500 s IG19A 8700 8965.200 2 103.100 103.010 103.100 103.010 0.010 103.050 l IG24A 13600 14670.500 4 108.000 107.500 107.500 108.000 0.000 107.870 s MI15A 75000 70250.000 3 94.000 93.500 93.500 94.000 1.000 93.670 s MI17A 10000 9000.000 2 90.000 90.000 90.000 90.000 0.010 90.000 s PG20A 6000 6540.000 3 109.000 109.000 109.000 109.000 1.000 109.000 s SF20A 4800 5136.000 1 107.000 107.000 107.000 107.000 1.230 107.000 Market Summary as at March 24, 2015 Equity Official List Session State ................................................................... closed Number of trades ............................................................. 220 Volume Traded ................................................................. 2,562,104 Value of € denominated securities .................................... 3,175,601.8 Value of US$ denominated securities ................................ 9,625.35 Value of GBP£ denominated securities .............................. 14,000 Current Index ................................................................... 3788.845 Previous Index ................................................................. 3790.548 Change in Index (%) ......................................................... -0.045% 6pm Holdings plc ........................... 0.700 7.69% Malta International Airport plc ........ 3.500 0.00% Bank of Valletta plc ......................... 2.400 -1.23% MaltaPost plc .................................. 1.410 0.00% FIMBank plc ................................... 0.470 6.82% Medserv plc ................................... 1.720 4.24% GlobalCapital plc ............................ 0.800 0.00% Middlesea Insurance plc ................. 1.160 0.00% GO plc ............................................ 2.880 0.00% MIDI plc ......................................... 0.280 0.00% Grand Harbour Marina plc .............. 1.880 0.00% Plaza Centres plc ............................ 0.930 1.09% HSBC Bank Malta plc ...................... 2.050 0.00% RS2 Software plc............................. 2.940 -0.68% International Hotel Investments plc 0.720 0.00% Simonds Farsons Cisk plc ................ 3.201 0.00% Island Hotels Group Holdings plc .... 1.020 0.00% Tigné Mall plc ................................. 0.705 0.00% Lombard Bank Malta plc ................. 1.910 0.00% Pefaco International plc .................. 2.190 0.00% Malita Investments plc .................... 0.915 -1.51% Santumas Shareholdings plc .......... 2.000 0.00% Gobbledygook Why do so many people at work talk gibberish in an effort to im- press? In business meetings, I see it all the time. People spewing jar- gon phrases, technical words and/ or buzz words aka gobbledygook. Sure, gobbledygook can impress at first strike but eventually it com- pletely undermines a business. A decade ago, I used to think the biggest offenders were those from the IT world but recently I've come to the conclusion that it actually is the (digitally-creative) marketing folk who instinctively talk to impress. We sometimes sarcastically refer to it as 'marketing speak'. I am thinking of words like: 'clickability', 'snackable content', 'SoLoMo', 'contextual marketing', 'ideation', 'custom activation', 'STP', etc. I mean, who comes up with these words/phrases anyway? Don't get me wrong, it's not just marketing folk who do this. I would say, it is chronic and widespread in the business world. Accountants love to shock-and-awe with their own technical terms (e.g. amortization, impairment, acid test, etc) and a lot of business consultants, I must admit, love their neologisms too (e.g. monetise, six sigma, blue- sky thinking, game theory, 30,000 ft view(s), caveat, C-suite, exist strategy, triple bottom line, etc). Let's also not forget the revered manager who is almost expected in the business-management world to speak gobbledygook. My point is that the workplace is littered with professionals (accountants, HR specialists, IT experts, management consultants, marketers, chartered managers, recently even lawyers) who speak their own language and I wonder, I just wonder, how much meaning is 'lost in translation'. I also speculate if all this gobbledygook is necessary? Wouldn't it be much simpler, if we all made an effort to speak in simple terms and use words that everyone understands? I mean, managing and running a business is not easy, so do we need to complicate matters with gobbledygook? Personally, I absolutely loathe it. I remember my first week at business school in the UK; what a scary and intellectually intimidating experience that was. Everyone seemed to be 'discoursing' fluently in MBA gobbledygook and I was completely lost. Thankfully, I quickly cottoned on and learned how to demystify it all. In a nutshell, I came to realise that business administration is all about common sense. I mean if you spend more than you earn you will make a loss; if you treat your people like dirt you won't get the best out of them; if you try to accelerate the growth of your business (as opposed to growing it organically) you'll pay the price later in the business lifecycle; etc. Admittedly, I am oversimplifying and exaggerating for effect but the basic principles of business are all rooted in common sense. In my management-consultancy work, I try very hard to adhere to that which is 'simple' (not to be confused with simplistic) and equally important 'uncomplicated'. In fact, I am a big fan of Edward Debono's arguments in favour of simplicity. It is also no coincidence that companies that are underperforming or failing are typically complex organisations. Nothing beats an uncomplicated/focused strategy statement, an easily understood set of management accounts and/or a simple management structure. Yet isn't that the purpose of managing a business: to get everyone to understand what they are meant to do, how they are meant to do it and who is responsible for what? I would think so. To make matters worse the overall level and quality of business English has deteriorated so much that even well educated managers seem to be picking up bad habits. Let's face it, poor business English plus gobbledygook is a recipe for disaster. People commonly confuse 'except' and 'accept'; 'due to' and 'because of '; 'borrow' and 'lend'; 'e.g.' and 'i.e.'; 'ensure' and 'insure'; 'former' and 'latter'; 'practical' and 'practicable'; 'in lieu of ' and 'in light of '; and the list goes on and on, ad nauseam. Look, I don't want to sound like an intellectual snob, since even I, unfortunately, sometimes fall into the traps of gobbledygook (and I kick myself when this happens) but we really should all try to make more of an effort to speak/write proper business English at work. I've seen what communication failures can do to a business: dysfunctional teams; vertical communication meltdowns; demoralised employees; confused managers; poorly articulated strategy statements; departmental silos; low morale; ambiguity and misunderstandings at all levels; the implementation of the 'wrong' strategy; and the list goes on. Stop fuelling gobbledygook since it is destroying the workplace. Keep it simple, don't try to impress and adopt a zero tolerance to impressive jargon terms and words that don't mean anything. In the words of the novelist C.S. Lewis: 'Don't use words too big for the subject'. Kevin-James Fenech is a management consultant at FENCI Consulting Kevin-James Fenech Money Market Report for the week ending March 20, 2015 ECB Monetary Operations On Monday, March 16, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, March 17, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €142.40 billion, €0.56 billion higher than the bid amount of the previous week. The amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing MRO rate of 0.05%, in accordance with current ECB policy. On Wednesday, March 18, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation was carried out at a fixed rate of 0.63% and did not attract bids from euro area eligible counterparties. Furthermore, on Thursday, March 19, the ECB conducted the third Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation, as announced in the press release of Thursday, June 5, 2014. This operation attracted bids of €97.85 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.05%. Domestic Treasury Bill Market In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on June 19, 2015. Bids of €60.00 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2.00 million. Since €2.00 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills remained unchanged at €205.14 million. The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.001%, i.e. 2.1 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on March 13, 2015, representing a bid price of 99.9997 per 100 nominal. During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange. On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day and 182-day bills, maturing on June 26, and September 25, 2015, respectively.