Flotations are not being sunk by 'market forces'

There are 1,442 companies on the main market of the London Stock Exchange and 1,235 on the junior Aim market. Investors have a lot of choice over where to place their chips. Companies wishing to join the quoted ranks via flotation sometimes seem to forget this. If you are trying to flog a few hundred million pounds' worth of shares, make sure you are offering one of the best deals around. That's the hard truth to remember when companies say they have pulled their float "in light of market conditions", as Fairfield Energy did. Come on, guys, the FTSE 100 index has risen 400 points since the start of July and is back to its level a month ago. Investors appear picky only by comparison with their lax "buy anything" standards pre-2007 – today they are behaving with discipline, as they should. Where does this leave Ocado? Commendably, the online supermarket surrendered the "market conditions" card when it declared itself so unique that squalls were irrelevant. Either there are buyers out there for £400m of stock at 200p-275p or there are not. If it's the latter, Ocado should cut the price or come back when it's made a profit. But it's pointless telling City analysts that they don't "get it" – everybody is free to shop elsewhere.