Come along tomorrow, Fairfax article, profit season, Business View, Australand looks good and NAB scandal
February 2, 2010
Dear Mayne Reporters,
we don't usually sent out two editions in a week but there's a few things to share with you.
Firstly, check out this morning's column for Fairfax: The good, the bad and the bizarre
It's a 1500-word look at the reporting season which the subs have introduced as follows: "Figures can't lie but this earnings season shows companies have a lot of leeway when it comes to interpreting their accounts."
After 57 different companies produced losses of more than $100 million in the February interim reporting season, it will be very interesting to see if we finish above that number once all the full year figures are in by early next week.
Here's how the major $100 million-plus losses have unfolded so far this reporting season. There are 25 companies listed below but we've no doubt missed a few and there will be up to 10 more on Monday from the laggards who leave their dirty laundry until the last possible day:
Friday, August 28
Sims Group: announced a $150.3 million loss 2008-09.
Thursday, August 27
Crown: announced a loss of $1.2 billion after writing down virtually all its North American and UK investments to zero.
GPT Group: forced to write off $1 billion of value in a joint venture with the now defunct Babcock & Brown, the property trust announced a half-year loss of $1.2 billion.
OZ Minerals: The sale all assets except Prominent Hill to the Chinese goverment led to a half year loss of $580 million.
FKP Property Group: the retirement village owner announced a loss of $319 million for the year ended June 30. This compared with a profit of $145 million for the same period a year earlier.
Virgin Blue: announced a net loss of $160 million for the full financial year, down from a net profit of $98 million a year ago.
Valad Property Group: $1.5 billion loss for 2008-09 after huge write-downs.
Wednesday, August 26
Centro Properties Group: shopping centre owner and operator announced a full-year loss of $3.54 billion as it slashed the value of its properties. This represents an increase of losses after the record $2.4 billion loss recorded for the December 2008 half.
Mirvac Group: the property group posted a $1.08 billion loss for the 2009 financial year. The result was driven by $487 million in property revaluations.
Babcock & Brown Infrastructure: announced a $977 million full-year loss after write-downs but is still claiming it is worth an excessive $1.72 billion.
Westfield Group: announced a net loss of $708 million for the first half of 2009, driven by $2.9 billion in property write-downs.
APN European Retail Property Group: write-downs and derivative losses produced a net loss of $345.9 million for the year ending June 30, 2009. but this only reduced net assets to $267.6 million when the market capitalisation is $15 million.
Lihir Gold: the gold miner has announced a loss of $300 million for the first half of 2009. The net loss figure included an impairment charge on its Ballarat gold mine of $409 million.
Pacific Brands: the branded goods company announced a $234 million loss for 2008-09, which is down from a profit of $117 million from the previous year. This result can be attributed to writedown charges and restructuring expenses.
ING Real Estate Community Living: announced a $284 million loss for 2008-09.
LinQ Resources Fund: write-downs led to a $193 million loss for the full year ending June 30, 2009.
Monday, August 24
ConnectEast: announced a $531 million loss for the 2009 financial year, driven by a $400 million write-down on its single tollroad asset.
ING Office Fund: the real estate group has announced a net loss of $764 million. This figure was derived from the value of their property portfolio falling along with other financial instruments. This result represents a turnaround of more than a $1 billion from a $246 million profit for 2008.
Fairfax Media: announced net loss of $380 million for the year to June after taking modest write-downs on its newspaper mastheads.
HFA Accelerator Plus: announced a loss of $150 million for the year ending June 30, 2009. Total revenue was down which was due to the devaluation of the company's investment portfolio.
Friday, August 21
Macquarie Countrywide Trust: the shopping mall owner announced an annual net loss of $1.4 billion. Property took a beating during the global financial crisis contributing to the loss.
Thursday, August 20
Macquarie Infrastructure Group: announced a $1.71 billion loss which is down 323 per cent from a $767.3 million profit in 2008. The GFC and lower revenue from toll roads was a major factor in the huge turnaround.
Tuesday, August 18
Dexus Ltd: the property company announced a full-year loss of $1.46 billion, versus a $428 million net profit previously. Property write-downs of $1.6 billion drove the loss.
August 17
Lend Lease Primelife: announced a $247 million dollar loss for the year ending June 30, 2009. Market conditions and revaluations contributed to the change from the $41 million profit in 2007-08.
Thursday, August 13
Stockland: announced a full year net loss of $1.8 billion. This compares with a profit of $705 million for the previous year and is a result of $2.4 billion in writedowns on investment properties and other investments.
The Big Fella - come for a chat this Saturday
If you're not doing anything on Saturday (tomorrow) afternoon, grab yourself a ticket to hear a session at the Melbourne Writer's Festival with Kevin Rudd's official biographer, Robert Macklin.
Teaming up with co-author Peter Thompson, Macklin has produced a cracking history of BHP-Billiton called The Big Fella.
All the key players have co-operated including former BHP chairs Brian Loton and Jerry Ellis, along with former CEOs Paul Anderson, Chip Goodyear, John Prescott and even Brian Gilbertson.
I spent a couple of hours with Macklin on Tuesday afternoon and will be "in conversation" with him from 2.30pm until 3.30pm at Fed Square's BMW Edge venue on Saturday afternoon. There's plenty of fascinating territory to cover. Did you realise that Robeert Menzies' father spent more than 20 years as BHP's main lobbyist after World War 1 up until his death in the 1940s?
The MWF program link is here but there are plenty of tickets available so you could just turn up tomorrow and pick them up from the Atrium Box Office at Federation Square. Adults are $20 a pop, concession $18 and MWF members only pay $10.
Sky Business View playlist
I'll be appearing on Sky's Business View program from 2-3pm this afternoon discussing the week in business, most notably the profit reporting season. Tune in if you get a chance and go here to see the archive of our appearances which will be supplemented by edited highlights from today:
Tales from the talk circuit
There was a nice piece of feedback from the talk at the recent Australian Economic Forum in Sydney where the panel of Bill Evans, Dr John Laker and your correspondent chewed over the GFC with chair Michael Stutchbury. Alas, there was only one very rough page of notes so it won't be easy sending through something more comprehensive as requested in this email:
Hi Stephen,
We've had very positive feedback from attendees regarding your presentation with many requesting a copy of your presentation. In response to this we would like to place a transcript of the presentation on the AEF website www.australianeconomicforum.com.au.
Can you please let me know if you are happy to allow this and send me a PDF copy of your presentation?
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Christine Mamone
Event Organiser, DKC International Conference and Event Management
Aug 26, 2009
Go here for more feedback after some of our speeches.
Capital raising plays continue to deliver
The capital raising game is showing no sign of ending. We've got the full $40,000 allocation from Australand so if the shares hold at 50c until trading commences next Wednesday, that will deliver a $10,000 gain, ranking in out top 5 plays for the year as you can see from this list.
Whilst the August profit finished at $10,258, - the lowest level since April - September is shaping up to be somewhere north of $20,000 starting with a $2000-plus gain from NAB on Monday, Australand on Wednesday and then a variety of other in-the-money offers such as Goodman Group, Bendigo Bank, Bank of Queensland, Spotless, Skilled Engineering, Hills Industries and Healthscope.
There is obviously big scale back risk with Goodman Group and Bendigo given they are pro-rata offers relying on the ability to apply for extra, but the others are all SPPs which usually means a far greater likelihood of getting a reasonable allocation.
Media missing on NAB scandal
The whole idea of rushing out this edition last Tuesday leading with NAB's retail scaleback scandal was to hopefully generate some mainstream media coverage. Alas, there was nothing except for a couple of paragraphs in The AFR, which also ran a couple of outraged letters later in the week.
Surely, more than 100,000 retail investors being collectively shafted of more than $400 million in paper profits is an issue worthy of media discussion. We'll hopefully be giving it a rev on Business View later today.
Offers we're currently committed to
Here is the latest list of offers we've thrown cash at. There is a $15,000 SPP offer from tiddler Intermoco which closes on Monday and then next Friday we've got Structural Systems, Goodman Group, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and Linc Energy all closing on the same so we'll hopefully have recycled most of the following by then to re-deploy up to $100,000 into those offers which remain in the money:
Australand: maximum $40,000 into 40c entitlement offer. Closed August 21 and trades September 2.
CBH Resources: $15,000 SPP at 10c which closed on July 31 and trades September 1 after EGM.
National Australia Bank: $38,000 into three $15,000 SPPs at $21.50 but will only get $8400 worth. Trades on August 31.
Virgin Blue: $23,000 so far into 20c offer with unlimited ability to apply for extras and closes on August 28.
Whitehaven Coal: $15,000 into SPP at $3.05 which closes August 31 and trades September 7.
Total live applications: $118,000
Waiting for $29,600 back from NAB
The full list of upcoming offers we're considering can be found here.
Mayne Report RSS Feeds
The Mayne Report now has RSS feeds for you. We have bundled our best articles into a simple and easy delivery for you. Add an RSS feed to your personal reader, iGoogle, MyYahoo, or blog. It's quick and easy to do and means you're always up to date with the latest Mayne Report activity.
Cornwall cartoons for The Mayne Report
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing his satirical commentary to the Mayne Report since March 2009. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now some amusing animations he has begun. Go here to see his animations.
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.
we don't usually sent out two editions in a week but there's a few things to share with you.
Firstly, check out this morning's column for Fairfax: The good, the bad and the bizarre
It's a 1500-word look at the reporting season which the subs have introduced as follows: "Figures can't lie but this earnings season shows companies have a lot of leeway when it comes to interpreting their accounts."
After 57 different companies produced losses of more than $100 million in the February interim reporting season, it will be very interesting to see if we finish above that number once all the full year figures are in by early next week.
Here's how the major $100 million-plus losses have unfolded so far this reporting season. There are 25 companies listed below but we've no doubt missed a few and there will be up to 10 more on Monday from the laggards who leave their dirty laundry until the last possible day:
Friday, August 28
Sims Group: announced a $150.3 million loss 2008-09.
Thursday, August 27
Crown: announced a loss of $1.2 billion after writing down virtually all its North American and UK investments to zero.
GPT Group: forced to write off $1 billion of value in a joint venture with the now defunct Babcock & Brown, the property trust announced a half-year loss of $1.2 billion.
OZ Minerals: The sale all assets except Prominent Hill to the Chinese goverment led to a half year loss of $580 million.
FKP Property Group: the retirement village owner announced a loss of $319 million for the year ended June 30. This compared with a profit of $145 million for the same period a year earlier.
Virgin Blue: announced a net loss of $160 million for the full financial year, down from a net profit of $98 million a year ago.
Valad Property Group: $1.5 billion loss for 2008-09 after huge write-downs.
Wednesday, August 26
Centro Properties Group: shopping centre owner and operator announced a full-year loss of $3.54 billion as it slashed the value of its properties. This represents an increase of losses after the record $2.4 billion loss recorded for the December 2008 half.
Mirvac Group: the property group posted a $1.08 billion loss for the 2009 financial year. The result was driven by $487 million in property revaluations.
Babcock & Brown Infrastructure: announced a $977 million full-year loss after write-downs but is still claiming it is worth an excessive $1.72 billion.
Westfield Group: announced a net loss of $708 million for the first half of 2009, driven by $2.9 billion in property write-downs.
APN European Retail Property Group: write-downs and derivative losses produced a net loss of $345.9 million for the year ending June 30, 2009. but this only reduced net assets to $267.6 million when the market capitalisation is $15 million.
Lihir Gold: the gold miner has announced a loss of $300 million for the first half of 2009. The net loss figure included an impairment charge on its Ballarat gold mine of $409 million.
Pacific Brands: the branded goods company announced a $234 million loss for 2008-09, which is down from a profit of $117 million from the previous year. This result can be attributed to writedown charges and restructuring expenses.
ING Real Estate Community Living: announced a $284 million loss for 2008-09.
LinQ Resources Fund: write-downs led to a $193 million loss for the full year ending June 30, 2009.
Monday, August 24
ConnectEast: announced a $531 million loss for the 2009 financial year, driven by a $400 million write-down on its single tollroad asset.
ING Office Fund: the real estate group has announced a net loss of $764 million. This figure was derived from the value of their property portfolio falling along with other financial instruments. This result represents a turnaround of more than a $1 billion from a $246 million profit for 2008.
Fairfax Media: announced net loss of $380 million for the year to June after taking modest write-downs on its newspaper mastheads.
HFA Accelerator Plus: announced a loss of $150 million for the year ending June 30, 2009. Total revenue was down which was due to the devaluation of the company's investment portfolio.
Friday, August 21
Macquarie Countrywide Trust: the shopping mall owner announced an annual net loss of $1.4 billion. Property took a beating during the global financial crisis contributing to the loss.
Thursday, August 20
Macquarie Infrastructure Group: announced a $1.71 billion loss which is down 323 per cent from a $767.3 million profit in 2008. The GFC and lower revenue from toll roads was a major factor in the huge turnaround.
Tuesday, August 18
Dexus Ltd: the property company announced a full-year loss of $1.46 billion, versus a $428 million net profit previously. Property write-downs of $1.6 billion drove the loss.
August 17
Lend Lease Primelife: announced a $247 million dollar loss for the year ending June 30, 2009. Market conditions and revaluations contributed to the change from the $41 million profit in 2007-08.
Thursday, August 13
Stockland: announced a full year net loss of $1.8 billion. This compares with a profit of $705 million for the previous year and is a result of $2.4 billion in writedowns on investment properties and other investments.
The Big Fella - come for a chat this Saturday
If you're not doing anything on Saturday (tomorrow) afternoon, grab yourself a ticket to hear a session at the Melbourne Writer's Festival with Kevin Rudd's official biographer, Robert Macklin.
Teaming up with co-author Peter Thompson, Macklin has produced a cracking history of BHP-Billiton called The Big Fella.
All the key players have co-operated including former BHP chairs Brian Loton and Jerry Ellis, along with former CEOs Paul Anderson, Chip Goodyear, John Prescott and even Brian Gilbertson.
I spent a couple of hours with Macklin on Tuesday afternoon and will be "in conversation" with him from 2.30pm until 3.30pm at Fed Square's BMW Edge venue on Saturday afternoon. There's plenty of fascinating territory to cover. Did you realise that Robeert Menzies' father spent more than 20 years as BHP's main lobbyist after World War 1 up until his death in the 1940s?
The MWF program link is here but there are plenty of tickets available so you could just turn up tomorrow and pick them up from the Atrium Box Office at Federation Square. Adults are $20 a pop, concession $18 and MWF members only pay $10.
Sky Business View playlist
I'll be appearing on Sky's Business View program from 2-3pm this afternoon discussing the week in business, most notably the profit reporting season. Tune in if you get a chance and go here to see the archive of our appearances which will be supplemented by edited highlights from today:
Tales from the talk circuit
There was a nice piece of feedback from the talk at the recent Australian Economic Forum in Sydney where the panel of Bill Evans, Dr John Laker and your correspondent chewed over the GFC with chair Michael Stutchbury. Alas, there was only one very rough page of notes so it won't be easy sending through something more comprehensive as requested in this email:
Hi Stephen,
We've had very positive feedback from attendees regarding your presentation with many requesting a copy of your presentation. In response to this we would like to place a transcript of the presentation on the AEF website www.australianeconomicforum.com.au.
Can you please let me know if you are happy to allow this and send me a PDF copy of your presentation?
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Christine Mamone
Event Organiser, DKC International Conference and Event Management
Aug 26, 2009
Go here for more feedback after some of our speeches.
Capital raising plays continue to deliver
The capital raising game is showing no sign of ending. We've got the full $40,000 allocation from Australand so if the shares hold at 50c until trading commences next Wednesday, that will deliver a $10,000 gain, ranking in out top 5 plays for the year as you can see from this list.
Whilst the August profit finished at $10,258, - the lowest level since April - September is shaping up to be somewhere north of $20,000 starting with a $2000-plus gain from NAB on Monday, Australand on Wednesday and then a variety of other in-the-money offers such as Goodman Group, Bendigo Bank, Bank of Queensland, Spotless, Skilled Engineering, Hills Industries and Healthscope.
There is obviously big scale back risk with Goodman Group and Bendigo given they are pro-rata offers relying on the ability to apply for extra, but the others are all SPPs which usually means a far greater likelihood of getting a reasonable allocation.
Media missing on NAB scandal
The whole idea of rushing out this edition last Tuesday leading with NAB's retail scaleback scandal was to hopefully generate some mainstream media coverage. Alas, there was nothing except for a couple of paragraphs in The AFR, which also ran a couple of outraged letters later in the week.
Surely, more than 100,000 retail investors being collectively shafted of more than $400 million in paper profits is an issue worthy of media discussion. We'll hopefully be giving it a rev on Business View later today.
Offers we're currently committed to
Here is the latest list of offers we've thrown cash at. There is a $15,000 SPP offer from tiddler Intermoco which closes on Monday and then next Friday we've got Structural Systems, Goodman Group, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and Linc Energy all closing on the same so we'll hopefully have recycled most of the following by then to re-deploy up to $100,000 into those offers which remain in the money:
Australand: maximum $40,000 into 40c entitlement offer. Closed August 21 and trades September 2.
CBH Resources: $15,000 SPP at 10c which closed on July 31 and trades September 1 after EGM.
National Australia Bank: $38,000 into three $15,000 SPPs at $21.50 but will only get $8400 worth. Trades on August 31.
Virgin Blue: $23,000 so far into 20c offer with unlimited ability to apply for extras and closes on August 28.
Whitehaven Coal: $15,000 into SPP at $3.05 which closes August 31 and trades September 7.
Total live applications: $118,000
Waiting for $29,600 back from NAB
The full list of upcoming offers we're considering can be found here.
Mayne Report RSS Feeds
The Mayne Report now has RSS feeds for you. We have bundled our best articles into a simple and easy delivery for you. Add an RSS feed to your personal reader, iGoogle, MyYahoo, or blog. It's quick and easy to do and means you're always up to date with the latest Mayne Report activity.
Cornwall cartoons for The Mayne Report
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing his satirical commentary to the Mayne Report since March 2009. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now some amusing animations he has begun. Go here to see his animations.
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.