Myer tanks, AWB rip-off, Packer exchanges, AGM season, Manningham, Transurban, pokies, Asciano, Macquarie, Bendigo, capital raisings and much more

Dear Mayne Reporters,

First up in this rather overdue email edition, check out this column for Fairfax Media's www.businessday.com.au which has just gone live and gives the AWB board a much-deserved kicking for devising a capital raising which has diluted 93% of its 45,000 retail shareholders. The biggest victims are Australia's grain growers but retail investors as a whole have been diluted from owning 69% of AWB to less than 40% over the past few weeks. Once again, the big end of town and their conflicted investment banking mates have cleaned up at the expense of the little guy. Read all about it here.



Flying blind with Myer

Myer commenced trading at midday and the $20,000 application was scaled back to $6775. The flying blind application was lodged as "overs" courtesy of the entitlement through owning 1 Myer note. The note has disappeared from the Comsec account but no shares have appeared in their place and the stock won't be allotted until November 6, whilst the refund has been delayed until November 10.

The usual avalanche of pre-listing ASX announcements from Myer (ASX code: MYR) came with a rush after 11am and you can view it all on this link.

The most interesting is normally the list of top 20 shareholders, but most of it is mumbo jumbo as various key players remain hidden behind nominees. However, it looks like TPG, Blum Capital, the Myer family have decided to maximise their sell-down in this over-priced and over-hyped offering.

The stock average $3.90 in the first 7 minutes as $100 million worth changed hands. This represents a 4% discount to the $4.10 offer price or a loss of $117 million for the owners of the 585 million shares if it doesn't recover.

Myer has provided a break down of the register between MyerOne customers, broker clients, staff, former note holders and institutions. The offer cost more than $100 million and with all those fat commissions for brokers, broker firm allocations have not been scaled back and finished up with 206.3 million shares.

The MyerOne interest was surprisingly subdued, only mustering 37.4 million shares or 6% of the offer. Institutions, which ultimately set the price through the book build process, were allocated 254.8 million shares and already represent 43% of the register.

AGM season mid-point

As we reach the half way point of the AGM season and take a break for the Melbourne Cup long weekend, it is worth reflecting back on some quite important developments in corporate governance over the past few days.

The huge votes against executive incentive awards at Bendigo & Adelaide Bank last Monday and the near defeat of Transurban's remuneration report in Melbourne on Tuesday will reverberate for quite a while. The detail of what happened was summed up in this 2000-word piece for Fairfax Media's www.businessday.com.au site which had 21,000 page views.

We also had a fascinating time grilling James Packer at the Crown and Consolidated Media Holdings AGMs last Wednesday. The highlights were captured in radio interviews on Wednesday with Lindy Burns on 774 ABC Melbourne and on Thursday with Geoff Hutchison on 720 ABC Perth.

Thursday also saw Crikey lead with this Packer AGM story which was under an editorial pointing out News Ltd's quite malicious use of a photograph of a clearly overweight James Packer hitching up his trousers.

This week's full edition includes all the bootleg audio from the Packer exchanges, plus heaps of other audio from earlier meetings such as Pacific Brands, Asciano and Reece Australia.

The PO Box was jam packed once again with annual reports and notices of meeting this morning but it all should slow down from now on because the AGM season finishes on Monday, November 30 and companies must give 28 days notice.

We'll be reporting back on any laggards who don't come clean in time and check out this upcoming diary of AGMs which is now close to being complete.

Edited audio highlights from Crown AGM

Despite urging him to get with the program last year, James Packer again refused to webcast his two AGMs and shareholders were greeted with big signs saying recording devices were banned.

However, despite the usual hoards of security and officious rules requiring everyone to deposit bags in the cloak room, there were no strip searches at Crown last Wednesday so the recorder made it into the meeting.

This sort of rule simply cannot be respected given that webcasting with an archive is now standard practice. Strangely, it is media and especially broadcast companies which are the slowest to open themselves up. Austar's 2009 AGM was the first time an Australian media company ever video cast its AGM and this only happened after I cheekily promised not to attend if they applied some of their core broadcasting skills to the AGM.

Anyway, here is the full breakdown of the bootleg audio from James Packer's two AGMs last Wednesday:

Opening salvo: response to James' pleas on problem gambling, overall financial performance and US write-downs
Was good to label Woolies disgraceful for pokies policies in the clubs and pubs, a contrast with James' claims about Crown.

James Packer defends board processes during the US casino splurge?
Basically said the same processes happened with all the good deals over the years as well.

Chris Corrigan defends board processes and takes shares of blame
Was very encouraging to get a credible independent director defending the decision-making processes.

Do you have any leverage over your personal stake, James?
Didn't really answer the question but claimed to be very fortunate and in a good place financially.

Defending Macquarie and UBS as new Crown director Ben Brazil declines to engage
James defends his association with UBS, Macquarie and investment bankers more generally

Let's hope this isn't your last day of AGMs, James
Claimed I was looking for a headline suggesting James was going to take Crown private.

Full version of direct exchanges with James Packer

Finally, click here for the audio highlights from the 2008 Crown AGM.

Consolidated Media Holdings audio highlights

We were the sole questioner at the CMH AGM and the full exchanges have been packaged up in this single audio file whilst the individual debates have been broken down into the following audio files:

Are we going to expand the 10% buy-back?
It took a while, and some prodding from James Packer, for chairman John Alexander to explain that any more than 20% would require shareholder approval.

Explain how the pre-emptive rights work with Foxtel and Fox Sports
John Alexander went on the record saying Stokes could buy CMH and there would be nothing Rupert Murdoch could do to stop it. Wonder if the Sun King caught up with Stokes during his whirlwind visit Down Under this weekend.

What could Telstra break up mean for Foxtel?
JA fudged it and basically said they were watching with interest. Will try again at Telstra AGM on Wednesday.

Can Packer keep creeping up CMH register under standstill agreement with Seven?
Absolutely they can, so stand by for James Packer to be through 50% by early next year.

How are we getting on with the Seven directors given James' recent David Leckie spray?
The most quotable quote of the meeting with JA saying was most cordial board meeting he'd ever attended.

Hitting Seven's Peter Gammell for unfair Today Tonight attacks on James Packer
James Packer visibly bowed and shook his head with this one but Gammell didn't bite and JA said it was a matter for Seven AGM.

Seven's conflicts, why not Kerry and drawing a blank with Ryan Stokes
Second try to get a word from a Seven director but to no avail, although JA did say the decision not to appoint Kerry was Seven's.

Getting Chris Corrigan to pledge his independence
Having got some thoughtful comments at Crown AGM, we got some more from Australia's most famous wharfies buster at CMH.

Chris Mackay pledges independence and exchange with Packer over board numbers

Commending the remuneration report of a post box company with 5 staff
An interesting exchange about relative board numbers with James eventually rejecting JA's line that he's only got three reps on board.

Finally, click here for the audio highlights from the 2008 Consolidated Media AGM, which was a personal favourite, especially the question asking directors to raise their hand if they'd read Gerald Stone's book Who Killed Channel Nine?

Only Chris Mackay obliged. Was going to do the same with Paul Barry's book this year but wimped it because James was sounding pretty fragile and also gave a very thorough presentation, which deserved to be treated responsibly.

Serving it up to Transurban

The annoying thing about the big remuneration protests so far this season has been that the likes of Qantas, Bendigo, United Group and Downer EDI haven't received an appropriate dressing down from the floor.

Well that all changed on Tuesday when the ASA had their heaviest hitter, John Curry, serving it up to the Transurban board.

I backed John up on the remuneration report and also got going on a range of other issues, most notably the ongoing role of ABC Learning chairman David Ryan as chairman of the tollroad giant. Anyway, have a listen to these edited audio highlights taken from the webcast that was made available to the outside world:

Explain the ABC Learning baggage, Mr Chairman
A solid follow up to last year's heavying but still this turkey soldiers on regardless.

Our comments on the remuneration report
Why not show us the proxies and explain why the performance bonuses weren't based on earnings per share.

Giving former Toll finance director Neil Chatfield some grief
The Toll AGM was a quiet affair this year but the bloke at the heart of last year's controversy gets reminded of his past.

Backing Bill Clinton's former Transport Secretary for the board
After the longest campaign speech in the history of Australian public company AGMs, it was good to engage this American heavy hitter, whilst subtlely encouraging him to move on chairman David Ryan.

Isn't it time to get out of Bermuda?
Hilarious to hear the ABC Learning chairman defending the use of tax havens. This is a Macquarie legacy that Transurban should clean up.

If raising capital again, don't shaft us retail investors
I got it wrong on the lack of an SPP, but always good to make the point about treatment of retail in capital raisings.

The detail of what happened at Transurban was summed up in this 2000-word piece for Fairfax Media's www.businessday.com.au site.

Are we reaching a tipping point on the pokies?

Does anyone else sense we are close to reaching a tipping point on the pokies?

The James Packer presentation at Crown's AGM last week was certainly very defensive on the whole question of problem gambling and we also saw Woolworths obfuscating away in its reply to the S249P statement that has been sent to all its shareholders ahead of the November 26 AGM.

The most disingenuous line from Woolies chairman James Strong was as follows:

"We understand that for a small minority of people, liquor and gambling can have the potential to cause harm. However, for the vast majority, these are enjoyed as recreational activities."

The Productivity Commission has once again just come out and declared that several hundred thousand Australians are regarded as problem gamblers and we all know that suburban pokies are the biggest problem in the nation with the highest per capita gambling spend in the world.

James Packer was absolutely right to differentiate Crown as a destination tourism venue that also attracts huge export income for the nation through the $470 million lost by visiting high rollers in 2008-09. Packer also targeted Woolworths by declaring Crown was "fundamentally different from many pubs and clubs".

Packer was clearly pleased that the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation declared that "Crown Melbourne's responsible gambling program is among the best in the world".

There is no way any regulator would say that about Woolworths and its 12,000 pokies across the country because the retailing giant takes a lowest common denominator approach, doing only the absolute bare minimum as required by the laws of each state.

Whilst rival Wesfarmers has committed to clean up its act and attempt to match the recent national standards, Woolworths is dragging its feet as the last recalcitrant. Amazingly, Australia's biggest media company, Fairfax, now thinks it is appropriate to install the man who drove Woolies into the awful pokies business, Roger Corbett, as its new chairman.

Check out Paul Bendat's excellent pokieact.org website for more on Woolies.

Also, listen to the opening salvo from Crown's AGM where Woolies was labelled "disgraceful".

Pushing the retail shareholder agenda on capital raisings at AGMs

After an extraordinary year of almost $100 billion in capital raisings, the hottest issue this AGM season for your correspondent is the way retail shareholders have been massively diluted at the expense of institutions.

We raised the issue forcefully at both the Pacific Brands and Asciano AGMs last month.

Have a listen to the way PacBrands chairman James Mackenzie twice didn't answer the question as to why the company imposed a cap on the amount of extra shares retail shareholders could buy to take up the shortfall.

And listen to the detailed debate with the now departed Asciano chairman Tim Poole about why the company capped its recent share purchase plan at just $100 million and refused to increase it after receiving almost $300 million in applications.

Transurban was also warned to treat shareholders fairly if they raise capital, sparking a whole separate article in The AFR last Wednesday.

Finally, we also fired off a warning shot to Paperlinx on October 22. Chairman David Meiklejohn did promise that the video of the meeting would be made available on the company's website, but 9 days later we're still waiting. Click here to see where it will hopefully appear shortly.

We've put together a separate article with links to all the audio exchanges about capital raisings over the past year.

The AFR goes missing in action on latest Macquarie rip-offs

Michael Pascoe had a good strong column for the Fairfax websites about Macquarie Group's outrageous fee heist proposal in the break-up of global tollroad giant Macquarie Infrastructure Group, but most of the rest of the media seemed to miss the devil in the detail.

When the dust finally settles, Macquarie will have pocketed well north of $3 billion in fees putting together and then dis-assembling the world's biggest ever pile of infrastructure assets. Sadly, investors in many of the funds haven't had the same happy experience.

The SMH's business editor Michael West has long been a critic of Macquarie and was even sued when at The Australian for his Walkley winning piece "Mine Shaft" on the Beaconsfield goldmine in Tasmania.

Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the best read on Saturday was this piece on Macquarie's unravelling listed infrastructure model in The SMH by Stuart Washington and Michael Evans.

The Australian went a bit soft on Macquarie on Saturday, but at least John Durie unloaded earlier in the week about the poison pill arrangements in the proposed internalisation of management at Macquarie Media.

When it comes to holding the Millionaire Factory to account, The AFR has been the most disappointing outlet of all. Presumably, it values being on the Macquarie drip so much that a converted attack on all these conflicts, poison pills, fee heists and poor returns is just not worth contemplating.

Audio highlights from 2009 Pacific Brands AGM

We enjoyed plenty of lively debate at the Pacific Brands AGM on October 20, including extracting the key disclosure that the foreign exchange hedge book was $45 million out of the money.

It was also good to put the pressure on the PacBrands board for the way they limited so-called "overs" in the retail component of their capital raising earlier this year, thereby ensuring substantial value was transferred from retail to institutional investors. Here are all the edited highlights:

Explain the $45m hedging loss and have redundancy costs blown out?
The poor bloke before tried three times to get an answer on the hedging but at least the number finally emerged.

Why wasn't your capital raising renounceable for retail investors?
Why did you shaft retail investors by restricting applications for the shortfall?

Did the unions inflict much brand or financial damage with their big campaign
CEO Sue Morphett said the company's best brand, Bonds, only suffered a blip for a week or two during the union campaign.

Tackling the secretive billionaires who run plumbing giant Reece

Reece Australia is one of the great unsung success stories on the ASX, but we discovered at last year's lightening fast AGM that executive chairman Alan Wilson is no fan of corporate governance or public debate.

Alas, Alan's son Peter seems to be coming into his own as the new CEO and this year's AGM featured the first ever power point presentation by the company for investors. Wow! Here are all the edited audio highlights:

What is the sensitivity of our earnings around the dollar and is there any hedging in place?
Very cagey and gave little away on issues such as percentage of products coming from China.

Tell us about the board review process?
It was done by the executive chairman Alan Wilson, of course.

Will Bruce Wilson serve a full term and is there any transition in place?
The older generation represented by the three Wilson brothers over 60 are showing no signs of withdrawing.

Does Ron Pitcher have any type of association with the auditor?
Never heard a director refer to being a Christian and having a higher authority before, so have a listen.

Remuneration report debate

Why bother with Computershare and do you service second biggest shareholder Perpetual?
Perpetual just rings up the executive chairman but was amusing that a Perpetual rep asked the next question.

Giving Tim Poole a nice send off at Asciano

The Asciano AGM on October 23 was definitely the most cantankerous I've attended so far this season, with plenty of gripes from small shareholders. Here are the audio highlights from the meeting where Tim Poole was farewelled as chairman after a hellish three year ride.

Why didn't you accept more than the $100 million from the SPP?
This was one of the most detailed and interesting debates on retail scale back and placements we've ever had at AGM. Tim Poole was only able to make his claims about equality of treatment because retail participation was so surprisingly low.

Speaking in favour of Malcolm Broomhead?
After earlier discovering the new chairman is on $520,000 it was very enlightening to hear him talk about the company and also give Tim Poole an appropriately positive send-off.

The body language between CEO Mark Rowsthorn and his new chairman Malcolm Broomhead didn't appear too flash. I suspect Rowsthorn is struggling to come to terms with being diluted down to a 4% shareholding and presented with a more conventional, larger and independent board to deal with.

Far less fireworks at Toll AGM in 2009

The most dramatic AGM we attended last year was Toll Holdings where the scandalous $55 million cash buy-out of worthless executive options as part of the Asciano de-merger caused quite a stink and another big 40%-plus vote against the remuneration report.

In case you missed it, listen to the audio, read the special edition and check out the media coverage at the time.

We didn't make it to this year's AGM which was all done and dusted in 60 minutes last Thursday with no questions from the floor on the remuneration report which was passed with 86% in favour.

That's not quite as strong a mandate as CEO Paul Little implied in this story on Lateline Business but he certainly would have preferred it to Neal Woolrich's equivalent story last year.

Armed with the key RiskMetrics report detailing the huge pay scandal, last year was the AGM equivalent of a drive buy shooting. This year we got 40 minutes of formal presentation and then just 20 minutes to deal with formal business.

I would love to have been there but was instead attending my first audit committee meeting of the Manningham Centre Association, which operates a nursing home and delivers other components of our council's aged care services.

Robert O'Brien from the Australian Shareholders' Association congratulated Paul Little for good performance during a tough period and an employee got up to ask unimpressive chairman Ray Horsborough why he didn't thank employees. He conceded he should have.

Apart from that it was a very uneventful affair.

Putting the pressure on Transurban's David Ryan

Watch this video commentary about Transurban chairman David Ryan, BrisConnections chairman Trevor Rowe and ASX chairman David Gonski from this speech to superannuation trustees at the Super Partners "Day of Confrontation" at Docklands on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.




Donate to help keep this free service (plus pay for a few flights to AGMs)

The Mayne Report costs about $70,000 a year to run (assuming I don't get paid a salary) and we moved to a free model in June, after struggling along seeking subscriptions for the first 21 months as we racked up almost $200,000 in losses.

However, it has been nice to receive almost $3000 worth of donations over the past two months and we're hoping this new model can help cover some of the start-up losses and ongoing operating expenses.

Thank you all for generously contributing and we've put together this honour roll for those who have donated which includes the following entries since the last edition:

October 28
Don: donated $100

October 27
Gae: donated $40

October 21
Ran: donated $10
Robyn: donated $100
Iain: donated $20

October 20
Rodney: donated $50

If you fancy giving us a hand, just click on the image below:




More 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 also some amusing animations. Check out some of his latest offerings through the edition:







Tales from the talk circuit and latest feedback

After a recent flurry of speaking gigs, the talk circuit was a little quieter last week, although we did get a nice piece of feedback from the organiser after a recent two day capital raisings conference in Sydney where I did a keynote, a panel and then stayed for most of the conference firing sometimes awkward questions at the various speakers.

For instance, it was fun asking the two presenters from rating agency Fitch why they were still in business after the GFC. The lady replied by quoting her CEO's recent testimony in Washington that "not all rating agencies are the same".

Anyway, here's the formal feedback from the conference:

From: Shivangi
Sent: Wednesday, 21 October 2009 2:53 PM
To: 'Stephen'
Subject: Feedback from Capital Raising Summit

Dear Stephen ,

I am writing to thank you for taking time out to make a presentation at the Capital Raising Summit last week. I also wanted to share some of the excellent feedback you received from delegates – you received an average rating of 8/10.

Some comments from delegates include:

“different take – very well researched”
“Great alternative perspective”
“Great to hear the investor perspective”
“Lively & informative”
“Informative and currently very topical”

I look forward to working with you again.

Best Regards,
Shivangi
Senior Conference Producer

Maverick Litigants book launch

Simon Smith is one of Australia's real goers when it comes to consumer rights and he's also no slouch on governance, as this recent feature in The Age about the lack of accountability at Wesley College demonstrates.

Anway, the lawyer, former insurance executive, public servant and academic has just launched a book on maverick litigants which is well worth a read. Click on the image below to secure your copy:



Latest Manningham Council audio

The City of Manningham held a public council meeting on September 29 and the last edition included some of the edited audio files. However, we missed four contributions from the assets and engineering section which are at the top of this now completed offering below:

Bamfield Close special rates drainage proposal

Backing the green councillor David Ellis on banning logging in catchments

Full debate on new stormwater management plan for hilly, partly unanswered Manningham

Pressuring Melbourne Water to build path for Brindy Crescent residents

Endorsing fire management plan

Speaking in favour of public exhibition of Matthews property re-zoning proposal

Endorsing emissions targets

Closing debate on Wonga Park development proposal which went down 5-4 - rest of debate

Should we ban grog at big festivals?

Tight 5-4 vote to save fireworks at carols by candlelight

Full contentious debate on Kiwanis raffle – Stephen comments

State legislation banning political staffers

Last Tuesday's Manningham Council meeting

Meanwhile, we had another public council meeting last Tuesday which was one of our shortest of the year and more cordial than normal in terms of the way debate was handled.

The gallery was full at the start given that more than 200 residents in Wonga Park objected to a new mobile phone tower for the combined Optus-Vodafone networks.

The scale of community opposition was indeed very strong, but the Optus executives presented convincingly at the submitters meeting the night before and with the Country Fire Authority backing the tower in this heavily wooded part of the municipality, it would have been a brave council to knock it back given mobile phone coverage is critical during the fire season.

That said, councillors La Vella and Ellis voted against but it was passed 7-2.

The whole evening was unusual because no officer recommendation was rolled, all the planning items sailed through and the only disagreeable note came when Manningham's first Green councillor, David Ellis, had a second go at getting up a resolution opposing logging in water catchments.

I was happy to support it but it went down 5-4 with Mayor Pick, deputy mayor Chua and councillors Reid, McMillan and Downie voting against.

The three Labor members all voted against with plenty of talk about loggers jobs. Could this be just one small manifestation of the unhealthy influence that the CFMEU has on the Labor Party when it comes to environmental issues?

The CFMEU is Australia's richest union with more than $100 million in net assets, so it has plenty of resources to throw at campaigns and donations to give the Labor Party in an attempt to protect the jobs of its members, some of whom clear fell old growth forests in water catchments and also help dig up some of the world's dirtiest brown coal mines in the La Trobe Valley.

Most of our neighbouring councils have passed a similar resolution so fingers crossed we might get one over the line some time in 2010. After all, a lack of water in Manningham is a critical issue for our constituents - arguably more so than the jobs of loggers in far flung municipalities, especialling considering that the logging licences in Victorian catchment areas have been banked rather than utilised over the past couple of years.

Manningham councillor helps expose Alcoa subsidies

Graeme McMillan is a fellow councillor on the City of Manningham and it was great to see him quoted in The Age recently after assisting with a major expose into the outrageous $4.5 billion worth of subsidies paid to Alcoa for its Portland and Point Henry aluminium smelters.

The key quotes were as follows:

With the help of Melbourne accountant Graeme McMillan, The Age has unravelled the ongoing subsidy mystery, primarily through analysing the obscure financial reports of the SECV, as well as reports by the Auditor-General. Mr McMillan, a public finance specialist, said the most glaring problem with the Alcoa deal was lack of public transparency. ''The little detail that is published is hidden away in the SECV shell where it's been almost impossible to dig it out.''

He called on the Government to publish a detailed, plain-English explanation of the status of subsidies, especially if it is considering further negotiations over electricity contracts with Alcoa.

The original smelter contracts remain strictly confidential, with the SECV refusing The Age access under freedom of information.

Alcoa has long denied that its contracts amount to a subsidy, insisting that it has a ''commercial contract'' with the Government. It also refused to discuss recent meetings with the Government about the future of Portland and Point Henry.

State Treasurer John Lenders has refused repeated requests over many weeks for an interview about the smelters. In a short statement a spokesman said the Government and Alcoa were in ''commercially sensitive'' negotiations.

Councillor McMillan should come along to the Alumina AGM next year and fire off some of his customary tough questions about the secretive power deal, given it owns a minority interest in both of the heavily subsidised Alcoa run facilities.

Have a listen to the campaign speech when I unsuccessfully ran for the Alumina board at the 2008 AGM.

Latest updated lists: government bonds on issue

We love a good list at The Mayne Report and have been tracking all federal debt issues since Kevin Rudd decided to go on a Whitlam-esque spending spree last year.

This list tracks all bond and treasury note issues by the Rudd Government since it was elected in November 2007. There has now been more than $40 billion raised since the second stimulus package was unveiled on February 3. The latest are as follows and you'll note that interest rates are well in excess of the 4% assumed in the budget papers:

Friday, October 30, 2009: $700m tender of 6 year bonds expiring in April 2015 were sold for an average yield of 5.45% and was 2.9 times over-subscribed.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009: $500m tender of 5 year bonds expiring in June 2014 were sold for an average yield of 5.5% and was 3.8 times over-subscribed.

Friday, October 23, 2009: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in April 2012 were sold for an average yield of 5.25% and was 4.2 times over-subscribed.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009: $500m tender of 11 year bonds expiring in April 2020 were sold for an average yield of 5.6% and was 4 times over-subscribed.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009: $700m tender of 8 year bonds expiring in February 2017 were sold for an average yield of 5.3% and was 2.4 times over-subscribed.

Capital raising profits slow in October

Check out this complete chronological list of all capital raising plays in 2009 and at the bottom is a list of the 17 or so upcoming offers.

There's also this version ranking the top 60-plus plays since January. For the latest shuffles in our ridiculously large tiny share portfolio, check out all trades in 2009 plus the full portfolio of 745 holdings worth just $56,136 on Friday. The unrealised losses currently stand at $10,022 and the average holding is only worth $75, so it would hardly be worth liquidating the portfolio given the average brokerage of $20.

That said, all these holdings present a wide range of capital raising offers and it has been a good year playing the margins in a rising market. However, October was our slowest month since the run began in March as these monthly breakdowns demonstrate:

January: broke even
February: broke even
March: $10,170 profit
April: $36,996 profit
May: $31,639 profit
June: $86,600 profit
July: $28,293 profit
August: $12,758 profit
September: $32,229 profit
October: $8901 so far

That looks like a big windfall, but there have also been more than $100,000 in crystallised losses plus more than $40,000 in financing and under-writing costs associated with these plays.

Here are the results of all capital raising plays since the last edition:

October 26:
Amadeus Energy: $5000 into $5000 SPP at 26c and exited at 30c for gain of $770.

October 23
Watpac: $30,000 into three $15,000 SPPs at $1.25 but scaled back to 2110 shares. Exited for $400 profit.
Forest Enterprises Australia: $10,000 into 1-for-1 offer at 7.5c with no scale back of extras. Exited for $300 profit.

October 21
Real Estate Capital Partners: $15,000 into SPP at 14.92c. 15% scale back and exited at 16.5c for gain of $1360.

October 20
CMA Corp: $15,000 into SPP at 10c but exited for average 9.4c to lose $900.
Redflex Holdings: $10,000 into 1-for-12 entitlement offer at $2.04 but scaled back to virtually nothing.

Today we're hoping to exit AWB and Bass Oil for a solid gain and all will be updated on our popular capital raising plays list.

Meanwhile, the current plays not ending today are as follows:

Boart Longyear: $30,000 into two $15,000 SPPs at 27c which closed October 23 and trades November 5.