City Diary: 23 October

Tricky trading for Punch investor​

Punch Taverns' second-largest investor David Einhorn — he holds a

9.73% stake in the company — had a "difficult" September with his New York-based Greenlight Capital suffering a 17% drop in the month. Einhorn, 39, blamed the US Securities and Exchange Commission's 18 September ban on short selling of financial stocks for some of the losses in the month. Einhorn told investors, though, that his funds are more conservatively invested than ever.

In defence of short selling​

Einhorn is famed for short selling the stock of collapsed investment banker Lehman Brothers. With short selling becoming a dirty phrase in some quarters, Einhorn has provided Worth magazine with the following defence for short selling. "I do

think that there is a social value in identifying companies that are doing bad things and betting against them. "I've seen the demise of a fair number of these companies, and it's not because we've bet against them, it's because these were flawed companies. And our country, our markets, our economy are better when companies that are flawed or cheating are replaced by better ones."

28p-a-bottle beer goes down well ​

Tesco's decision to sell a crate of Carlsberg Export — 18 bottles of lager — for £5 prompted "chaos" in some stores as customers set about a buying frenzy. The deal means that each 275ml bottle of the lager was available for 27.8p. "It is a great offer and I hope people are enjoying it," a spokeswoman at the supermarket said. How close is chaos to anarchy?

Shepherd Neame expands its flock​

A reassuring vote of confidence in the market demand for interesting and niche brews. Shepherd Neame, which has been struggling to keep up with demand for its bottled beers with take-home revenue up 14.6%, has expanded its sales force by almost 30% — it's taken on an extra nine people.

Tribute boosts St Austell's profits​

One more indicator that cask ale is faring well. St Austell's accounts for last year indicate that the volume of lead ale Tribute increased by 39% and the company introduced shift working for the first time to keep up with demand. Pre-tax profit was a handy £8.44m, up from £8.39m the year before.

Pub crawl venues to tread carefully​

They're playing with high stakes in Blackpool. Party promoter Carnage UK is planning a huge pub crawl for 3,000 students called, er, Dirty Porn Star Fancy Dress

on 28 October. Sgt Billy Giffin from Blackpool Police's Nightsafe team,

has warned the pubs involved in the event, Walkabout, Yates's, Cahoots, Flares, NTK and the Counting House and nightclub the Syndicate, that they would be monitored heavily and dealt with severely if the event goes ahead and problems occur. Everybody is duly warned.

Bills build up at Regent​

Once a company gets into trouble, all sorts of costs start to rack up. Take aforementioned Walkabout operator Regent Inns. Last week's results showed that "onerous leases" (sites where Regent Inns was stuck with unaffordable rents) cost £9.5m, while amending its bank facility (persuading the banks to give it more covenant leeway) cost £1,497,000, its aborted sale and leaseback (limited market for buying its seven freeholds) cost £296,000, and the aborted sale of the entire company (no buyer willing or able to proceed) cost £388,000. One ray of light: chopping down on head office produced a bill of £850,000 but will save £1.5m a year.