Mudlark: Fortune telling, JPMorgan-style

How do you accumulate a small fortune? Start off with a large one.

JPMorgan Private Bank has come up with research, based on the Forbes' rich list, showing that 85 per cent of wealthy people go from rich to (comparatively) poor in their lifetimes.

The research is based on the 400 names on the original rich list published in 1982.

Today, just 50 of the same names are still on the list. Some of them have simply died.

Others, including a couple of Rockefellers, had their wealth "realigned", which, presumably, is cute bankers' speak for divorce.

But most - for example, Ivan Boesky, the arbitrageur, and several of the DuPont family, Estee Lauder, quite a few Rockefellers, and a couple of publishing Hearsts - dropped off the list because their wealth did not increase fast enough and they "got left behind".

JPMorgan cites eight reasons why such names fell off the list ranging from the bleeding obvious, such as spending too much, to the almost bleeding obvious such as keeping too many eggs in one basket, not enough tax planning, and litigation.

What the bank entirely fails to mention is a reason so obvious to Mudlark: the high annual fees paid to advisers who so often (mis)manage their portfolios. Whatever.

For our dynastic readers in Britain, the American adage still applies: from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations

Bucs the trend

Manchester United supporters' anxiety will not be eased by the latest glimpse into how Malcolm Glazer runs a sports team. He has just increased next season's ticket prices for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by $2 to $5 a game.

The Bucs, who finished last in their division of the National Football League this season, chose the Friday night before the Super Bowl - the sports pages' version of a good time to bury bad news - to let the news come out.

An editorial in the Tampa Tribune, Glazer's home town paper, yesterday described this as an attempt "to quietly sneak the move by the public".

The Tribune recalled that desperate sellers were trying to dispose of Bucs' tickets below face value outside the stadium this year. One fan was quoted as saying: "I can't give 'em away."

Still, every cent must come in handy for Glazer, when there's a leveraged takeover bid to be contemplated on the other side of the pond.

InZider trading

Despite all the tuneless efforts of Adge Cutler & The Wurzels, Britain cannot be persuaded to Drink Up Thy Zider.

Merrydown's sale removes the last listed cider company from UK plc. Even its chairman, Andy Nash - with the honesty of a West Country man - admits it is a shame.

But he is not crying into his beer. The sale to SHS was at a whopping premium, and the price/earnings multiple of 30 looks almost squiffy.

SHS, which has carried out sales and marketing for Merrydown for years, must have looked down from its headquarters in Belfast at the success Dublin-based C&C has had selling cider in Ireland to justify the price. Or it succumbed to Nash's dark arts.

For, as it happens, the former head of Taunton Cider has an excellent record at selling companies, and he has put some of his advice into a booklet, due to be published in April. One of his tips is to outsource anything you're not good at. That's why Merrydown currently employs just 18 staff, down from 300 in 1996. Another tip is carpe diem. Thankfully for Mudlark, also brought up in the west country, he translated that as "A bird in the hand . . . "

Of Mice and Men

Mike Curley might have named the old family sign-making firm Mice - but he bears no relation to the timid creatures. Known throughout the City's small-cap community as a no-nonsense Yorkshireman, he never took too keenly to corporate governance niceties - he is joint chairman and chief executive, and he was liable to harangue his shareholders for not giving the expanding company enough backing.

After 45 years of driving the exhibitions company from sales of £20,000 to £200m, he has had enough. On Wednesday he announced that he was selling all his 4.6m shares in the wake of a placing to shore up the balance sheet. However, the family connection lives on as son Jim remains on the board. What shareholders might call a mousetrap, really.

Caught short

John Brown of Speedy Hire has made the shortlist for the FT's Entrepreneur of the Year award for turning the group into a pure tool hire company.

No prizes, however, for punning when Speedy Hire sold its Toilet Hire business last week. The name chosen for the disposal was Project Toulouse.

Neil O'Brien, finance director, said: "We are just pleased just to put a lid on this deal."

Mudlark@ft.com