Oxiana, chairman margin calls, Rupert's pokies, AGM hunting and much more
February 19, 2010
Dear Mayne Reporters,
apologies for the lack of service so far this financial year but I've been pretty crook with the flu for almost two weeks now.
In tonight's edition we've got five lively yarns covering pokies, outrageous payouts, director dealings, Rupert's mum and few other tasty issues, such as our five bottom fishing purchases in today's bleak market.
Click through for all for the full edition and do ya best,
Stephen Mayne
Have a look at page two of this notice of meeting for the 2007 Oxiana AGM, which explains how Hegarty was being issued another 2 million options at a strike price of $4.36.
How he can be given large huge cash payout for options which are well out of the money remains a mystery.
The Oxiana-Zinifex crowd are clearly nervous about a shareholder revolt on July 18 because they've hired a tele-marketing firm to canvass opinions from shareholders, two of whom have made contact with us. This is what one emailed through:
Stephen,
For your information I was just now rung by what appeared to be a PR firm. I can only assume they have been employed by Oxiana. Firstly, they wanted to know that I hadn't voted my proxy then they ran through the six resolutions expounding the great work by Hegarty and co and the value created by the merger. I finally explained that I had voted against all the resolutions and considered the whole affair to be absolutely disgusting. Do you suspect that they have identified a groundswell against the whole affair and are currently in damage control? Good topic for your Mayne Report.
Kind Regards, Name Withheld
The July 18 EGM is shaping up to be a beauty and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the proposal for Owen's payout isn't withdrawn before the meeting.
For some fascinating context on the controversy around pay issues at Oxiana, listen to this exchange over the huge remuneration report protest vote from the 2006 AGM, followed by this enlightening exchange with chairman Barry Cusack at last year's AGM.
Ryan suffered acute embarrassment when he became the first respected mainstream member of the directors' club to cop a margin call, as you can see from this announcement by ABC Learning back in March.
Ryan earnt himself a prominent spot on our list of executives and directors who have been margin called as follows:
David Ryan: the ABC Learning director had to reveal that his entire 249,101 shares were swept away on February 26, 2008, at the knock-down price of $1.895 – fetching a rather miserable $472,000 for his lenders on a parcel that was once worth more than $2 million.
With ABC Learning closing at 88c tonight, the newly installed chairman of the company must be relieved his bankers stepped in like they did as this has saved him almost $300,000.
Which brings us to this shareholder notice by Lend Lease showing that director David Ryan transferred 10,000 ordinary shares from his own name to Ryvan Pty Ltd on June 27 at the nominal price of $9.62.
There was a similar notice from Transurban on June 30 which noted that its chairman David Ryan had transferred his 57,300 shares from a "direct holding to indirect vehicle (superannuation fund)", without following the Lend Lease lead of naming the vehicle.
Why the need for this end of financial year shuffling? Surely David was suffering a tax loss on ABC Learning and it would have been hard to crystallise a profit on Lend Lease given the stock has more than halved in 12 months and is trading near a five year low. The same goes for Transurban which has crashed from $8 to $4.50 in a year, most notably after new CEO Chris Lynch abandoned the practice of borrowing to pay dividends.
Maybe Ryan's financial problems forced the sale of a long-held property investment which crystallised a big capital gain?
It is interesting that Ryan chose to cop the full ABC Learning margin call rather than sell down some of his Lend Lease stake or dispose of his more valuable Transurban holding. Indeed, just two days after the ABC Learning margin call he participated in the Transurban dividend reinvestment plan and picked up another 2349 shares at a rather lofty $6.55.
Surely, a prominent director like this should be given an opportunity to cash in some other shares before a margin call comes along. All this, will make for some interesting debate at the various AGMs this year. Ryan was paid $256,000 to chair Transurban in 2006-07 when it only had two regular board meetings last year and it will be interesting to see what his ABC Learning pay will rise to since he replaced Sally-Ann Atkinson as chairman a few weeks ago.
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: He was very ah in some s-sense very un-unkind to my Mother because he was very intolerant and ah critical. And he married my mother and although they had difficulties, they were very fond of each other although he was difficult and and ah had shortcomings. He was a bit of a gambler and ah that was frowned upon.
ANDREW DENTON: He was a lot of a gambler wasn't he?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Yes. [laugh]
ANDREW DENTON: Because it really did affect your life didn't it?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Oh absolutely, yes. Terrible.
ANDREW DENTON: In what way?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Well because we m- Mother was always short of money and ah ah always anxious and in those days, you know, we were always running into debt. Ah gambling is is a is a frightful addiction, it's almost worse than, I think, drink and drugs but gambling is ah is is is an obsession.
Whilst Rupert has been known to tap into pokies revenues to prop up his struggling rubgy league investments in NSW and Queensland, the new www.pokieswatch.org website has uncovered an interesting connection in Melbourne.
The Aces Sporting Club in Keysborough is part of a driving range/mini golf property. It is a club partially run by Safeway/Woolworths which shows VCGR (Victorian Commission for Gaming Regulation) associations with pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson, Woolies CEO Michael Luscombe and Woolies chairman James Strong.
When you walk in you see Melbourne Storm signage and a statement that this is The Storm's social club. Sure enough, Storm's executive officer, John Ribot, is disclosed as an associate on the VCGR site but where are News Ltd, the owners of the Storm? Nowhere!
All of this is explained here on pokiewatch.org.
It gets more interesting when you click on their community benefit statements. Whilst Woolworths run AFL-associated pokies venues usually make very little community donations to sport, Aces shows a very generous contribution of almost $200,000 last year.
Could this be Dame Elisabeth's generosity and anti-gambling spirit at work? News Ltd perhaps doesn't want to profit from pokies in Dame Elisabeth's home town so maybe Storm has decided to give its share of the profits away. It certainly is strange that News Ltd works so hard not to declare its interest.
Finally, I've made a big prediction in the latest edition of Ethical Investor magazine that Woolworths will be out of the pokies business by 2010, partly due to pressure that will flow from new anti-pokies Senator Nick Xenophon.
It is interesting how the Herald Sun usually focuses on Bruce Mathieson when pushing its anti-pokies agenda when the majority shareholder in their joint venture, Woolworths, gets away with few mentions. This is probably explained by the fact that Woolies are the largest single advertiser in the paper.
Woolworths shouldn't be able to buy protection like this so I've given them a huge spray in Ethical Investor. Check it out here.
apologies for the lack of service so far this financial year but I've been pretty crook with the flu for almost two weeks now.
In tonight's edition we've got five lively yarns covering pokies, outrageous payouts, director dealings, Rupert's mum and few other tasty issues, such as our five bottom fishing purchases in today's bleak market.
Click through for all for the full edition and do ya best,
Stephen Mayne
Oxiana tumbles again as trouble brews over Hegarty payout
Shares in Oxiana Resources have fallen another 11c to a two year low of $2.23 today, meaning that the proposed $5.4 million cash payout to departing CEO Owen Hegarty in return for surrendering 6 million options is getting even more ludicrous by the day.Have a look at page two of this notice of meeting for the 2007 Oxiana AGM, which explains how Hegarty was being issued another 2 million options at a strike price of $4.36.
How he can be given large huge cash payout for options which are well out of the money remains a mystery.
The Oxiana-Zinifex crowd are clearly nervous about a shareholder revolt on July 18 because they've hired a tele-marketing firm to canvass opinions from shareholders, two of whom have made contact with us. This is what one emailed through:
Stephen,
For your information I was just now rung by what appeared to be a PR firm. I can only assume they have been employed by Oxiana. Firstly, they wanted to know that I hadn't voted my proxy then they ran through the six resolutions expounding the great work by Hegarty and co and the value created by the merger. I finally explained that I had voted against all the resolutions and considered the whole affair to be absolutely disgusting. Do you suspect that they have identified a groundswell against the whole affair and are currently in damage control? Good topic for your Mayne Report.
Kind Regards, Name Withheld
The July 18 EGM is shaping up to be a beauty and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the proposal for Owen's payout isn't withdrawn before the meeting.
For some fascinating context on the controversy around pay issues at Oxiana, listen to this exchange over the huge remuneration report protest vote from the 2006 AGM, followed by this enlightening exchange with chairman Barry Cusack at last year's AGM.
Transurban chairman's tax loss shuffling
Whilst many investors, including us, were busy doing some tax loss selling before June 30, it was interesting to see the chairrman of Transurban and ABC Learning, accountant and former Bankers Trust high flyer David Ryan, doing a little shuffling of his own.Ryan suffered acute embarrassment when he became the first respected mainstream member of the directors' club to cop a margin call, as you can see from this announcement by ABC Learning back in March.
Ryan earnt himself a prominent spot on our list of executives and directors who have been margin called as follows:
David Ryan: the ABC Learning director had to reveal that his entire 249,101 shares were swept away on February 26, 2008, at the knock-down price of $1.895 – fetching a rather miserable $472,000 for his lenders on a parcel that was once worth more than $2 million.
With ABC Learning closing at 88c tonight, the newly installed chairman of the company must be relieved his bankers stepped in like they did as this has saved him almost $300,000.
Which brings us to this shareholder notice by Lend Lease showing that director David Ryan transferred 10,000 ordinary shares from his own name to Ryvan Pty Ltd on June 27 at the nominal price of $9.62.
There was a similar notice from Transurban on June 30 which noted that its chairman David Ryan had transferred his 57,300 shares from a "direct holding to indirect vehicle (superannuation fund)", without following the Lend Lease lead of naming the vehicle.
Why the need for this end of financial year shuffling? Surely David was suffering a tax loss on ABC Learning and it would have been hard to crystallise a profit on Lend Lease given the stock has more than halved in 12 months and is trading near a five year low. The same goes for Transurban which has crashed from $8 to $4.50 in a year, most notably after new CEO Chris Lynch abandoned the practice of borrowing to pay dividends.
Maybe Ryan's financial problems forced the sale of a long-held property investment which crystallised a big capital gain?
It is interesting that Ryan chose to cop the full ABC Learning margin call rather than sell down some of his Lend Lease stake or dispose of his more valuable Transurban holding. Indeed, just two days after the ABC Learning margin call he participated in the Transurban dividend reinvestment plan and picked up another 2349 shares at a rather lofty $6.55.
Surely, a prominent director like this should be given an opportunity to cash in some other shares before a margin call comes along. All this, will make for some interesting debate at the various AGMs this year. Ryan was paid $256,000 to chair Transurban in 2006-07 when it only had two regular board meetings last year and it will be interesting to see what his ABC Learning pay will rise to since he replaced Sally-Ann Atkinson as chairman a few weeks ago.
Rupert's pokies interests in Melbourne
It was lovely to see Dame Elisabeth Murdoch interviewed by Andrew Denton last week talking about the evils of gambling. Her father had a bit of a gambling problem and this certainly rubbed off on the legendary charity helper who turns 100 next February. Here's the relevent extract from the transcript:DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: He was very ah in some s-sense very un-unkind to my Mother because he was very intolerant and ah critical. And he married my mother and although they had difficulties, they were very fond of each other although he was difficult and and ah had shortcomings. He was a bit of a gambler and ah that was frowned upon.
ANDREW DENTON: He was a lot of a gambler wasn't he?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Yes. [laugh]
ANDREW DENTON: Because it really did affect your life didn't it?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Oh absolutely, yes. Terrible.
ANDREW DENTON: In what way?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Well because we m- Mother was always short of money and ah ah always anxious and in those days, you know, we were always running into debt. Ah gambling is is a is a frightful addiction, it's almost worse than, I think, drink and drugs but gambling is ah is is is an obsession.
Whilst Rupert has been known to tap into pokies revenues to prop up his struggling rubgy league investments in NSW and Queensland, the new www.pokieswatch.org website has uncovered an interesting connection in Melbourne.
The Aces Sporting Club in Keysborough is part of a driving range/mini golf property. It is a club partially run by Safeway/Woolworths which shows VCGR (Victorian Commission for Gaming Regulation) associations with pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson, Woolies CEO Michael Luscombe and Woolies chairman James Strong.
When you walk in you see Melbourne Storm signage and a statement that this is The Storm's social club. Sure enough, Storm's executive officer, John Ribot, is disclosed as an associate on the VCGR site but where are News Ltd, the owners of the Storm? Nowhere!
All of this is explained here on pokiewatch.org.
It gets more interesting when you click on their community benefit statements. Whilst Woolworths run AFL-associated pokies venues usually make very little community donations to sport, Aces shows a very generous contribution of almost $200,000 last year.
Could this be Dame Elisabeth's generosity and anti-gambling spirit at work? News Ltd perhaps doesn't want to profit from pokies in Dame Elisabeth's home town so maybe Storm has decided to give its share of the profits away. It certainly is strange that News Ltd works so hard not to declare its interest.
Finally, I've made a big prediction in the latest edition of Ethical Investor magazine that Woolworths will be out of the pokies business by 2010, partly due to pressure that will flow from new anti-pokies Senator Nick Xenophon.
It is interesting how the Herald Sun usually focuses on Bruce Mathieson when pushing its anti-pokies agenda when the majority shareholder in their joint venture, Woolworths, gets away with few mentions. This is probably explained by the fact that Woolies are the largest single advertiser in the paper.
Woolworths shouldn't be able to buy protection like this so I've given them a huge spray in Ethical Investor. Check it out here.
Oxiana tumbles again as trouble brews over Hegarty payout
Shares in Oxiana Resources have fallen another 11c to a two year low of $2.23 today, meaning that the proposed $5.4 million cash payout to departing CEO Owen Hegarty in return for surrendering 6 million options is getting even more ludicrous by the day.
Have a look at page two of this notice of meeting for the 2007 Oxiana AGM, which explains how Hegarty was being issued another 2 million options at a strike price of $4.36.
How he can be given large huge cash payout for options which are well out of the money remains a mystery.
The Oxiana-Zinifex crowd are clearly nervous about a shareholder revolt on July 18 because they've hired a tele-marketing firm to canvass opinions from shareholders, two of whom have made contact with us. This is what one emailed through:
Stephen,
For your information I was just now rung by what appeared to be a PR firm. I can only assume they have been employed by Oxiana. Firstly, they wanted to know that I hadn't voted my proxy then they ran through the six resolutions expounding the great work by Hegarty and co and the value created by the merger. I finally explained that I had voted against all the resolutions and considered the whole affair to be absolutely disgusting. Do you suspect that they have identified a groundswell against the whole affair and are currently in damage control? Good topic for your Mayne Report.
Kind Regards, Name Withheld
The July 18 EGM is shaping up to be a beauty and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the proposal for Owen's payout isn't withdrawn before the meeting.
For some fascinating context on the controversy around pay issues at Oxiana, listen to this exchange over the huge remuneration report protest vote from the 2006 AGM, followed by this enlightening exchange with chairman Barry Cusack at last year's AGM.
Have a look at page two of this notice of meeting for the 2007 Oxiana AGM, which explains how Hegarty was being issued another 2 million options at a strike price of $4.36.
How he can be given large huge cash payout for options which are well out of the money remains a mystery.
The Oxiana-Zinifex crowd are clearly nervous about a shareholder revolt on July 18 because they've hired a tele-marketing firm to canvass opinions from shareholders, two of whom have made contact with us. This is what one emailed through:
Stephen,
For your information I was just now rung by what appeared to be a PR firm. I can only assume they have been employed by Oxiana. Firstly, they wanted to know that I hadn't voted my proxy then they ran through the six resolutions expounding the great work by Hegarty and co and the value created by the merger. I finally explained that I had voted against all the resolutions and considered the whole affair to be absolutely disgusting. Do you suspect that they have identified a groundswell against the whole affair and are currently in damage control? Good topic for your Mayne Report.
Kind Regards, Name Withheld
The July 18 EGM is shaping up to be a beauty and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the proposal for Owen's payout isn't withdrawn before the meeting.
For some fascinating context on the controversy around pay issues at Oxiana, listen to this exchange over the huge remuneration report protest vote from the 2006 AGM, followed by this enlightening exchange with chairman Barry Cusack at last year's AGM.
Transurban chairman's tax loss shuffling
Whilst many investors, including us, were busy doing some tax loss selling before June 30, it was interesting to see the chairrman of Transurban and ABC Learning, accountant and former Bankers Trust high flyer David Ryan, doing a little shuffling of his own.
Ryan suffered acute embarrassment when he became the first respected mainstream member of the directors' club to cop a margin call, as you can see from this announcement by ABC Learning back in March.
Ryan earnt himself a prominent spot on our list of executives and directors who have been margin called as follows:
David Ryan: the ABC Learning director had to reveal that his entire 249,101 shares were swept away on February 26, 2008, at the knock-down price of $1.895 – fetching a rather miserable $472,000 for his lenders on a parcel that was once worth more than $2 million.
With ABC Learning closing at 88c tonight, the newly installed chairman of the company must be relieved his bankers stepped in like they did as this has saved him almost $300,000.
Which brings us to this shareholder notice by Lend Lease showing that director David Ryan transferred 10,000 ordinary shares from his own name to Ryvan Pty Ltd on June 27 at the nominal price of $9.62.
There was a similar notice from Transurban on June 30 which noted that its chairman David Ryan had transferred his 57,300 shares from a "direct holding to indirect vehicle (superannuation fund)", without following the Lend Lease lead of naming the vehicle.
Why the need for this end of financial year shuffling? Surely David was suffering a tax loss on ABC Learning and it would have been hard to crystallise a profit on Lend Lease given the stock has more than halved in 12 months and is trading near a five year low. The same goes for Transurban which has crashed from $8 to $4.50 in a year, most notably after new CEO Chris Lynch abandoned the practice of borrowing to pay dividends.
Maybe Ryan's financial problems forced the sale of a long-held property investment which crystallised a big capital gain?
It is interesting that Ryan chose to cop the full ABC Learning margin call rather than sell down some of his Lend Lease stake or dispose of his more valuable Transurban holding. Indeed, just two days after the ABC Learning margin call he participated in the Transurban dividend reinvestment plan and picked up another 2349 shares at a rather lofty $6.55.
Surely, a prominent director like this should be given an opportunity to cash in some other shares before a margin call comes along. All this, will make for some interesting debate at the various AGMs this year. Ryan was paid $256,000 to chair Transurban in 2006-07 when it only had two regular board meetings last year and it will be interesting to see what his ABC Learning pay will rise to since he replaced Sally-Ann Atkinson as chairman a few weeks ago.
Ryan suffered acute embarrassment when he became the first respected mainstream member of the directors' club to cop a margin call, as you can see from this announcement by ABC Learning back in March.
Ryan earnt himself a prominent spot on our list of executives and directors who have been margin called as follows:
David Ryan: the ABC Learning director had to reveal that his entire 249,101 shares were swept away on February 26, 2008, at the knock-down price of $1.895 – fetching a rather miserable $472,000 for his lenders on a parcel that was once worth more than $2 million.
With ABC Learning closing at 88c tonight, the newly installed chairman of the company must be relieved his bankers stepped in like they did as this has saved him almost $300,000.
Which brings us to this shareholder notice by Lend Lease showing that director David Ryan transferred 10,000 ordinary shares from his own name to Ryvan Pty Ltd on June 27 at the nominal price of $9.62.
There was a similar notice from Transurban on June 30 which noted that its chairman David Ryan had transferred his 57,300 shares from a "direct holding to indirect vehicle (superannuation fund)", without following the Lend Lease lead of naming the vehicle.
Why the need for this end of financial year shuffling? Surely David was suffering a tax loss on ABC Learning and it would have been hard to crystallise a profit on Lend Lease given the stock has more than halved in 12 months and is trading near a five year low. The same goes for Transurban which has crashed from $8 to $4.50 in a year, most notably after new CEO Chris Lynch abandoned the practice of borrowing to pay dividends.
Maybe Ryan's financial problems forced the sale of a long-held property investment which crystallised a big capital gain?
It is interesting that Ryan chose to cop the full ABC Learning margin call rather than sell down some of his Lend Lease stake or dispose of his more valuable Transurban holding. Indeed, just two days after the ABC Learning margin call he participated in the Transurban dividend reinvestment plan and picked up another 2349 shares at a rather lofty $6.55.
Surely, a prominent director like this should be given an opportunity to cash in some other shares before a margin call comes along. All this, will make for some interesting debate at the various AGMs this year. Ryan was paid $256,000 to chair Transurban in 2006-07 when it only had two regular board meetings last year and it will be interesting to see what his ABC Learning pay will rise to since he replaced Sally-Ann Atkinson as chairman a few weeks ago.
Rupert's pokies interests in Melbourne
It was lovely to see Dame Elisabeth Murdoch interviewed by Andrew Denton last week talking about the evils of gambling. Her father had a bit of a gambling problem and this certainly rubbed off on the legendary charity helper who turns 100 next February. Here's the relevent extract from the transcript:
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: He was very ah in some s-sense very un-unkind to my Mother because he was very intolerant and ah critical. And he married my mother and although they had difficulties, they were very fond of each other although he was difficult and and ah had shortcomings. He was a bit of a gambler and ah that was frowned upon.
ANDREW DENTON: He was a lot of a gambler wasn't he?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Yes. [laugh]
ANDREW DENTON: Because it really did affect your life didn't it?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Oh absolutely, yes. Terrible.
ANDREW DENTON: In what way?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Well because we m- Mother was always short of money and ah ah always anxious and in those days, you know, we were always running into debt. Ah gambling is is a is a frightful addiction, it's almost worse than, I think, drink and drugs but gambling is ah is is is an obsession.
Whilst Rupert has been known to tap into pokies revenues to prop up his struggling rubgy league investments in NSW and Queensland, the new www.pokieswatch.org website has uncovered an interesting connection in Melbourne.
The Aces Sporting Club in Keysborough is part of a driving range/mini golf property. It is a club partially run by Safeway/Woolworths which shows VCGR (Victorian Commission for Gaming Regulation) associations with pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson, Woolies CEO Michael Luscombe and Woolies chairman James Strong.
When you walk in you see Melbourne Storm signage and a statement that this is The Storm's social club. Sure enough, Storm's executive officer, John Ribot, is disclosed as an associate on the VCGR site but where are News Ltd, the owners of the Storm? Nowhere!
All of this is explained here on pokiewatch.org.
It gets more interesting when you click on their community benefit statements. Whilst AFL-associated pokies venues usually make very little community donations to sport, Aces shows a very generous contribution of almost $200,000 last year.
Could this be Dame Elisabeth's generosity and anti-gambling spirit at work? News Ltd perhaps doesn't want to profit from pokies in Dame Elisabeth's home town so maybe Storm has decided to give its share of the profits away. It certainly is strange that News Ltd works so hard not to declare its interest.
Finally, I've made a big prediction in the latest edition of Ethical Investor magazine that Woolworths will be out of the pokies business by 2010, partly due to pressure that will flow from new anti-pokies Senator Nick Xenophon.
It is interesting how the Herald Sun usually focuses on Bruce Mathieson when pushing its anti-pokies agenda when the majority shareholder in their joint venture, Woolworths, gets away with few mentions. This is probably explained by the fact that Woolies are the largest single advertiser in the paper.
Woolworths shouldn't be able to buy protection like this so I've given them a huge spray in Ethical Investor. Check it out here.
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: He was very ah in some s-sense very un-unkind to my Mother because he was very intolerant and ah critical. And he married my mother and although they had difficulties, they were very fond of each other although he was difficult and and ah had shortcomings. He was a bit of a gambler and ah that was frowned upon.
ANDREW DENTON: He was a lot of a gambler wasn't he?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Yes. [laugh]
ANDREW DENTON: Because it really did affect your life didn't it?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Oh absolutely, yes. Terrible.
ANDREW DENTON: In what way?
DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH: Well because we m- Mother was always short of money and ah ah always anxious and in those days, you know, we were always running into debt. Ah gambling is is a is a frightful addiction, it's almost worse than, I think, drink and drugs but gambling is ah is is is an obsession.
Whilst Rupert has been known to tap into pokies revenues to prop up his struggling rubgy league investments in NSW and Queensland, the new www.pokieswatch.org website has uncovered an interesting connection in Melbourne.
The Aces Sporting Club in Keysborough is part of a driving range/mini golf property. It is a club partially run by Safeway/Woolworths which shows VCGR (Victorian Commission for Gaming Regulation) associations with pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson, Woolies CEO Michael Luscombe and Woolies chairman James Strong.
When you walk in you see Melbourne Storm signage and a statement that this is The Storm's social club. Sure enough, Storm's executive officer, John Ribot, is disclosed as an associate on the VCGR site but where are News Ltd, the owners of the Storm? Nowhere!
All of this is explained here on pokiewatch.org.
It gets more interesting when you click on their community benefit statements. Whilst AFL-associated pokies venues usually make very little community donations to sport, Aces shows a very generous contribution of almost $200,000 last year.
Could this be Dame Elisabeth's generosity and anti-gambling spirit at work? News Ltd perhaps doesn't want to profit from pokies in Dame Elisabeth's home town so maybe Storm has decided to give its share of the profits away. It certainly is strange that News Ltd works so hard not to declare its interest.
Finally, I've made a big prediction in the latest edition of Ethical Investor magazine that Woolworths will be out of the pokies business by 2010, partly due to pressure that will flow from new anti-pokies Senator Nick Xenophon.
It is interesting how the Herald Sun usually focuses on Bruce Mathieson when pushing its anti-pokies agenda when the majority shareholder in their joint venture, Woolworths, gets away with few mentions. This is probably explained by the fact that Woolies are the largest single advertiser in the paper.
Woolworths shouldn't be able to buy protection like this so I've given them a huge spray in Ethical Investor. Check it out here.
Good progress on AGM record hunt
We're getting towards the end of our exercise in writing to companies asking for transcripts or audio files from old AGMs, so that this book project will accurately tell the tale of what happened at some 300-plus AGMs over the years. Here's a progress report thus far:
Came through with everything requested
ANZ
ASX
AWB
BHP-Billiton
Brambles
Fairfax Media
Foster's
Lend Lease
NAB
Westpac
Have partially delivered so far
News Corp
Tabcorp
Westfield
Have records but won't hand them over
Macquarie Group
Rio Tinto
Don't have records
Austar
Austereo
Fortescue Metals
West Australian Newspapers
Waiting to hear back from
AGL Energy
AMP
Axa
Commonwealth Bank
Computershare
Crown
Spotless
Seek
Southern Cross
Woolworths
Still to approach
Bank of Adelaide (through Bendigo Bank)
Centaur
GIO
HIH
James Hardie
Pasminco
Suncorp for Promina
Ten
Transurban
Transcripts so far
There are also now 15 edited transcripts of lively AGM debate on the site as you can see here.
ANZ
ASX
AWB
BHP-Billiton
Brambles
Fairfax Media
Foster's
Lend Lease
NAB
Westpac
Have partially delivered so far
News Corp
Tabcorp
Westfield
Have records but won't hand them over
Macquarie Group
Rio Tinto
Don't have records
Austar
Austereo
Fortescue Metals
West Australian Newspapers
Waiting to hear back from
AGL Energy
AMP
Axa
Commonwealth Bank
Computershare
Crown
Spotless
Seek
Southern Cross
Woolworths
Still to approach
Bank of Adelaide (through Bendigo Bank)
Centaur
GIO
HIH
James Hardie
Pasminco
Suncorp for Promina
Ten
Transurban
Transcripts so far
There are also now 15 edited transcripts of lively AGM debate on the site as you can see here.
Buying on the downturn
The market is looking like very good value as the global doom and gloom deepens as the All Ords hit a two year low of 5094 after another crunching 2.3% drop today. I took the opportunity to buy five stocks today and here's a list of all the recent purchases:
July 3
Ferraus: bought 358 at $1.40
Pepinini Minerals: bought 758 at 66c
Bradken: bought 63 at $7.95
Nufarm Finance: bought 6 at $84
Premium Investors: bought 642 at 78c
June 30
Ross Human Directions: bought 1250 at 40c
June 27
Alchemia: bought 1613 at 31c
June 26
GBST Holdings Limited: bought 278 at $1.80
July 3
Ferraus: bought 358 at $1.40
Pepinini Minerals: bought 758 at 66c
Bradken: bought 63 at $7.95
Nufarm Finance: bought 6 at $84
Premium Investors: bought 642 at 78c
June 30
Ross Human Directions: bought 1250 at 40c
June 27
Alchemia: bought 1613 at 31c
June 26
GBST Holdings Limited: bought 278 at $1.80
Record traffic for Mayne Report in June
June was our biggest ever month for traffic and we even reached the 50Gb limit with our video hosting company. Below is a quick summary of what has been catching your eye of late.
Video Section
The two most popular videos for June were both Babcock-related and they have both also made our all time top 13 videos.
Phil Green's Babcock mea culpa
Compare and contrast Babcock and Macquarie on their broken models
Jun. 3, 2008
Total views to date - 1,338
Game over at Babcock & Brown
Goodbye Rich List, hello $50 billion bank workout.
Jun. 12, 2008
Total views to date - 3,023
Words Section
This month we almost reached 30,000 unique visitors to the Mayne Report. The Mayne Report Rich List is still our most popular offering with nearly 3,500 visits. Our audio recordings this month also spiked a lot of interest, in particular, relating to the Babcock & Brown AGM. Below are two of the most popular recordings from the AGM.
The model we are running is actually broken
Attempt to nail director Joe Raby with resurrection of Alan Bond - slapped down by Nosworthy
In terms of the actual traffic figures on the words site, the growth has flowed as follows:
March: 21,340 unique visitors and 27,979 page views
April: 24,869 unique visitors and 31,793 page views
May: 26,477 unique visitors and 36,175 page views
June: 28,384 unique visitors and 39,551 page views
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
The two most popular videos for June were both Babcock-related and they have both also made our all time top 13 videos.
Phil Green's Babcock mea culpa
Compare and contrast Babcock and Macquarie on their broken models
Jun. 3, 2008
Total views to date - 1,338
Game over at Babcock & Brown
Goodbye Rich List, hello $50 billion bank workout.
Jun. 12, 2008
Total views to date - 3,023
Words Section
This month we almost reached 30,000 unique visitors to the Mayne Report. The Mayne Report Rich List is still our most popular offering with nearly 3,500 visits. Our audio recordings this month also spiked a lot of interest, in particular, relating to the Babcock & Brown AGM. Below are two of the most popular recordings from the AGM.
The model we are running is actually broken
Attempt to nail director Joe Raby with resurrection of Alan Bond - slapped down by Nosworthy
In terms of the actual traffic figures on the words site, the growth has flowed as follows:
March: 21,340 unique visitors and 27,979 page views
April: 24,869 unique visitors and 31,793 page views
May: 26,477 unique visitors and 36,175 page views
June: 28,384 unique visitors and 39,551 page views
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne