McCarthy and Stone gets colourful ahead of its stockmarket floatation

The historically rather drab McCarthy & Stone has gone all colourful. Building properties for older people is now a good idea - well so the company would like everybody to believe in the lead up to its return to the stock market after nine years with a flotation estimated to value of £1bn.

Let's hope they have more success than Saga with their floatation. The shares of that company are now above the floatation price but for a long time they were languishing at a big discount.

Personally, I think the house builder is a much better bet than Saga. Dick Stroud