Following close on the heels of my article ‘AIM – The Exodus Begins’ (May 20th) in which I criticised the London Stock Exchange for chasing new entrants to AIM rather than taking care of those companies already there, it has come up with a new initiative which it promises can offer the latter ‘huge value’.

With the London Stock Exchange closed and the Office for National Statistics shut, yesterday’s rainy Bank holiday Monday provided the perfect chance for us to look back at three stories that astounded us last week – but which somehow escaped without comment at the time.

Alberto Bailleres obviously hopes that 1 and 1 will make not 2, but 3, 4 or even 5! The Mexican billionaire owns the giant diversified mining and chemical group, Penoles. Penoles has floated part of its business on London’s stock market.