Will the Chinese Communists save Sir Rod?
March 24, 2009
Dear Mayne Reporters,
Today I've contributed a long 1400-word opinion piece to Fairfax's www.businessday.com.au website arguing that Sir Rod Eddington might just get turfed out by Rio Tinto shareholders next month - unless the Chinese Government votes its key 9% stake in favour to save his bacon.
It's a comprehensive assessment of Sir Rod's record as a non-executive director and has been rating well on The Age and SMH websites today.
Australia needs to take a strong stand on removing poorly performed directors so it was important to crank up what will be an important 4-week debate about Rio board accountability to as wide an audience as possible. To this end, Fairfax's www.businessday.com.au was an excellent outlet because it has been the unsung success story of business web publishing in Australia with a remarkable 1.9 million unique visits in February - well ahead of all other rivals. By way of comparison, our little corporate governance journal only managed 21,703 unique visitors and 43,375 page views last month.
Meanwhile, I was up in bushfire territory past Marysville this morning speaking to almost 50 delegates from the Finance Sector Union about the the global financial crisis and Australia's gouging bank cartel.
These poor sods get caught between various offshoring pushes and consumer anger from Australians fed up with the world's most expensive banking system. It's not an easy time for anyone in banking, but at least the value of our Big Four banks is back up to $180 million, so I told the delegates there was no need for a Ruddbank or one of the world's most generous bank bond guarantee offerings.
In terms of squandering the surplus on cash hand-outs, it is interesting to look back at some of the comments made on Difference of Opinion in September 2007. We've packaged up our six minutes into this video which is a useful retrospective exercise given it was two months before the market reached its record high.
Finally, if you missed the latest subscriber edition which was sent out early on Sunday morning, here are the headlines:
* If you're reading this without being a subscriber, why not sign up for a free trial or take up our special $55 subscription offer which lasts until June 30, 2009. Alternatively, if you've had enough, click here to unsubscribe from this email list.
Today I've contributed a long 1400-word opinion piece to Fairfax's www.businessday.com.au website arguing that Sir Rod Eddington might just get turfed out by Rio Tinto shareholders next month - unless the Chinese Government votes its key 9% stake in favour to save his bacon.
It's a comprehensive assessment of Sir Rod's record as a non-executive director and has been rating well on The Age and SMH websites today.
Australia needs to take a strong stand on removing poorly performed directors so it was important to crank up what will be an important 4-week debate about Rio board accountability to as wide an audience as possible. To this end, Fairfax's www.businessday.com.au was an excellent outlet because it has been the unsung success story of business web publishing in Australia with a remarkable 1.9 million unique visits in February - well ahead of all other rivals. By way of comparison, our little corporate governance journal only managed 21,703 unique visitors and 43,375 page views last month.
Meanwhile, I was up in bushfire territory past Marysville this morning speaking to almost 50 delegates from the Finance Sector Union about the the global financial crisis and Australia's gouging bank cartel.
These poor sods get caught between various offshoring pushes and consumer anger from Australians fed up with the world's most expensive banking system. It's not an easy time for anyone in banking, but at least the value of our Big Four banks is back up to $180 million, so I told the delegates there was no need for a Ruddbank or one of the world's most generous bank bond guarantee offerings.
In terms of squandering the surplus on cash hand-outs, it is interesting to look back at some of the comments made on Difference of Opinion in September 2007. We've packaged up our six minutes into this video which is a useful retrospective exercise given it was two months before the market reached its record high.
Finally, if you missed the latest subscriber edition which was sent out early on Sunday morning, here are the headlines:
- Anna Bligh's poisoned chalice as Kev borrows $1.8 billion in three days
- Kohler's unfair attacks on Allan Fels
- What doesn't Centro recognise about a shareholder mandate?
- John B Fairfax's missed opportunity
- Flights booked for Babcock & Brown creditors meeting
- Westfield's blazes the trail for high rise apartments on Doncaster Hill
- At last, the media directly links Woolies with the scourge of pokies
- Profitable capital raisings on the rise
- The Mayne Report Rich List
- Podcasts, videos and a revamped press room
- Radio this week
* If you're reading this without being a subscriber, why not sign up for a free trial or take up our special $55 subscription offer which lasts until June 30, 2009. Alternatively, if you've had enough, click here to unsubscribe from this email list.