The main reason I recommended buying into this special situation was to follow the lead of chief executive Paul Compton, who joined the company in January 2011. Mr Compton was previously the co-manager of hedge fund Tosca Asset Management's Mid Cap fund, the second best-performing long/short equity hedge fund in Europe in 2009. Before that, he was head of capital markets at broker Collins Stewart between 2002 and 2007. And, undoubtedly, he was making progress by focusing the business on two core activities: providing high-quality investment advice to the UK private client market; and corporate broking advice and equity fundraising for the UK smaller company market.
However, Mr Compton was not only buying shares in WH Ireland, but had a penchant for doing the same on his own account in other listed companies, which led to a clash with other members of the board and ended up with his resignation in mid-December. While there is no suggestion of any specific wrongdoing by Mr Compton, the FSA is understood to have looked at the transaction reports supplied by the broker. The former boss also dumped his sizeable 5 per cent shareholding in WH Ireland at the time of his unexpected exit. In light of these events, it was hardly a surprise that investors headed for the exit, too, which prompted a savage markdown in the share price. However, in recent weeks the price seems to have stabilised at around 62p, albeit still adrift of my buy-in prices.