Minmet's chairman Mr Jeremy Metcalfe is not one to spurn a publicity opportunity. Not content with weighing gold on an antique weighing scales at the group's annual meeting in Dublin last week, the ebullient Mr Metcalfe has now become a television star - well, at least for 60 seconds. Readers will be no doubt aware that Mr Metcalfe went on Channel 4's lunchtime show, Show Me The Money last week extolling the virtues of his company in a one-minute slot where heads of public companies are allowed to persuade punters to buy their company's shares.

Show Me The Money has become something of a cult show and not just among telly-addicts. Such has been the impact on share prices that many in the investment industry now tune in to the lunchtime slot with the intention of making a killing. The day Minmet's Mr Metcalfe appeared, his company's shares shot up 20 per cent and within a couple of days had nearly doubled.

The impact on Minmet was a bit short-lived as profit-takers cashed in their gains. What next, we wonder? Will bosses of companies with bombed-out share prices be hawking their wares to the Channel 4 viewers. Is it conceivable that Alfie Kane might tell the great British unwashed that Eircom really is a bargain, after all. Could Maurice Keane go on the box to tell investors that Bank of Ireland really didn't deserve to be knocked back 11 per cent in the space of two days. Can't see it, somehow.