Defending councillors, BHP board, political donations, AWB payments, classic Cornwall, QBE to webcast, traffic doubles, Rich List and much more
February 9, 2010
Dear Readers,
a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month - as the kids have been saying on the first day back at school.
And a belated email edition of The Mayne Report, too. It's our first since the January 6 missive which was dispatched from the wonderful RACV Royal Pines resort on the Gold Coast whilst the rest of the family were off enjoying Dreamworld and White Water World, an asset which has only recently escaped the clutches of those gouging Macquarie Leisure management fees.
That's a four week gap between editions and in 2010 we're looking at producing bumper monthly editions with the occasional extra. The coverage will focus on corporate governance, shareholder activism, local government and some politics, given there will be Victorian and federal elections this year.
We've added a few Victorian councillors to our 7000-strong the email list in the hope they'll be interested in our local government coverage but in light of ComSec being fined $55,000 for spamming today, just click here if you don't wish to receive these very occasional emails.
And speaking of councillors, we're cranked up this new list tracking "councillors in parliament". There are already 79 entries but I suspect it will finish up closer to 200 given we'll take it all the way back to 1970 and it's a well worn path. Send your entries to Stephen@maynereport.com.
Whilst on the road in NSW it was amusing to see The Daily Telegraph pull out that predictable splash on January 13 about overpaid councillors allegedly hooking into excessive expense claims. "More perks than pay", screamed the page one headline, following by the following two paragraphs on page one:
Greedy councillors are dipping in to the public purse, in some cases spending more on expenses than they earn in wages. While the public forks out for ever-increasing rates, councillors are spending on everything from overseas trips to phones, childcare and souvenirs, a Daily Telegraph investigation revealed.
Cripes, councillors in NSW aren't even allowed to make phone calls, it seems.
I should have reworked the following letter which was sent to the Herald Sun last year, but somehow didn't make it onto the letters page:
From: Stephen [mailto:stephen@maynereport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 29 September 2009 1:16 PM
To: 'hsletters@heraldsun.com.au'
Subject: response to attack on council CEOs
“It's nice for some” screamed the Herald Sun's front page on Tuesday in what was a very unfair attack on council CEO pay packets.
I've only been a councillor at Manningham since last November and my experience is that our executive team are highly competent and modestly paid as they steer a complex organisation that delivers 100-plus services with more than $1 billion in assets, 650 staff and annual revenues approaching $100 million.
Besides, all 79 council CEOs in Victoria were collectively paid less than the $US20.8 million Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman and largest shareholder in the company which publishes the Herald Sun, received in 2008-09. Talk about people in glass houses. And don't forget that council CEOs have the very tough job of dealing with us councillors.
Stephen Mayne
City of Manninghan councillor
Templestowe
Why BHP-Billiton chairman Don Argus shouldn't have got Australia's highest honor
There is rarely critical analysis of the annual gongs dished out on Australia Day and the Queen's Birthday, although this effort in Crikey a few years back listing questionable AC awards to business figures was a rare example.
We also decided to provide an unusual critique in the regular chat with Lindy Burns on 774 ABC Melbourne last Wednesday from the Australian Open whilst Roger Federer was being carved up by Nikolay Davydenko in the first set of his quarter final.
The gong to Toll Holdings CEO Paul Little was questioned given the company's outrageous pay practices at the time of the Asciano demerger and we pointed out that Mark Johnson's citation should have referred to him being a co-founder of Macquarie Group. Similarly, James Fairfax should have been praised for his business acumen in selling out to his brother at about $4 a share before the GFC struck.
However, the main criticism was levelled at BHP-Billiton's chairman Don Argus, who was upgraded from an AO to an AC.
After 10 years dominating proceedings at BHP-Billiton, last Friday afternoon Argus came up with two final board appointments before he departs the scene in a few weeks.
And the so-called patriotic national champion advocate has even managed to finally back a couple of Australians in former North and Orica CEO Malcolm Broomhead and Carolyn Hewson, the former wife of the rather tattered John Hewson.
We've done a comprehensive 1800-word piece on the Argus record and BHP's rather unAustralian board structure for the Fairfax websites today and a few emails have been coming in given the strong views proferred on a range of issues. Take the time to check it out if you get a chance as there's a fair bit of meat in there.
A deluge of political donations figures finds Aunty asleep at the wheel
The annual deluge of political donations data landed at 9am this morning so check out this story in today's Crikey after a quick review of the figures. There will hopefully be plenty of coverage throughout the media over the week as this issue tends to get under-reported every year.
Amazingly, the ABC decided this was a non-story on The World Today, PM, the 7pm TV news and The 7.30 Report. It may be complex and involve a fair bit of number crunching but campaign finance disclosure is at the heart of any democracy. It is only a story one day each year under a ridiculous disclosure laws but the national broadcaster can't even give it the exposure it deserves. Sad indeed.
Campaign finance reform has been a passion of mine for the best part of a decade. Indeed, the following motion is on the agenda for tomorrow night's Manningham City Council meeting. Specifically, have a look at item 14.4 which reads as follows:
14.4 Notice of Motion by Councillor Mayne (NOM No. 4/2010)
I hereby give Notice of Motion for the February 2, 2010 Council Meeting as follows:
MOTION
“That in the interests of transparency and good use of technology, Manningham City Council resolves to publish on its website the campaign donations returns lodged by Councillors elected at the 2008 election and in all future elections until resolved otherwise.”
This will hopefully get approved with the minimum of fuss given that all the returns are public documents already and the motion just improves the visibility.
Finally, here are a few links to past coverage of campaign finance issues in Crikey, showing what a rich vein of material it can throw up:
Assessing the figures and coverage from 2006-07
Labor and its colourful Chinese benefactors
Did Dick Pratt's donations influence Costello's cartel laws backflip?
Stars align for campaign finance reform
NSW mafia stains Labor and Liberal alike
John Durie's unfair attack on Bob Browning
John Durie had an interesting column about excessive CEO payouts in The Australian on January 19, but on the way through he unfairly maligned former Alinta CEO Bob Browning claiming that some investors had "lost the lot" if they accepted Babcock & Brown paper in the $13 billion 2007 takeover shoot out with Macquarie.
I knocked up this Crikey story pointing out the facts - most importantly that shareholders received more than $9 a share in cash from the Singapore Government - hoping that John would see the light and correct the record.
Alas, it wasn't to be so readers of The Australian might still believe that investors who paid only $2.25 a share to the WA Government in the 2000 Alinta float have done badly, when truth be known they made a 500% plus return. That's hardly a case of losing everything.
The exchange even produced some private emails from both Durie and Bob Browning but unfortunately they can't be shared with you.
Meanwhile, the phoenix has risen again now that Babcock & Brown Power has changed its name to Alinta Energy and we've booked flights to attend the February 22 EGM in Sydney to catch up with some old sparring partners.
Cornwall sums up the Mad Monk and his mentor
Payments to AWB directors still running hot
Peter Hemphill, the former Hobsons Bay mayor who is now back as a full-time reporter on The Weekly Times, has been doing a great job covering the on-going saga over controversial payments to former executives and directors at AWB.
After we first publically raised these retirement payments to former directors at the December 23 AGM, Hemphill has kept the pressure on as follows:
AWB director claims was offered inducement - Dec 30 front page story on farmer director's bombshell.
AWB grower backlash - Dec 30 account of AGM, complete with picture of yours truly in action trying to dress like a farmer.
Furore over AWB bribe claim - Jan 5 reaction to previous week's page one story.
AWB's Geneva contention - Jan 6 story on huge pay packet for AWB's mysterious man in Geneva.
AWB's $11 million man - Jan 11 story revealing that Thierry Dubois was actually paid $11 million in 2007-08.
This last story was a really good get because it showed how AWB attempted to fudge the figures by shifting some of last year's payout to the former Geneva boss into the previous year. The only comparable situation to this I'm aware of is the way former Foster's chairman Nobby Clark agreed to pay then CEO Peter Bartels $8 million to leave in 1992, but it was staggered over 4 years and therefore never disclosed in one hit. This pre-dated the better disclosure of pay packets back then we still only had bands without names attached.
The funniest thing about all of this tough coverage is that AWB and Qantas flew Peter Hemphill around the world in 2000 after naming him Australia's best grains reporter. The press release is still available here on the AWB website.
Rupert and the royals
Prince William had a hugely successful visit Down Under and our cartoonist Mark Cornwall does enjoy poking fun at those royal-hating Murdochs.
Mayne Report traffic doubles in 2009
Thanks to your loyal patronage The Mayne Report doubled its audience in 2009.
Annual page views jumped from 493,439 in 2008 to 1.14 million in 2009. Unique visitors also more than doubled from 313,725 in 2008 to 691,084 in 2009.
All we need to do now is start selling some advertising - or get some agent or media company to take on that role - and we might actually generate some revenue from all this freely available content.
The most active time were the months from July through to October which coincided with the end of year reports season, our capital raising plays, the 2009 AGM season and this series of popular articles for the Fairfax Media websites.
Our top three articles viewed in 2009 were as follows:
Capital raising plays since Jan 2009
The Mayne Report Rich List
All share transactions in 2009
It just goes to show that readers are particularly interested in whose got the money and how to make money on the sharemarket.
Below is an interesting breakdown of the most popular Mayne Report referrers for the year:
Google - 75,005
Fairfax - 43,948
Direct - 39,822
Twitter - 1,763
Crikey 1,345
If you haven't already, tune-in to our audio and video podcasts. Our audio podcasts deliver lively exchanges from AGMs and all our radio appearances. Additionally the video podcasts offer different episodes from The Mayne Report video blog and some television spots, usually from Sky's Business View program.
Furthermore, you can follow The Mayne Report on twitter or add our RSS feed to your personal reader for your favorite articles delivered the way you want it.
Donate to help fund our activism
Finally, don't forget that The Mayne Report is a free service which costs almost $100,000 a year to run and relies partly on donations to survive.
Thanks to everyone who has chipped in a collective $5000 worth of donations over the past few months and you can check out their details on this honour board.
It was really nice to get back from a three week driving holiday to Queensland and receive a $500 cheque from the same lovely old lady from Toorak who once handed over a cheque whilst I was on the feet in full flight at the microphone during the 2008 Commonwealth Bank AGM.
If you fancy giving us a hand to help fund our activism and keep The Mayne Report going as a free service, just click on the image below:
Raising funds to annoy Rupert in New York
It has been two years since we've travelled to New York and annoyed Rupert Murdoch at a News Corp AGM so come October we might do a special donations push to fund that particular $5000 indulgence, as the better half describes it. There's so much fascinating new material to cover with Rupert, including the whole newspaper paywall issue and this latest $US500 million legal settlement with Valassis which surprisingly left the shares higher today, despite the overall market being down.
Recalculating 300 valuations on The Mayne Report Rich List
Save for claiming Griffin Coal boss Ric Stowe was worth $720 million in 2009, BRW magazine generally does a good job with its various Australian Rich Lists but we've broadened their efforts to track any Australian who has ever been worth more than $10 million. We've got more than 1400 names with those who've fallen back below $10 million now italicised.
Our researcher and multi-media producer Shane Marden spent many hours in January updating the list to reflect moving share prices. There were more than 300 entries which were amended and what follows are some of the notable rises and falls:
Richard Uechtritz: the CEO of booming retailer JB Hi-Fi who owns about 3m shares or 2.94% of the company. The stock bottomed at $7 in December 2008 and has kept climbing against the trend to $21 and in early 2010 his stake is valued at more than $60 million.
William Phillips: owns more than 14.6m shares in Medusa Mining. The stock bottomed at 40c in December 2008 but has since risen to a significant peak of over $3 in early 2010 valuing his stake at more than $43 million.
Andrew Forrest: the Perth entrepreneur is now arguably Australia's richest man through his 30% stake or 930m shares in Fortescue Metals Group. The stock peaked at almost $12.80 in July 2008, bottomed at $1.20 in December 2008 and recovered back to $4.60 as of January 2010 valuing his stake at about $4.2 billion - down from a peak of nearly $12 billion.
Hans Mende: an executive director of Felix Resources and recently floated Whitehaven Coal, his share holdings are 37.6 million with Felix and 81 million with Whitehaven. His combined holdings peaked his wealth at more than $1.2 billion in June/July 2008, bottomed out in December 2008 down to more than $257 million and recovered by early 2010 to be worth more than $920 million.
Ken Tregonning: managing director of AED Oil, owns about 27m shares. The stock peaked at almost $11.50 in October 2007 when he was worth more than $270 million and in early 2010 was around 62c which values his stake at $16.7 million.
Plus some new entries and updates courtesy of BRW
BRW recently released an interesting edition tracking the earnings of our top sports stars so we've got a few of them in this latest batch of new and updated entries:
Robert Allenby: having already established himself as one of Australia's most successful golfers, he is still on the improve. In 2009 he had a very successful year pulling in nearly $5 million.
Marcus Ambrose: kicking goals in the lucrative California-based US NASCAR series which led to his best year of earnings in 2009 at more than $5.4 million.
Andrew Bogut: professional basketballer in the NBA playing with the Milwaukee Bucks. Originally from Melbourne, he moved to the US to play for the University of Utah as a teenager. In 2009 he signed a $60 million five-year contract extension.
Tim Cahill: one of Australia's best football exports, in 2009 he starred for Everton in the English Premier League which earned him just under $5 million for the year.
Hoss and Gillian Heinrich: owners of Military Rose who streeted her rivals to win Queensland's richest horse race - the $2 million Magic Millions. The construction boss and former chairman of The Gold Coast Turf Club owns the Heinrich Bloodstock business with his trainer wife Gillian and they have been the main buyers of yearlings in recent years.
Arthur Hood: departed as CEO of Lihir Gold in early 2010 and walked away with a $15 million golden handshake, comprising a termination payment of $2.3 million, a $1.3 million cash payment in lieu of rights that would be been awarded under his full-term contract, plus 3.5 million shares that were previously awarded and are worth more than $10 million.
Harry Kewell: arguably Australia's best-known soccer player of his generation who has made tens of millions playing in the English Premier League for the likes of Leeds and Liverpool. In 2009 he earned $9.5 million with Turkish club Galatasaray. The BRW claims $54 million.
Lucas Neill: another of Australia's top football exports. He has had a long career already but is still earning close to $5 million a year.
Geoff Ogilvy: a past winner of a prestigious major golf tournament, the US Open, he continues his success rising up the world rankings and expanding his wealth. His 2009 earnings were around $6.3 million.
O'Reilly family: run the legendary O'Reillys eco-tourism business in Lamington National Park show-casing arguably Australia's best remaining rain forest in the Gold Coast hinterland. Five brothers and three cousins were originally sold 800 acres to clear and farm in 1911 but over time they realised the fortune to be made from eco-tourism.
Ricky Ponting: one of Australia's all time best cricketers, and long time captain, with his Cricket Australia contract and lucrative sponsorship deals, he pulled in more than $4 million in 2009 alone.
Chad Reed: unheralded, he is an Australian Supercross champion with huge success in the US worth around $25 million. Earnings in 2009 were $8.8 million.
Casey Stoner: this Moto GP star has the second-biggest contract on the circuit which earned him $5 million in 2009 alone.
Craig Thompson: owner and managing director of Fremantle-based Seacorp shipping, and owner of the Mount Hallowell horse stud south of Perth, paid $700,000 in January 2010 for a broodmare to be the star of his stud.
John Upham: career publican who grew up near Warrnambool and in 2009 came out of retirement to buy the Lorne Hotel for almost $20 million.
Tiger, Obama and Oprah
Meanwhile, Cornwall has this take on a President and two exceedingly wealthy American entertainment stars:
Introducing the Cornwall shop
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing his satirical commentary to the Mayne Report since March 2009. The cartoons are now available to purchase and make a great gift. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now also six amusing animations. Check out some of his latest offerings throughout the edition:
QBE Insurance sees the light on AGM webcasting
After praising QBE Insurance at last year's AGM we then became mired in an unfortunate dispute after the company declined to broadcast the full debate on its website, limiting the archive to just the chairman and CEO addresses.
With such a great story to tell, this was a completely unnecessary step and finished with a promised board tilt if they didn't get with the program in 2010. The last three emails with general counsel Duncan Ramsay last April were as follows:
From: Duncan
Sent: 04/09/2009 1:35 PM
To: Stephen
Stephen, per our usual practice, the webcast has been abridged to concentrate on the addresses by the Chairman and CEO.
This is because they represent QBE's comments on last year and this year's outlook. It is also for reasons of time and cost. We excluded all the debate ie so not selective.
I am sure you can at least summarise the other discussion at the meeting for your father. I note there are AFR and SMH articles on the meeting. The webcast is hosted externally and we do not have a DVD nor is one planned.
Regards, Duncan Ramsay
___________________________________
From: stephen@maynereport.com
Sent: 04/09/2009 02:32 PM
To: Duncan
Duncan, this is a very simply issue. QBE should provide a record of the AGM for its shareholders. You have a complete record.
The chairman was asked at the AGM about webcasting and shareholders were told it would be available after the meeting. It is not.
The chairman made a number of comments about succession, investments and AIG's conduct which I believe were significant and should be made available to all shareholders and the broader market. Indeed, I just talked about all of these things on Sky's Business View program in the last hour.
Please don't make this difficult. I've been praising QBE in the media and want to do likewise in a comment piece I'll be writing for the Fairfax websites. However, without a full record of what was said, this is very difficult.
This is an issue I feel strongly about. Best practice is a full webcast. You don't see hansard in Parliament getting edited back.
As for comments representing QBE's position, surely everything the chairman said at the meeting represents QBE's position.
If you don't change your position, I will consider running for your board at next year's AGM on a platform that the company treat its small shareholders better and get with the program in terms of shareholder engagement.
Regards, Stephen Mayne
__________________________________
From: Duncan Ramsay
Sent: 04/09/2009 5:51 PM
To: Stephen
Stephen,
There has been wide coverage of the AGM in the print media, TV and internet, including of the commentary at the AGM.
I am not aware of any legal requirement or ASX Corporate Governance Council recommendation to provide a complete webcast of every minute of the AGM.
A webcast has been made available on the website, even if it does not meet your specific requirements. The presentation and release of information on our website is a matter for management.
Based on the feedback received from our retail shareholders at the AGM, they appear to be generally happy with the way in which the Board and management are running the company and the level of information they are receiving, e.g. please see the report on Lateline Business last night.
The AGM is open to be attended by all shareholders and/or their appointed proxies should they wish to attend and listen to all questions.
As to whether you choose to nominate for election is a matter for you.
Regards, Duncan
_________________________________
Fast forward 10 months and the tone has changed considerably, as usually happens when a board tilt is imminent. An initial email to the general counsel extracted that the AGM would be held on March 31 and then we had this exchange:
From Stephen to Duncan
Two other quick questions:
Will you be webcasting the full AGM this year?
How many business days before the AGM do you require an external board nomination?
Regards, Stephen
From: Duncan
Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 4:03 PM
To: Stephen
Stephen, we plan to webcast all the AGM live.
Afterwards, we plan to place a video of the Chairman's introduction, his address and CEO's address on the website.
In addition, we plan to provide an edited audio version of the questions and answers on the website.
By clause 76(c) of our constitution, at least 35 Business Days before the meeting for external board nominations.
Regards, Duncan
From: Stephen
Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 4:08 PM
To: Duncan Ramsay
Terrific, sounds like a positive step forward.
See you there, but I won't be nominating.
Regards, Stephen
So there you have it. QBE gets with the program and avoids a board tilt. Offering shareholders some directorial choice is something companies hate and they are usually prepared to move on small issues to avoid it.
Government bonds list and the great Rudd debt spree
We're all going to be noting the anniversary of the February 7 bushfires this week, but on Wednesday we should not forget the anniversary of the second Rudd stimulus package, which marked an incredible splurge of debt-funded public spending. Ever since then we've been tracking all bond and treasury note issues by the Rudd Government since it was elected in November 2007. There has now been more than $45 billion raised since the second stimulus package was unveiled 12 months ago. There was one in December 2007, 14 in 2008 and a staggering 100 in 2009. Below are the results so far in 2010 which have produced yields well above the 4% projected in the budget but no shortage of bidders:
Friday, January 29 , 2010: $500m tender of 10 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.41% and was 2.8 times over-subscribed.
Wednesday, January 27 , 2010: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in May 2013 were sold for an average yield of 4.92% and was 1.4 times over-subscribed.
Friday, January 22 , 2010: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in April 2012 were sold for an average yield of 4.66% and was 4.8 times over-subscribed.
Wednesday, January 20 , 2010: $500m tender of 11 year bonds expiring in April 2020 were sold for an average yield of 5.63% and was 2.5 times over-subscribed.
Friday, January 15 , 2010: $700m tender of 5 year bonds expiring in April 2015 were sold for an average yield of 5.38% and was 4.5 times over-subscribed.
Wednesday, January 13 , 2010: $500m tender of 10 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.49% and was 2.6 times over-subscribed.
The rather thin ASIC jail list
Is ASIC an effective corporate cop? You be the judge as this is the list of 349 people they have sent to jail since it was established in January 1991. There were only 19 incarcerations in 2008, and in 2009 we only reached 15, one of the lowest figures in years. So much for justice being served swiftly against all those wrong-doers exposed by the global financial crisis.
ASIC had a terrible run with its high profile cases in 2009 after embarrassing losses on One-Tel, AWB and Andrew Forrest, but the appeals are flying thick and fast and the government is boosting its coercive powers in areas such as insider trading so we should see the plod lift its jail rate in future years. Below are the last additions for 2009 as there is no jailing activity by ASIC yet for 2010:
11 December 2009 - Mr Darryl John Loane, of the Gold Coast Queensland, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment but will serve a minimum of 15 months. A former property developer, he dishonestly obtained a loan of $4,700,000 from Lawloan Mortgages Pty Ltd on or about 7 May 1999 for the development of Cove Resort Pty Ltd in the Whitsundays.
12 December 2009 - Mr Michael Cay, of Greenvale, Melbourne, was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court to four years imprisonment and must serve three years before he is eligible for parole. He was the operator of finance and mortgage broking firm, Jewel Financial Services, which is now in liquidation, and was guilty of obtaining property by deception and of one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
17 December 2009 - Mr Spartaco Fasciale of Moonee Ponds, Victoria, was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court to six years imprisonment and will serve a minimum of four and a half years. A former director of Fasciale Futures Trading, which was typical of a ponzi scheme, was charged with obtaining a financial advantage by deception, 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception and 14 counts of breaching directors' duties.
Mark Vaile's CBD Energy hooks us with SMS
The extraordinary run of capital raisings have slowed down considerably over summer and with the market in retreat we'll be doing well just to avoid any losses on the outstanding plays.
I've learnt before that you should always be wary of small companies which ring to sell marginal offers because it usually means they are desperate for the cash and the share price might tank once the offer closes.
And so it has been with CBD Energy, which is chaired by former deputy prime minister Mark Vaile and has the colourful former founder of Impulse Airlines, Gerry McGowan, as managing director.
McGowan was the snitch who dobbed in Rene Rivkin for insider trading in Qantas shares. Anyway, somehow McGowan's latest operation got hold of my mobile number and sent an SMS advising that an in-the-money $15,000 share purchase plan at 13c was due to close the next day.
Amidst the blizzard of paperwork associated with having more than 700 stocks in the portfolio, this was news to me but with the stock trading at 14-15c the cash was dutifully Bpayed across two weeks ago. The allotments were finally made today and the stock tanked to a low of 10.5c, suggesting a loss of up to $2000.
The usual policy of crystallising all profits and losses on the first day has been ditched and we're holding on in the hope it recovers.
After dropping $2200 in December, largely due to the recapitalised Babcock & Brown Infrastructure SPP, we returned a profit of $2350 in January but look like getting off to a bad start in February courtesy of CBD Energy. The full list of plays since January last year is available here.
Capital raising plays since the last edition:
January 7
Commonwealth Office: $10,000 into SPP at 91c and exited at 97c for gain of $650.
January 22
Mirabella Nickel: $10,000 into SPP at $2.30 and exited at $2.30 to break even.
January 27
Over Fifty Group: $15,000 into SPP at 72c or 10% discount to VWAP. Final price 64c and exited at 63.4c to lose $150.
Offers we're currently committed to
Breakaway Resources: $10,000 into 1-for-3 entitlement offer at 6c with overs. Closed on January 22 and trades February 3.
CBD Energy: $15,000 into SPP at 13c which closed January 20 and trades February 1.
Contango Microcap: $15,000 into SPP at 87c which closed January 22 and trades February 2.
Platinum Capital: $15,000 into SPP at 5% discount to VWAP which closed January 22 and trades February 3.
Total live applications: $55,000
More from Cornwall
All the recent share trades
Check out all the trades in 2009 and here's the January 18, 2010 snapshot of the world's biggest small portfolio of 722 holdings worth $69,225. The overall paper loss is $4,650 and average holding worth $96.
As for the trades since the last edition, they are as follows:
January 29
Ainsworth Game Technology: bought 3,000 at 17c
Rivercity Motorway: bought 2,128 at 23.5c
Tox Free Solutions: bought 218 at $2.30
Tribune Resources: bought 700 at 73c
January 27
Over Fifty Group: sold 23,480 at 63c
January 22
Dragon Mining: bought 5,000 at 10c
Mirabela Nickel: sold 4,363 at $2.30
January 21
Carbon Energy: bought 770 at 65c
Clinuval: bought 2000 at 25c
Gazal Corp: bought 400 at $1.25
January 11
Logicamms Ltd: bought 545 at 93c
January 7
Commonwealth Office: sold 10,990 at 97c
January 6
Clean Seas Tuna: sold 1,962 at 29.5c
More Cornwall - doesn't he love chipping Murdoch!
Chinese investment pours in
Chinese government investment will continue to be a major theme in Australia over 2010 and the mooted $1.5 billion offer for CSR's sugar business shows that Chinese food security is also a big theme to watch along with attempts to shore up resource security. Meanwhile, here is Cornwall's take:
From the press room: Crikey, 2GB, 774, The Drum
Crikey
Mayne digs some donations data dirt
Monday, 1 February 2010
Mayne: Bowen is right on Sons of Gwalia
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
John Durie's extraordinary Alinta takeover gaffe
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Radio
774 ABC Melbourne - regular spot with Lindy Burns, from the Australian Open on Jan 27.
774 ABC Melbourne - regular spot with Lindy Burns, from the Australian Open on Jan 20.
Fairfax
BHP: the big (semi-)Australian
November 11, 2009
Out-going BHP-Billiton chairman Don Argus has had a big couple of weeks.
Click the link below to get the latest radio and AGM audio
Mayne Report video blog
From the archives of The Mayne Report video blog we have added more playlists to this collection of special edition videos. Check out the new News Corp playlist and the Super Ratings Conference speech.
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We have only been twittering for a few months, but now have 1,045 followers and are regularly dropping out the latest developments from AGMs, capital raising plays and even Manningham Council. Sign up below to get the latest updates from all our activity and check out some of the latest tweets:
5.45pm Jan 27: 774 ABC Melbourne from the Australian Open discussing inflation and Australia day awards http://video.maynereport.com/audio/774_270110.mp3
11.10am Jan 27: Doing extended 774 radio spot starting at 5.10pm from tennis but with Federer yet to start as Serena fights back will be very tennis focused
9.15am Jan 27: Just back after a few nice days at Philip Island with family. Lots to do. Exited $15,000 Over Fifty Group SPP with marginal loss of $150.
5.45pm Jan 21: Back into swing of council today with aquatic centre meeting shortly then mega session tomorrow on long term recreation strategy. Big load!
6.30pm Jan 20: Regular spot on 774 ABC Melbourne from the Australian Open tennis at Melbourne park http://video.maynereport.com/audio/774_200110.mp3
2.19pm Jan 18: Check out today's Crikey story on John Durie: http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/01/19/john-durie%e2%80%99s-extraordinary-alinta-takeover-gaffe/
11.33am Jan 18: Put 15k into Platinum SPP today so 55k now on 4 bets. See full list of plays: http://bit.ly/QZieV
3.32pm Jan 16: Arrived back in Melbourne yesterday after excellent 19-day driving holiday to Queensland with family. Went up the coast and down the Newell.
1.20pm Jan 6: Just exited $10,000 Commonwealth Office share purchase plan at 97c for a gain of $650. No more exits for two weeks and only 3 live plays.
12.45pm Jan 6: Check out contribution for new ABC analysis site The Drum giving directors club a rocket over executive pay: http://www.abc.net.au/thedrum/
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.
a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month - as the kids have been saying on the first day back at school.
And a belated email edition of The Mayne Report, too. It's our first since the January 6 missive which was dispatched from the wonderful RACV Royal Pines resort on the Gold Coast whilst the rest of the family were off enjoying Dreamworld and White Water World, an asset which has only recently escaped the clutches of those gouging Macquarie Leisure management fees.
That's a four week gap between editions and in 2010 we're looking at producing bumper monthly editions with the occasional extra. The coverage will focus on corporate governance, shareholder activism, local government and some politics, given there will be Victorian and federal elections this year.
We've added a few Victorian councillors to our 7000-strong the email list in the hope they'll be interested in our local government coverage but in light of ComSec being fined $55,000 for spamming today, just click here if you don't wish to receive these very occasional emails.
And speaking of councillors, we're cranked up this new list tracking "councillors in parliament". There are already 79 entries but I suspect it will finish up closer to 200 given we'll take it all the way back to 1970 and it's a well worn path. Send your entries to Stephen@maynereport.com.
Whilst on the road in NSW it was amusing to see The Daily Telegraph pull out that predictable splash on January 13 about overpaid councillors allegedly hooking into excessive expense claims. "More perks than pay", screamed the page one headline, following by the following two paragraphs on page one:
Greedy councillors are dipping in to the public purse, in some cases spending more on expenses than they earn in wages. While the public forks out for ever-increasing rates, councillors are spending on everything from overseas trips to phones, childcare and souvenirs, a Daily Telegraph investigation revealed.
Cripes, councillors in NSW aren't even allowed to make phone calls, it seems.
I should have reworked the following letter which was sent to the Herald Sun last year, but somehow didn't make it onto the letters page:
From: Stephen [mailto:stephen@maynereport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 29 September 2009 1:16 PM
To: 'hsletters@heraldsun.com.au'
Subject: response to attack on council CEOs
“It's nice for some” screamed the Herald Sun's front page on Tuesday in what was a very unfair attack on council CEO pay packets.
I've only been a councillor at Manningham since last November and my experience is that our executive team are highly competent and modestly paid as they steer a complex organisation that delivers 100-plus services with more than $1 billion in assets, 650 staff and annual revenues approaching $100 million.
Besides, all 79 council CEOs in Victoria were collectively paid less than the $US20.8 million Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman and largest shareholder in the company which publishes the Herald Sun, received in 2008-09. Talk about people in glass houses. And don't forget that council CEOs have the very tough job of dealing with us councillors.
Stephen Mayne
City of Manninghan councillor
Templestowe
Why BHP-Billiton chairman Don Argus shouldn't have got Australia's highest honor
There is rarely critical analysis of the annual gongs dished out on Australia Day and the Queen's Birthday, although this effort in Crikey a few years back listing questionable AC awards to business figures was a rare example.
We also decided to provide an unusual critique in the regular chat with Lindy Burns on 774 ABC Melbourne last Wednesday from the Australian Open whilst Roger Federer was being carved up by Nikolay Davydenko in the first set of his quarter final.
The gong to Toll Holdings CEO Paul Little was questioned given the company's outrageous pay practices at the time of the Asciano demerger and we pointed out that Mark Johnson's citation should have referred to him being a co-founder of Macquarie Group. Similarly, James Fairfax should have been praised for his business acumen in selling out to his brother at about $4 a share before the GFC struck.
However, the main criticism was levelled at BHP-Billiton's chairman Don Argus, who was upgraded from an AO to an AC.
After 10 years dominating proceedings at BHP-Billiton, last Friday afternoon Argus came up with two final board appointments before he departs the scene in a few weeks.
And the so-called patriotic national champion advocate has even managed to finally back a couple of Australians in former North and Orica CEO Malcolm Broomhead and Carolyn Hewson, the former wife of the rather tattered John Hewson.
We've done a comprehensive 1800-word piece on the Argus record and BHP's rather unAustralian board structure for the Fairfax websites today and a few emails have been coming in given the strong views proferred on a range of issues. Take the time to check it out if you get a chance as there's a fair bit of meat in there.
A deluge of political donations figures finds Aunty asleep at the wheel
The annual deluge of political donations data landed at 9am this morning so check out this story in today's Crikey after a quick review of the figures. There will hopefully be plenty of coverage throughout the media over the week as this issue tends to get under-reported every year.
Amazingly, the ABC decided this was a non-story on The World Today, PM, the 7pm TV news and The 7.30 Report. It may be complex and involve a fair bit of number crunching but campaign finance disclosure is at the heart of any democracy. It is only a story one day each year under a ridiculous disclosure laws but the national broadcaster can't even give it the exposure it deserves. Sad indeed.
Campaign finance reform has been a passion of mine for the best part of a decade. Indeed, the following motion is on the agenda for tomorrow night's Manningham City Council meeting. Specifically, have a look at item 14.4 which reads as follows:
14.4 Notice of Motion by Councillor Mayne (NOM No. 4/2010)
I hereby give Notice of Motion for the February 2, 2010 Council Meeting as follows:
MOTION
“That in the interests of transparency and good use of technology, Manningham City Council resolves to publish on its website the campaign donations returns lodged by Councillors elected at the 2008 election and in all future elections until resolved otherwise.”
This will hopefully get approved with the minimum of fuss given that all the returns are public documents already and the motion just improves the visibility.
Finally, here are a few links to past coverage of campaign finance issues in Crikey, showing what a rich vein of material it can throw up:
Assessing the figures and coverage from 2006-07
Labor and its colourful Chinese benefactors
Did Dick Pratt's donations influence Costello's cartel laws backflip?
Stars align for campaign finance reform
NSW mafia stains Labor and Liberal alike
John Durie's unfair attack on Bob Browning
John Durie had an interesting column about excessive CEO payouts in The Australian on January 19, but on the way through he unfairly maligned former Alinta CEO Bob Browning claiming that some investors had "lost the lot" if they accepted Babcock & Brown paper in the $13 billion 2007 takeover shoot out with Macquarie.
I knocked up this Crikey story pointing out the facts - most importantly that shareholders received more than $9 a share in cash from the Singapore Government - hoping that John would see the light and correct the record.
Alas, it wasn't to be so readers of The Australian might still believe that investors who paid only $2.25 a share to the WA Government in the 2000 Alinta float have done badly, when truth be known they made a 500% plus return. That's hardly a case of losing everything.
The exchange even produced some private emails from both Durie and Bob Browning but unfortunately they can't be shared with you.
Meanwhile, the phoenix has risen again now that Babcock & Brown Power has changed its name to Alinta Energy and we've booked flights to attend the February 22 EGM in Sydney to catch up with some old sparring partners.
Cornwall sums up the Mad Monk and his mentor
Payments to AWB directors still running hot
Peter Hemphill, the former Hobsons Bay mayor who is now back as a full-time reporter on The Weekly Times, has been doing a great job covering the on-going saga over controversial payments to former executives and directors at AWB.
After we first publically raised these retirement payments to former directors at the December 23 AGM, Hemphill has kept the pressure on as follows:
AWB director claims was offered inducement - Dec 30 front page story on farmer director's bombshell.
AWB grower backlash - Dec 30 account of AGM, complete with picture of yours truly in action trying to dress like a farmer.
Furore over AWB bribe claim - Jan 5 reaction to previous week's page one story.
AWB's Geneva contention - Jan 6 story on huge pay packet for AWB's mysterious man in Geneva.
AWB's $11 million man - Jan 11 story revealing that Thierry Dubois was actually paid $11 million in 2007-08.
This last story was a really good get because it showed how AWB attempted to fudge the figures by shifting some of last year's payout to the former Geneva boss into the previous year. The only comparable situation to this I'm aware of is the way former Foster's chairman Nobby Clark agreed to pay then CEO Peter Bartels $8 million to leave in 1992, but it was staggered over 4 years and therefore never disclosed in one hit. This pre-dated the better disclosure of pay packets back then we still only had bands without names attached.
The funniest thing about all of this tough coverage is that AWB and Qantas flew Peter Hemphill around the world in 2000 after naming him Australia's best grains reporter. The press release is still available here on the AWB website.
Rupert and the royals
Prince William had a hugely successful visit Down Under and our cartoonist Mark Cornwall does enjoy poking fun at those royal-hating Murdochs.
Mayne Report traffic doubles in 2009
Thanks to your loyal patronage The Mayne Report doubled its audience in 2009.
Annual page views jumped from 493,439 in 2008 to 1.14 million in 2009. Unique visitors also more than doubled from 313,725 in 2008 to 691,084 in 2009.
All we need to do now is start selling some advertising - or get some agent or media company to take on that role - and we might actually generate some revenue from all this freely available content.
The most active time were the months from July through to October which coincided with the end of year reports season, our capital raising plays, the 2009 AGM season and this series of popular articles for the Fairfax Media websites.
Our top three articles viewed in 2009 were as follows:
Capital raising plays since Jan 2009
The Mayne Report Rich List
All share transactions in 2009
It just goes to show that readers are particularly interested in whose got the money and how to make money on the sharemarket.
Below is an interesting breakdown of the most popular Mayne Report referrers for the year:
Google - 75,005
Fairfax - 43,948
Direct - 39,822
Twitter - 1,763
Crikey 1,345
If you haven't already, tune-in to our audio and video podcasts. Our audio podcasts deliver lively exchanges from AGMs and all our radio appearances. Additionally the video podcasts offer different episodes from The Mayne Report video blog and some television spots, usually from Sky's Business View program.
Furthermore, you can follow The Mayne Report on twitter or add our RSS feed to your personal reader for your favorite articles delivered the way you want it.
Donate to help fund our activism
Finally, don't forget that The Mayne Report is a free service which costs almost $100,000 a year to run and relies partly on donations to survive.
Thanks to everyone who has chipped in a collective $5000 worth of donations over the past few months and you can check out their details on this honour board.
It was really nice to get back from a three week driving holiday to Queensland and receive a $500 cheque from the same lovely old lady from Toorak who once handed over a cheque whilst I was on the feet in full flight at the microphone during the 2008 Commonwealth Bank AGM.
If you fancy giving us a hand to help fund our activism and keep The Mayne Report going as a free service, just click on the image below:
Raising funds to annoy Rupert in New York
It has been two years since we've travelled to New York and annoyed Rupert Murdoch at a News Corp AGM so come October we might do a special donations push to fund that particular $5000 indulgence, as the better half describes it. There's so much fascinating new material to cover with Rupert, including the whole newspaper paywall issue and this latest $US500 million legal settlement with Valassis which surprisingly left the shares higher today, despite the overall market being down.
Recalculating 300 valuations on The Mayne Report Rich List
Save for claiming Griffin Coal boss Ric Stowe was worth $720 million in 2009, BRW magazine generally does a good job with its various Australian Rich Lists but we've broadened their efforts to track any Australian who has ever been worth more than $10 million. We've got more than 1400 names with those who've fallen back below $10 million now italicised.
Our researcher and multi-media producer Shane Marden spent many hours in January updating the list to reflect moving share prices. There were more than 300 entries which were amended and what follows are some of the notable rises and falls:
Richard Uechtritz: the CEO of booming retailer JB Hi-Fi who owns about 3m shares or 2.94% of the company. The stock bottomed at $7 in December 2008 and has kept climbing against the trend to $21 and in early 2010 his stake is valued at more than $60 million.
William Phillips: owns more than 14.6m shares in Medusa Mining. The stock bottomed at 40c in December 2008 but has since risen to a significant peak of over $3 in early 2010 valuing his stake at more than $43 million.
Andrew Forrest: the Perth entrepreneur is now arguably Australia's richest man through his 30% stake or 930m shares in Fortescue Metals Group. The stock peaked at almost $12.80 in July 2008, bottomed at $1.20 in December 2008 and recovered back to $4.60 as of January 2010 valuing his stake at about $4.2 billion - down from a peak of nearly $12 billion.
Hans Mende: an executive director of Felix Resources and recently floated Whitehaven Coal, his share holdings are 37.6 million with Felix and 81 million with Whitehaven. His combined holdings peaked his wealth at more than $1.2 billion in June/July 2008, bottomed out in December 2008 down to more than $257 million and recovered by early 2010 to be worth more than $920 million.
Ken Tregonning: managing director of AED Oil, owns about 27m shares. The stock peaked at almost $11.50 in October 2007 when he was worth more than $270 million and in early 2010 was around 62c which values his stake at $16.7 million.
Plus some new entries and updates courtesy of BRW
BRW recently released an interesting edition tracking the earnings of our top sports stars so we've got a few of them in this latest batch of new and updated entries:
Robert Allenby: having already established himself as one of Australia's most successful golfers, he is still on the improve. In 2009 he had a very successful year pulling in nearly $5 million.
Marcus Ambrose: kicking goals in the lucrative California-based US NASCAR series which led to his best year of earnings in 2009 at more than $5.4 million.
Andrew Bogut: professional basketballer in the NBA playing with the Milwaukee Bucks. Originally from Melbourne, he moved to the US to play for the University of Utah as a teenager. In 2009 he signed a $60 million five-year contract extension.
Tim Cahill: one of Australia's best football exports, in 2009 he starred for Everton in the English Premier League which earned him just under $5 million for the year.
Hoss and Gillian Heinrich: owners of Military Rose who streeted her rivals to win Queensland's richest horse race - the $2 million Magic Millions. The construction boss and former chairman of The Gold Coast Turf Club owns the Heinrich Bloodstock business with his trainer wife Gillian and they have been the main buyers of yearlings in recent years.
Arthur Hood: departed as CEO of Lihir Gold in early 2010 and walked away with a $15 million golden handshake, comprising a termination payment of $2.3 million, a $1.3 million cash payment in lieu of rights that would be been awarded under his full-term contract, plus 3.5 million shares that were previously awarded and are worth more than $10 million.
Harry Kewell: arguably Australia's best-known soccer player of his generation who has made tens of millions playing in the English Premier League for the likes of Leeds and Liverpool. In 2009 he earned $9.5 million with Turkish club Galatasaray. The BRW claims $54 million.
Lucas Neill: another of Australia's top football exports. He has had a long career already but is still earning close to $5 million a year.
Geoff Ogilvy: a past winner of a prestigious major golf tournament, the US Open, he continues his success rising up the world rankings and expanding his wealth. His 2009 earnings were around $6.3 million.
O'Reilly family: run the legendary O'Reillys eco-tourism business in Lamington National Park show-casing arguably Australia's best remaining rain forest in the Gold Coast hinterland. Five brothers and three cousins were originally sold 800 acres to clear and farm in 1911 but over time they realised the fortune to be made from eco-tourism.
Ricky Ponting: one of Australia's all time best cricketers, and long time captain, with his Cricket Australia contract and lucrative sponsorship deals, he pulled in more than $4 million in 2009 alone.
Chad Reed: unheralded, he is an Australian Supercross champion with huge success in the US worth around $25 million. Earnings in 2009 were $8.8 million.
Casey Stoner: this Moto GP star has the second-biggest contract on the circuit which earned him $5 million in 2009 alone.
Craig Thompson: owner and managing director of Fremantle-based Seacorp shipping, and owner of the Mount Hallowell horse stud south of Perth, paid $700,000 in January 2010 for a broodmare to be the star of his stud.
John Upham: career publican who grew up near Warrnambool and in 2009 came out of retirement to buy the Lorne Hotel for almost $20 million.
Tiger, Obama and Oprah
Meanwhile, Cornwall has this take on a President and two exceedingly wealthy American entertainment stars:
Introducing the Cornwall shop
Former Fairfax and Crikey cartoonist Mark Cornwall has been contributing his satirical commentary to the Mayne Report since March 2009. The cartoons are now available to purchase and make a great gift. Here is a collection of his best cartoons and there are now also six amusing animations. Check out some of his latest offerings throughout the edition:
QBE Insurance sees the light on AGM webcasting
After praising QBE Insurance at last year's AGM we then became mired in an unfortunate dispute after the company declined to broadcast the full debate on its website, limiting the archive to just the chairman and CEO addresses.
With such a great story to tell, this was a completely unnecessary step and finished with a promised board tilt if they didn't get with the program in 2010. The last three emails with general counsel Duncan Ramsay last April were as follows:
From: Duncan
Sent: 04/09/2009 1:35 PM
To: Stephen
Stephen, per our usual practice, the webcast has been abridged to concentrate on the addresses by the Chairman and CEO.
This is because they represent QBE's comments on last year and this year's outlook. It is also for reasons of time and cost. We excluded all the debate ie so not selective.
I am sure you can at least summarise the other discussion at the meeting for your father. I note there are AFR and SMH articles on the meeting. The webcast is hosted externally and we do not have a DVD nor is one planned.
Regards, Duncan Ramsay
___________________________________
From: stephen@maynereport.com
Sent: 04/09/2009 02:32 PM
To: Duncan
Duncan, this is a very simply issue. QBE should provide a record of the AGM for its shareholders. You have a complete record.
The chairman was asked at the AGM about webcasting and shareholders were told it would be available after the meeting. It is not.
The chairman made a number of comments about succession, investments and AIG's conduct which I believe were significant and should be made available to all shareholders and the broader market. Indeed, I just talked about all of these things on Sky's Business View program in the last hour.
Please don't make this difficult. I've been praising QBE in the media and want to do likewise in a comment piece I'll be writing for the Fairfax websites. However, without a full record of what was said, this is very difficult.
This is an issue I feel strongly about. Best practice is a full webcast. You don't see hansard in Parliament getting edited back.
As for comments representing QBE's position, surely everything the chairman said at the meeting represents QBE's position.
If you don't change your position, I will consider running for your board at next year's AGM on a platform that the company treat its small shareholders better and get with the program in terms of shareholder engagement.
Regards, Stephen Mayne
__________________________________
From: Duncan Ramsay
Sent: 04/09/2009 5:51 PM
To: Stephen
Stephen,
There has been wide coverage of the AGM in the print media, TV and internet, including of the commentary at the AGM.
I am not aware of any legal requirement or ASX Corporate Governance Council recommendation to provide a complete webcast of every minute of the AGM.
A webcast has been made available on the website, even if it does not meet your specific requirements. The presentation and release of information on our website is a matter for management.
Based on the feedback received from our retail shareholders at the AGM, they appear to be generally happy with the way in which the Board and management are running the company and the level of information they are receiving, e.g. please see the report on Lateline Business last night.
The AGM is open to be attended by all shareholders and/or their appointed proxies should they wish to attend and listen to all questions.
As to whether you choose to nominate for election is a matter for you.
Regards, Duncan
_________________________________
Fast forward 10 months and the tone has changed considerably, as usually happens when a board tilt is imminent. An initial email to the general counsel extracted that the AGM would be held on March 31 and then we had this exchange:
From Stephen to Duncan
Two other quick questions:
Will you be webcasting the full AGM this year?
How many business days before the AGM do you require an external board nomination?
Regards, Stephen
From: Duncan
Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 4:03 PM
To: Stephen
Stephen, we plan to webcast all the AGM live.
Afterwards, we plan to place a video of the Chairman's introduction, his address and CEO's address on the website.
In addition, we plan to provide an edited audio version of the questions and answers on the website.
By clause 76(c) of our constitution, at least 35 Business Days before the meeting for external board nominations.
Regards, Duncan
From: Stephen
Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 4:08 PM
To: Duncan Ramsay
Terrific, sounds like a positive step forward.
See you there, but I won't be nominating.
Regards, Stephen
So there you have it. QBE gets with the program and avoids a board tilt. Offering shareholders some directorial choice is something companies hate and they are usually prepared to move on small issues to avoid it.
Government bonds list and the great Rudd debt spree
We're all going to be noting the anniversary of the February 7 bushfires this week, but on Wednesday we should not forget the anniversary of the second Rudd stimulus package, which marked an incredible splurge of debt-funded public spending. Ever since then we've been tracking all bond and treasury note issues by the Rudd Government since it was elected in November 2007. There has now been more than $45 billion raised since the second stimulus package was unveiled 12 months ago. There was one in December 2007, 14 in 2008 and a staggering 100 in 2009. Below are the results so far in 2010 which have produced yields well above the 4% projected in the budget but no shortage of bidders:
Friday, January 29 , 2010: $500m tender of 10 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.41% and was 2.8 times over-subscribed.
Wednesday, January 27 , 2010: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in May 2013 were sold for an average yield of 4.92% and was 1.4 times over-subscribed.
Friday, January 22 , 2010: $700m tender of 3 year bonds expiring in April 2012 were sold for an average yield of 4.66% and was 4.8 times over-subscribed.
Wednesday, January 20 , 2010: $500m tender of 11 year bonds expiring in April 2020 were sold for an average yield of 5.63% and was 2.5 times over-subscribed.
Friday, January 15 , 2010: $700m tender of 5 year bonds expiring in April 2015 were sold for an average yield of 5.38% and was 4.5 times over-subscribed.
Wednesday, January 13 , 2010: $500m tender of 10 year bonds expiring in March 2019 were sold for an average yield of 5.49% and was 2.6 times over-subscribed.
The rather thin ASIC jail list
Is ASIC an effective corporate cop? You be the judge as this is the list of 349 people they have sent to jail since it was established in January 1991. There were only 19 incarcerations in 2008, and in 2009 we only reached 15, one of the lowest figures in years. So much for justice being served swiftly against all those wrong-doers exposed by the global financial crisis.
ASIC had a terrible run with its high profile cases in 2009 after embarrassing losses on One-Tel, AWB and Andrew Forrest, but the appeals are flying thick and fast and the government is boosting its coercive powers in areas such as insider trading so we should see the plod lift its jail rate in future years. Below are the last additions for 2009 as there is no jailing activity by ASIC yet for 2010:
11 December 2009 - Mr Darryl John Loane, of the Gold Coast Queensland, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment but will serve a minimum of 15 months. A former property developer, he dishonestly obtained a loan of $4,700,000 from Lawloan Mortgages Pty Ltd on or about 7 May 1999 for the development of Cove Resort Pty Ltd in the Whitsundays.
12 December 2009 - Mr Michael Cay, of Greenvale, Melbourne, was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court to four years imprisonment and must serve three years before he is eligible for parole. He was the operator of finance and mortgage broking firm, Jewel Financial Services, which is now in liquidation, and was guilty of obtaining property by deception and of one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
17 December 2009 - Mr Spartaco Fasciale of Moonee Ponds, Victoria, was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court to six years imprisonment and will serve a minimum of four and a half years. A former director of Fasciale Futures Trading, which was typical of a ponzi scheme, was charged with obtaining a financial advantage by deception, 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception and 14 counts of breaching directors' duties.
Mark Vaile's CBD Energy hooks us with SMS
The extraordinary run of capital raisings have slowed down considerably over summer and with the market in retreat we'll be doing well just to avoid any losses on the outstanding plays.
I've learnt before that you should always be wary of small companies which ring to sell marginal offers because it usually means they are desperate for the cash and the share price might tank once the offer closes.
And so it has been with CBD Energy, which is chaired by former deputy prime minister Mark Vaile and has the colourful former founder of Impulse Airlines, Gerry McGowan, as managing director.
McGowan was the snitch who dobbed in Rene Rivkin for insider trading in Qantas shares. Anyway, somehow McGowan's latest operation got hold of my mobile number and sent an SMS advising that an in-the-money $15,000 share purchase plan at 13c was due to close the next day.
Amidst the blizzard of paperwork associated with having more than 700 stocks in the portfolio, this was news to me but with the stock trading at 14-15c the cash was dutifully Bpayed across two weeks ago. The allotments were finally made today and the stock tanked to a low of 10.5c, suggesting a loss of up to $2000.
The usual policy of crystallising all profits and losses on the first day has been ditched and we're holding on in the hope it recovers.
After dropping $2200 in December, largely due to the recapitalised Babcock & Brown Infrastructure SPP, we returned a profit of $2350 in January but look like getting off to a bad start in February courtesy of CBD Energy. The full list of plays since January last year is available here.
Capital raising plays since the last edition:
January 7
Commonwealth Office: $10,000 into SPP at 91c and exited at 97c for gain of $650.
January 22
Mirabella Nickel: $10,000 into SPP at $2.30 and exited at $2.30 to break even.
January 27
Over Fifty Group: $15,000 into SPP at 72c or 10% discount to VWAP. Final price 64c and exited at 63.4c to lose $150.
Offers we're currently committed to
Breakaway Resources: $10,000 into 1-for-3 entitlement offer at 6c with overs. Closed on January 22 and trades February 3.
CBD Energy: $15,000 into SPP at 13c which closed January 20 and trades February 1.
Contango Microcap: $15,000 into SPP at 87c which closed January 22 and trades February 2.
Platinum Capital: $15,000 into SPP at 5% discount to VWAP which closed January 22 and trades February 3.
Total live applications: $55,000
More from Cornwall
All the recent share trades
Check out all the trades in 2009 and here's the January 18, 2010 snapshot of the world's biggest small portfolio of 722 holdings worth $69,225. The overall paper loss is $4,650 and average holding worth $96.
As for the trades since the last edition, they are as follows:
January 29
Ainsworth Game Technology: bought 3,000 at 17c
Rivercity Motorway: bought 2,128 at 23.5c
Tox Free Solutions: bought 218 at $2.30
Tribune Resources: bought 700 at 73c
January 27
Over Fifty Group: sold 23,480 at 63c
January 22
Dragon Mining: bought 5,000 at 10c
Mirabela Nickel: sold 4,363 at $2.30
January 21
Carbon Energy: bought 770 at 65c
Clinuval: bought 2000 at 25c
Gazal Corp: bought 400 at $1.25
January 11
Logicamms Ltd: bought 545 at 93c
January 7
Commonwealth Office: sold 10,990 at 97c
January 6
Clean Seas Tuna: sold 1,962 at 29.5c
More Cornwall - doesn't he love chipping Murdoch!
Chinese investment pours in
Chinese government investment will continue to be a major theme in Australia over 2010 and the mooted $1.5 billion offer for CSR's sugar business shows that Chinese food security is also a big theme to watch along with attempts to shore up resource security. Meanwhile, here is Cornwall's take:
From the press room: Crikey, 2GB, 774, The Drum
Crikey
Mayne digs some donations data dirt
Monday, 1 February 2010
Mayne: Bowen is right on Sons of Gwalia
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
John Durie's extraordinary Alinta takeover gaffe
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Radio
774 ABC Melbourne - regular spot with Lindy Burns, from the Australian Open on Jan 27.
774 ABC Melbourne - regular spot with Lindy Burns, from the Australian Open on Jan 20.
Fairfax
BHP: the big (semi-)Australian
November 11, 2009
Out-going BHP-Billiton chairman Don Argus has had a big couple of weeks.
Click the link below to get the latest radio and AGM audio
Mayne Report video blog
From the archives of The Mayne Report video blog we have added more playlists to this collection of special edition videos. Check out the new News Corp playlist and the Super Ratings Conference speech.
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.
Sign up for Mayne Report Tweets
We have only been twittering for a few months, but now have 1,045 followers and are regularly dropping out the latest developments from AGMs, capital raising plays and even Manningham Council. Sign up below to get the latest updates from all our activity and check out some of the latest tweets:
5.45pm Jan 27: 774 ABC Melbourne from the Australian Open discussing inflation and Australia day awards http://video.maynereport.com/audio/774_270110.mp3
11.10am Jan 27: Doing extended 774 radio spot starting at 5.10pm from tennis but with Federer yet to start as Serena fights back will be very tennis focused
9.15am Jan 27: Just back after a few nice days at Philip Island with family. Lots to do. Exited $15,000 Over Fifty Group SPP with marginal loss of $150.
5.45pm Jan 21: Back into swing of council today with aquatic centre meeting shortly then mega session tomorrow on long term recreation strategy. Big load!
6.30pm Jan 20: Regular spot on 774 ABC Melbourne from the Australian Open tennis at Melbourne park http://video.maynereport.com/audio/774_200110.mp3
2.19pm Jan 18: Check out today's Crikey story on John Durie: http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/01/19/john-durie%e2%80%99s-extraordinary-alinta-takeover-gaffe/
11.33am Jan 18: Put 15k into Platinum SPP today so 55k now on 4 bets. See full list of plays: http://bit.ly/QZieV
3.32pm Jan 16: Arrived back in Melbourne yesterday after excellent 19-day driving holiday to Queensland with family. Went up the coast and down the Newell.
1.20pm Jan 6: Just exited $10,000 Commonwealth Office share purchase plan at 97c for a gain of $650. No more exits for two weeks and only 3 live plays.
12.45pm Jan 6: Check out contribution for new ABC analysis site The Drum giving directors club a rocket over executive pay: http://www.abc.net.au/thedrum/
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.