When Philip Harris, now Lord / Baron Harris of Peckham, set up his first Carpetright on the Manor road, Canning town in 1988 he can’t have imagined it would all come to this.

Bill Gates, of Microsoft and ‘world’s richest man’ fame snapped up 3% of the high-street retailer Carpetright (LSE: CPR) through his Cascade Investment fund. The move has given shares in the FTSE 250 stalwart a boost.

Gates’ £15m investment comes at a time of great turbulence for the group. So, why has the Microsoft maestro opted for a stock that has (carpet) bombed in the last year?

Having fallen 28% since June 2007 the carpet and floorings retailer disappointed the City in April. A so-so trading statement suggested that profits for the year would be ‘in-line with expectations’ but that the trading environment is deteriorating.

Group-wide sales increased by 5.6% and Carpetright widened their net, boasting 675 stores, but the three months to April saw sales growth of only 0.6%… raising the spectre of a profit warning to an already panicky investor base. Niche broker Pali International suggested the shares look overvalued and according to Retail bulletin, it was one of the most shorted stocks in the bearish sector with as much as 22% of the stock ‘on loan’ to traders driving down the price.

Investors are also quizzical of where exactly the company is going. Lord Harris had to scrap plans for an £800 million buyout in December as a result of the credit crunch. He wanted to take the business private to speed up expansion in the UK and abroad, thus escaping the constant scrutiny of the press, “Every six weeks I have to think about what I’m saying to the City in six weeks’ time” said Harris.

Perhaps Gates’ foray into the world of carpet will facilitate the move? Or Bill could be taking advice from his old pal Warren Buffett whose Berkshire Hathaway owns Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet maker. They may not be as flashy as you’re average oil explorer but way-ahead in terms of consistency… Bill could be onto something. Take a look at the firm’s prospective revenue stream:

2006: £451.4m 2007: £475.9m 2008: £514.8m* 2009: £527.1m* 2010: £550.0m*

* Analysts’ Estimates

Exciting, it ain’t… but it’s not difficult to see what’s caught Mr Gates’ eye here. As retail goes, Carpetright operates in a fairly defensive, counter-cyclical part of the sector.

The allure of boring stocks

American fund manager Allan Roth made a career out of boredom. His ‘Dare to be Dull’ mantra is the foundation of his firm Wealth Logic. He says that if you are having fun investing, and if you find it exciting, you are probably doing, or are about to do, something wrong. In his world, investing should be as dull as receiving interest payments from the bank… only more lucrative!

Now it’s not a panacea, in fact following this belief would have prevented you from getting into the uber-exciting energy and mining stocks that have yielded triple digit returns over the past few years. However, it also would have saved you from buying investment banks with their mysterious, clever-sounding structured investment vehicles that have turned out to be very costly duds.

So what other dreary deals can we find on the UK market?

Paypoint (LSE: PAY)

Another member of the steady incline club, Paypoint’s revenue and earnings charts look very appetising, much more interesting than the business model anyway… Paypoint operates thousands of chip & pin terminals and ATMs around the country. Their latest set of figures showed strong growth in sales and profits thanks to a 22% jump in transactions.

“We expect further growth in revenues in the UK by increasing market share in bill and general payments, mobile top-ups, ATMs and from Post Office closures,” it said. The group is also to install 1,500 terminals in Romania this year, adding that current trading is in line with growth expectations.

Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY)

As investment strategies go, sitting on your hands seems to be working for Lloyds TSB. The credit crunch has been the bane of the banking sector, but Lloyds’ business has been left relatively unscathed. They’ve not had to boost capital via a rights issue, and they’re not going to either according to Sanlam’s Kokkie Kooyman.

In his view Lloyds will escape the crunch, due to a lack of exposure in mortgage-backed assets and structured products, hence limited related losses. Described as a safe haven, Lloyds revealed a fair set of figures and Collins Stewart promptly upped their target price for the high-yielder to 609p.

Speaking of boring, my colleague Ben Traynor has just informed me about a recent Fleet Street Letter tip that specialises in a unique arm of the retail market. Like Carpetright, they have managed to dodge much of the fallout of the credit crunch and look good value at today’s prices. Check out his free pack today…

Theo CaseySource: Bill Gates Buys Stake In Carpetright