I will have a listen later to the quarterly call from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) following its first quarter numbers today. The numbers were fine and specifically mentioned the good performance of its pharmaceutical business ahead of the proposed demerger in July. I wrote about all this a couple of months ago and my advice remains to stay a holder here and make a call whether to retain one or both on the demerger in a few months time. If only all investments were as straightforward as the last 15 months in GlaxoSmithKline. And talking about more complex investments brings us to WH Smith (SMWH)...
I wrote about WH Smith (SMWH) back here at the start of the month, concluding that I would continue to avoid the stock but look forward to itsnext set of numbers in November to help justify whether both its Travel and High Street businesses were set to make any progress or not.
I am trying to remember the last time I went to a WH Smith (SMWH) store (and I have never been to one online). My guess would be in 2019. Of course growing up in the 1980s life was somewhat different at many levels, but today WH Smith’s is described as having ‘two core businesses – Travel and High Street’. And it has been no guess for a few years before the rise of Covid-19, that the former was becoming more and more important.
