Ten shares that went from hero to zero

After bringing you the shares that could have made you a millionaire, Times Money takes a look at some stocks that did the exact opposite.

These are the companies that destroyed wealth at a fantastic rate: the heroes that went to zero.

1. Maxwell Communication Corporation.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s this company, formerly known as BPCC, was one of the world's largest media groups. But the sudden and mysterious death of Robert Maxwell, its founder and chairman, who was found floating near his yacht in November 1991, triggered an examination of the company's finances, which were found to be in a disastrous state. It turned out that the company was insolvent and did not have enough money to repay its creditors, let alone shareholders.

The fall and rise of Robert Maxwell, 1983

2. Polly Peck.

Asil Nadir, a flamboyant Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur, took a controlling stake in the former textile company in 1980. Over the next 10 years he built up a conglomerate that was worth £1.7 billion at its peak, with a hand in everything from fruit and vegetables to electronics.
The alarm bells started ringing in 1990 after the Serious Fraud Office mounted a raid on one of Nadir's companies. The share price collapsed and dealing in Polly Peck shares was suspended in September 1990 and the Polly Peck Group was placed in administration in 1991. Asil Nadir left the UK while still facing charges of theft and false accounting and took refuge in Northern Cyprus.

Tempus: Polly Peck, February 1985

3. Marconi

Formerly known as GEC when it was a pillar of British industry, Marconi moved sharply away from the "safe and steady" route it had taken under the late Lord Weinstock and started to involve itself in more speculative technology investments as the dot.com bubble gathered pace in the late 1990s.

In September 2001 Lord Simpson, Marconi's chief executive, revealed that the company had lost hundreds of millions of pounds in the space of a few months. Marconi shares, worth more than £12 at one point, lost 99 per cent of their previous value, leaving investors virtually penniless.

Obituary: Marconi, master of wireless development, 1937

4. British & Commonwealth

This former stock market star, which encompassed everything from shipping to financial services, was brought down by an unwise acquisition.

In 1988 B&C bought Atlantic Computers, only to find, a year later, that it was leaking money at an alarming rate. Despite writing off more than £550m and putting Atlantic into receivership in 1990, B&C was not able to save itself and threw in the sponge a few months later.

First AGM of the British & Commonwealth Shipping Company Limited, 1956

5. Coloroll

Another casualty of the early 1990s, Coloroll, the furnishings business, had been a beneficiary of the consumer boom of the eighties, but, like B&C, came unstuck partly through an unwise purchase. In this case it was the acquisition of John Crowther, a textile business, in 1988.

The purchase proved costly and this, together with the onset of the recession and the collapse in the housing market at the end of the 1980s, led to Coloroll calling in the receiver in 1990. By a strange coincidence both Coloroll's chairman, John Ashcroft, and B&C's chief executive, John Gunn, had won the Guardian Young Businessman of the Year award.

Flowery future for wallpaper, 1981

6. Enron

The collapse of this US energy giant sent shock waves through America. In just 15 years the company had grown to become the seventh-largest in the US and Kenneth Lay, the company’s chairman, was a personal friend of President Bush. When it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2001 it triggered a major re-examination of the creative accounting techniques which had enabled it to exaggerate its profits and disguise its debts.

7. Boo.com

A classic victim of the bursting of the dot.com bubble, Boo.com was originally set up to sell fashion clothing over the internet. However after burning up vast amounts of cash and suffering big problems with its website, Boo.com was placed in receivership in May 2000.

8. Northern Rock

This former building society floated as a public company back in 1997. For some years its aggressive business model pleased investors. However, its heavy reliance on funding from the money markets, rather than retail savers, led to a spectacular collapse last year when the credit crunch started to bite.

Its share price plunged from a high of more than £12 to just 90p this February, before trading in the shares was suspended after the Government took the company into temporary private ownership. It is not certain how much money, if any, shareholders will receive in compensation.

Save safe with Northern Rock, 1980

9. Jarvis

The company is involved in building and maintenance work for the rail networks but its profits have been hit hard by cost overruns. Over the past ten years the value of its shares has fallen by 99.8 per cent.

10. Millwall Holdings

"No one likes us - we don't care" is the favoured chant of Millwall supporters, but it might equally be applied to the shares of the football club. The club was floated as a public company back in 1989, with many supporters showing their loyalty by buying a few shares. However their loyalty has not been rewarded. Over the past 10 years the club's shares have fallen in value by 98 per cent.

Millwall level with 30-year-old record, 1966