Companies: AMR    LRG    VLK   

With valuations plunging across Plcs large and small of cap, all that canny serial investor and greyhound owner Bob Morton can see are ‘a lot of good opportunities’.

‘I am an investor at the moment,’ he says. Morton’s family vehicle Southwind has recently twice upped its stake in one of his former chairmanships, VisLink, a supplier of video and data links into the broadcast, defence and security markets whose shares have fallen from over 100p since the start of 2007 to below 40p despite a bullish statement of late.

Another, Armour, at which Morton still holds the chair, has seen further stake-building. Southwind’s holding now exceeds 19 per cent of the in-car and home entertainment business, where the shares have continued to fall despite a swathe of contract wins announced in December.

Morton followers will note that these purchases are best viewed in the context of last year’s killing he made in loss-making IT group Lorien. Having bought at 40p a share and sold at £1 four months later, he acknowledges ‘we did well there’.