Listed companies find ever more innovative ways to engineer a crash in their own share price. In the case of Babcock International, last week, the trigger was to hold a “capital markets day” — what used to be known as an awayday jolly for City-based scribblers.
Before the event at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Devonport, which attracted an audience of 100 analysts and investors, Babcock promised to impart no new market-moving financial information.
David Lockwood, the chief executive, had barely finished his presentation on what Babcock was up to — and specifically at the warship and submarine refit and refurbishment facilities that it owns and operates at the historic Plymouth facility — when the shares started falling.
Those present had the choice of taking
