Bumper end of year edition - AGM season, News Corp, Takeovers Panel, East West Link, capital raising and much more
December 24, 2013
Dear Mayne Report Readers,
Greetings for the first time since our last email update on August 25 and apologies for the 4 month gap between missives. If you'd rather not receive these increasingly occasional newsletters, click here to unsubscribe.
A first experience with the Takeovers Panel
After getting no satisfaction from the Virgin Australia board at the AGM, this application was lodged with the Takeovers Panel after the company proceeded with a highly dilutive $351 million capital raising which was designed to increase the voting power of three government-controlled foreign airlines - Etihad, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand - whilst giving Virgin the fire-power to do maximum damage to Qantas.
Our main beef was the artificial limit on the amount of additional shares that retail investors could apply for as was explained in this Crikey piece after our application was rejected but also vindicated by the huge $51.6 million shortfall in the $69 million retail component of the offer.
Does anyone else think it is ridiculous that Virgin's well-paid CEO John Borghetti did not take up even 1 new share, so his entitlement as one of the largest retail investors just transferred across to the three government airlines. Even chairman Neil Chatfield failed to take up his full entitlement in the 5-for-14 offer.
In a normal non-renounceable pro-rata capital raising, the fully surrendered Borghetti entitlement and partially surrendered allocation for the chair would be available for their more committed retail colleagues to take up so that retail investors as a class would not be diluted.
Instead the Virgin directors - only 3 of whom took up any stock - did a deal with under-writer UBS to limit "overs" to just 40% of a shareholder's entitlement which guaranteed there would be huge retail dilution, especially given the known apathy of retail investors when it comes to these sorts of offers.
Virgin shares finished up 0.5c at 39c yesterday, so the airline investors are in the money on the 38c offer, plus also pocketed a tidy under-writing fee on the way through whilst Etihad and Singapore lifted their economic interest through complex derivative arrangement despite not being allowed to creep above 20% under the Corporations Law and also not yet having approval to do so from Joe Hockey.
You can read the full Takeovers Panel decision here. Please note that the Panel also declined to require Virgin to announce a detailed breakdown of the shortfall in this ASX announcement, in stark contrast to the pro-disclosure culture shown by Ansell in the next item.
Modest Ansell take-up rate demonstrates retail apathy that Virgin exploited
The January edition of ASA's magazine Equity includes this "Bouquet" for a company which went out of its way to protect the interests of its retail investors:
To Ansell for looking after the interests of retail shareholders in their recent capital raising made in connection with a major US acquisition. While our preferred pro rata rights issue was not a practical option because of time constraints imposed by the acquisition vendor, the $100m share purchase plan (SPP) component represents about 23% of the capital raising whereas retail shareholders are only about 16% of the register. In addition, the SPP is priced advantageously for retail shareholders as the lower of the placement price and a weighted average market price during the offer period, less a 2.5 % discount. Many SPP raisings associated with placements are made solely at the placement price.
Sadly, the results of the SPP were announced yesterday and participation rates were quite pitiful for an offer that was always in the money and had the additional safeguard of a 2.5% discount to the trading price in the final days of the offer. Ansell has about 33,000 retail shareholders but only 2,932 of these or 8.88% did the rational thing and applied for the full $15,000 offer at the recent institutional placement price of $18.50. Based on last night's closing price of $20.83, these investors will enjoy a profit of 12.6% or $1680 if they sell on December 31, the day the shares are allotted.
That's what I'll be doing but why aren't other Ansell investors behaving rationally?
The average application for shares in what finished as a $72 million share purchase plan was $11,439 given that Ansell has informed us that only 6,294 shareholders applied, equivalent to 19% of the full register.
The ASA is becoming increasingly concerned by issues of retail dilution and we very much appreciated Ansell responding positively to our request for an email reminder about the offer the day before it closed on December 18. This generated an additional 690 applications but it doesn't help that Ansell, like most companies, only has email addresses for about 20% of its register. Virgin and Network Ten have also sent last day email reminders to retail shareholders after requests from ASA and we've also asked CFS Retail to do it with their SPP in January.
However, if there are any brokers or accountants out there who are not passing on these in the money Ansell-like opportunities to their clients then they should have a good look at their systems and service levels.
It is clear that ASA, ASX, the Federal Government and issuers generally have a challenge to educate and engage with their retail shareholders because this data from the Ansell offer is quite disturbing.
Participation rates usually fall away when a stock is performing badly but Ansell has been on a stellar run in recent times so you would think their shareholders would have enthusiastically stepped up to support an in-the-money SPP that would deliver instant gains.
Given that UBS has agreed to spend $1 million on financial literacy after admitting to rigging interest rates in Australia, maybe some of this cash could be directed at retail investors in the share market.
Keeping the pressure on over unfair capital raisings
Staying with capital raisings, we've also had the disappointing situation of last week's $1.4 billion Insurance Australia Group equity issuance which led to this letter being submitted to The AFR, although it was published in a reduced form:
IAG SPP should be $500m
Insurance Australian Group is the nation's 4th most widely held stock after Telstra, AMP and the Commonwealth Bank. So when the board decided to raise $1.4 billion of new equity capital to fund the Wesfarmers acquisition, why were the 754,061 investors who currently own less than 5000 IAG shares each limited to just $200 million in the proposed share purchase plan?
These ordinary Australians collectively own one-third of the company, yet they have been limited to just 14.3% of the capital raising in what is a clear decision to dilute retail investors as a class. Instead, the unknown clients of Swiss investment bank UBS have been selectively placed $1.2 billion worth of new IAG shares.
Surely it is time to reform the most flexible capital raising regime in the developed world when it comes to selective placements? If the Federal Government believes the property rights of shareholders can be trampled in this way, at the very least we should be told who UBS has placed the shares with.
And it is not too late for the board to lift the arbitrary cap on the SPP from $200 million to $500 million in order to allow IAG retail investors to collectively maintain their one third ownership of the company.
Stephen Mayne
ASA Policy and Engagement Co-Ordinator
Based on the low take-up rate at Ansell, IAG may not hit the $200 million cap, but it still begs the question as to why it was imposed in the first place.
UBS most likely to be involved when retail is mistreated
Brisbane-based company ERM Power raised $75 million through an institutional placement in November which was priced at a 10% discount to the prevailing market price. There was no attempt to accommodate retail investors with a Share Purchase Plan and, as usual, Swiss giant UBS was one of the key underwriters in a deal which was focused on the big end of town. The ASA will continue to press the company to better understand why it didn't respect the rights of small investors to retain their percentage stake in the company when capital needed to be raised.
And in recent days we've had another example with Hobart-based Ruralco which did a $25 million placement under-written by UBS with no sign of an equivalent SPP for smaller investors. The Ruralco AGM is coming up in February and if no SPP is announced by then, ASA will be in attendance coming off the long run.
A big AGM season for ASA
ASA generated a record amount of media coverage during the December quarter, as you can see here on our website.
Here are a few specific examples from the AGM season:
Sydney Morning Herald - 18 November 2013 - Virgin rebuked by ASA over capital raising - full story here
The Australian - 13 November 2013 - ASA wants Aurizon chairman to resign - full story here
The West Australian - Shareholders send message through strike threat
The Conversation - 21 October 2013 - Stand by your woman: shareholders should demand more balance - full story here
Courier Mail - 21 October 2013 - Suncorp directors forced to invest under new rules, positive and negatives with policy - full story here
Business Spectator - 21 October 2013 - Newcrest suffers another pay blow - full story here
Sydney Morning Herald - 22 October 2013 - Southern Cross Media chairman must apologise for 'sh*t happens' nurse prank comment: British MP - full story here
Inside Business, ABC TV - 27 October 2013 - Panel discussion about AGM season
Speaking of Inside Business, it is a real shame to see the program go out of business after 11 years. Alan Kohler, Steve Letts and the team did a great job and we'll miss it going forward. The farewell party at Bell's Hotel in South Melbourne was an entertaining and interesting night three weeks back.
Crunch time for finalising ASA's future policy guidelines
We had more than 80 submissions responding to our policy discussion paper which was released before the main 2013 AGM season.
A deadline of January 26 has been set for producing a response to the submissions and the next version of what ASA's final policy guidelines and standards will look like in 2014.
That will lead to plenty of work over the coming month as there's so much detail, conflicting advice and competing interests to accommodate, not to mention ASA's own historical journey down the policy road.
One thing that will help is if you take our a membership of the ASA to help resource our expanding research effort in 2014. If interested, just click on the image below:
James Packer gets slugged as Vic pokies revenue falls short
John Brumby's move to a venue-operator model for poker machines in Victoria does not appear to have been a great success.
The current Victorian Treasurer, Michael O'Brien, is the former Gaming Minister so he was well placed to understand the options for clawing back some revenue shortfalls.
The mid-year budget update released on the second last Friday before Christmas included a proposed slug on Crown, which sent its share price down 5% in one day.
Given that Victoria has a higher high-roller tax than its major Australian competitors, including Crown's proposed enormous casino at Barangaroo, stand by for the Victorians to cut Crown's high roller tax back to the national standard of 10% in exchange for this new pokies levy.
Finally on the pokies front, check out the latest from Paul Bendat's Pokieact website and this package of our past pokies coverage.
And try watching this 30 second anti-pokies ad made by Paul Bendat featuring our daughter Alice, who was 6 at the time:
Joe Hockey paying 30 basis points more for debt than Labor when defeated
It was very strange to hear Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens make the following statement in 2010: "There is virtually no net public debt in the country at all in contrast to much of the developed world."
The Federal Government's own debt management website now puts the gross debt figure at $296.6 billion and the bond issues will continue coming at a rapid rate now that 2013-14 budget deficit forecast has blown out to $47 billion, albeit partly because of the $8 billion capital injection into the Reserve Bank.
Joe Hockey and the Greens did well to negotiate the abolition of any debt ceiling and the Greens were sensible in negotiating a raft of good transparency measures as part of the deal.
The falling dollar might be good for resources exporters, but it certainly won't help to retain the confidence of our foreign bondholders. The key metric to watch is demand for Australians bonds and this is how the last few bond issues have finished:
December 13: $700 million of 3 year bonds which went for 3.01% and was covered 4.79 times.
December 11: $800 million of 12 year bonds which went for 4.457% and was covered 2.47 times.
December 6: $1500 million of 5 year bonds which went for 3.5738% and was covered 3.13 times.
Compare those outcomes with the last few tenders led by the Rudd Government:
Friday, August 23. 2013: $800 million 5 year bond offer expiring in January 2018. Average yield 3.198% and was 3.74 times subscribed.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013: $800 million 12 year bond offer expiring in April 2025. Average yield 4.168% and was 2.27 times subscribed.
Friday, August 16, 2013: $800 million 4 year bond offer expiring in February 2017. Average yield of 2.87% and 3.4 times subscribed.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013: $800 million 10 year bond offer expiring in April 2023. Average yield of 3.835% and 3.21 times subscribed.
Whether it's 3 years or 12 years, investors are demanding about 30 basis points of additional compensation to buy Australian bonds, which is not a good sign.
The next AOFM bond tender won't be held until January 15 but given the borrowing program ahead it is vital that Australia doesn't lose its coveted AAA credit rating. Given the large structural deficits faced by most Australian governments at the moment, there has to be some risk of a downgrade, especially if the Abbott Government proceeds with unsustainable tax cuts (ie carbon and mining tax) combined with unsustainable program expansions (ie PPL, Gonski, health and NDIS) at a time when unemployment has risen back above 800,000 and the commodity super cycle is tapering.
Grappling with deteriorating finances at the City of Melbourne
The latest quarterly financial update from the City of Melbourne continued a recent trend of declining financial strength after a heavy capital investment program.
Our cash balance, whilst still strong at more than $80 million, is down to a 19-year low after the council received a $230 million windfall from the sale of its electricity business in the mid-1990s as part of the Kennett Government's privatisation program.
If huge new investments like the Queen Victoria Market are to be delivered, council will need to think outside the square in terms of revenue and spending initiatives if it wants to remain debt free.
Over the past couple of months there have been very useful visits to both Brisbane City Council and City of Sydney to better understand their financial levers and pressures.
Sydney is in an enviable position with a $572 million investment portfolio, $55 million a year in rental income from commercial leases and $2 million a week coming through the door from developer contributions. This is why they only need to raise about $60 million a year from parking compared to more than $100 million from fees and fines (including Queen Victoria Market) in Melbourne. We'll struggle to squeeze that lemon any more and if anything we need to be less dependent on parking revenue going forward.
Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia at the moment and this is partly being driven by our low tax environment compared with Sydney and Brisbane where developers faces state and council taxes of up to $20,000 per apartment when they receive a permit. The Fisherman's Bend urban renewal area may see something like this for the first time in inner city Melbourne.
An evolving position on the East West Link
The City of Melbourne's position on the East West Tunnel continues to evolve at both the technical and political level.
At the August council meeting this year, officers produced a 25-page preliminary assessment and councillors voted 6-5 in favour of the proposition that council "does not support the East West Link as announced".
The six councillors who supported that proposition were the two Greens, the two ALP councillors, Cr Arron Wood and myself. Listen to the audio of the debate here, starting at around the 17 minute market.
Fast forward to December 10 and the officers came up with an excellent detailed technical submission for the CIS process which wasn't accompanied by any particularly strong political sentiment as you see in the outcomes. Based on press reports, it looks like the Linking Melbourne Authority is going to take up our suggestion to effectively bury the concrete flyovers in Royal Park before the East West Link accesses City Link.
A week after the big technical submission at the final meeting of the year, Labor's Cr Richard Foster put up the following motion as you can see in the agenda:
That council oppose the proposed East West Link and calls on the State Government to prioritise public transport infrastructure projects such as the Melbourne Metro rail project, to deliver long term sustainable solutions to Melbourne's urban congestion.
Cr Wood was uncomfortable with the bluntness of this motion and came up with an alternative which was more palatable to me, so we both voted against the original motion which was defeated 7-4 with only the Greens and Labor councillors voting in favour.
Cr Wood's alternative motion was passed 7-4 largely because 3 out of 5 members of Team Doyle ticket supported it. These formally supported words were certainly a hardening of the council's position beyond the words from August, but it wasn't as implacably opposed to the East West Link as the original motion from Cr Foster:
That council:
1.1. Reinforces its position that the East West Link is not supported in its current form, and defers its final position following the outcome of the CIS consultation process.
1.2. Advocates strongly to the State Government that the Melbourne metro project is council's top transport infrastructure priority and should proceed well before the East West Link, whether the proposed Link is supported or not.
Both the Lord Mayor and Cr Foster were at the top of their respective games during what was a very interesting and lively debate. You can listen to the full debate here, starting at the 57 minute mark.
Mega list tracking every AGM in 2013
The ASA produced this mega-list tracking every AGM that occurred in 2013, although we're still probably missing about 100 that will be added in time for the all-important re-launch of our website in the first quarter of 2014.
Whilst the ASX200 AGMs that we focus on tend to be pretty evenly spread between October 9 and November 29, it is clear that there is quite a ridiculous concentration of meetings in the last two weeks of November in the smaller end of the market.
For instance, there were more than 200 AGMs on the last day of the season, November 29, with the majority of these in Perth. With AGM attendance numbers continuing to weaken, we really need companies to work hard on both scheduling and the content to attract shareholders.
For instance, rather than be satisfied with only 8 independent retail shareholders attending the JB Hi Fi AGM, the board should better market the event to investors and hold it near one of their stores (ie South Wharf in Melbourne) with the lure of a modest spending voucher for those who choose to attend.
How institutional investors do better than retail from an earlier bookbuild
This list tracks the contrasting experience of institutional and retail investors when a renounceable entitlement offer has two separate bookbuilds to deal with the shortfall. The reason for this skewed result is that bidders in any later retail bookbuild have usually had their fill of stock from the earlier institutional component:
Westfield: did a $3 billion 2-for-23 rights issues at $19.50 a share in June 2007. The entitlement offer was non-renounceable but both retail and institutional shareholders were promised a premium from the sale of shares not taken up. The retail take up was 15.7 million shares and the surplus of 22.9 million were sold into a bookbuild at $19.50, with no premium. The institutional bookbuild fetched $19.60, so instos collected 10c compensation for not participating.
Primary Healthcare: did a $1.231 billion entitlement offer at $5.40 in early 2008 which raised $958 million from institutions and was about 80% subscribed. The shortfall generated a premium of $1.20 per share. Retail only invested $70 million and non-participants only collected 10c per share as the broader market was weakening.
Alumina: raised $910 million through a renounceable 5-for-19 offer at $3 a share in September 2008 which saw retail investors who didn't participate receive a 35c premium courtesy of the institutional bookbuild. This was less than the 70c paid to the 8% of institutional holders who declined the offer.
Wesfarmers: $2.9 billion entitlement offer at $29 in 2008. Institutions took up 96% and the shortfall attracted a premium of $8.25 from the bookbuild. Retail investors received a premium of $9.75 from the bookbuild. A rare win for retail!
FKP: a $324 million renounceable offer in 2009 at 40c. The $204 million institutional component was 97% subscribed and the shortfall clearing price was 46c a share, giving the non-subscribing institutions 6c a share. The $120 million retail offer was only 46% subscribed but the 162 million share shortfall generated no compensation in the retail bookbuild conducted a few weeks later.
Orica: a $900 million 1-for-8 entitlement offer at $22.50 in mid-2008. Institutions took up 70% of their entitlement and non-participants received 25c in the bookbuild. Retail investors only took up just over half of their entitlement, leaving a shortfall of 6.3m shares which attracted a 10c premium in the retail bookbuild.
Connect East: 1-for-2 entitlement offer in August 2009. Institutional component 87% subscribed and whilst the institutions received 3.5c a unit, the retail investors received only 0.5c a unit.
Sigma Pharmaceutical: did a 1-for-3 at $1.02 in September 2009. The institutional shortfall went off at $1.07, giving the institutions that did not subscribe a payment of 5c a share. The retail bookbuild went off at the issue price, leaving nothing for the holders that did not take up their entitlements.
ALE Property Group: entitlement offer in 2009. The $64 million institutional component attracted a 50c premium for non-participants and retail received 41c, but this was unusual because retail could also apply for overs.
Rio Tinto: everyone renounced, institutions and retail on the same terms, although it was slightly different for UK and Australian shareholders.
Lend Lease: launched a 5-for-22 offer at $7.70 in 2010 to raise $806 million. Was most unusual with a combined book build of 28.2m shares which sold at $8.60, given non-participants 90c in compensation.
ALS Ltd: the old Campbell Bros raised $246m at $7.80 a share in 2013. The $112 million institutional component was 92% taken up and non-participants received 95c for their rights. The retail shortfall was 3.89m shares and each attracted a value of 95c in the bookbuild.
ASX Ltd: conducted a $553 million entitlement offer in 2013. Institutions received $3.70 in compensation, whereas retail investors only received $3.40.
What happened to the News Corp AGM?
ASX-listed companies with a June 30 balance date must have their AGM by the end of November but the situation with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is hard to fathom.
For the last few years the News Corp AGM has been held in the last two weeks of October in either New York or Los Angeles.
However, when 21st Century Fox was demerged from News Corp, the smaller legacy company focused on print went off the rails.
Firstly, they asked for an extension to the deadline for their annual results, whilst 21st Century Fox was one of the earlier companies to report.
But the real surprise is with the News Corp annual meeting which still hasn't been called.
The only other major ASX-listed company that was late this year was Billabong, but it still managed to meet on December 10 on the Gold Coast.
If you believe this page on the News Corp website, there has only been one event for investors since June 5. C'mon Rupert, stop all this gratuitous tweeting on political matters and get your house in order by calling the AGM.
The company has a majority of its net assets Down Under so ideally it would be held in Australia.
The Mayne Report Rich List
BRW magazine used to do a great job with its various Australian Rich Lists but then Fairfax Media closed the magazine. Over the past five years we've broadened BRW's efforts to track any Australian who has ever been worth more than $10 million. We've got more than 1500 names with those who've fallen back below $10 million now italicised. Some of the entries are becoming a little dated and we'll endeavour to do a major update in 2014 but this list remains easily the most popular page on our website.
Deals starting to flow for Onmarket Bookbuilds
It is good to see some deal flow for the new service being offered by ASX Onmarket Bookbuilds.
Geoff Wilson was first out of the blocks raising capital through the facility before the business was even formally launched, then LNG Ltd raised $10.85 as you can see here.
However, the biggest deal so far involved the IPO of U&D Coal which raised just over $50 million in an IPO which closed on Friday. See the announcement here along with this story in The Australian today.
Having seen retail investors get diluted out of more than $10 billion since the GFC, I'm keen to support any facility which reduces discounts, challenges the investment banking crowd and potentially allows retail investors to directly bid into offers once the system evolves.
Keep an eye on the Onmarket Bookbuilds blog or the Twitter feed of its CEO, Ben Bucknell, for more developments in 2014.
Interestingly, I was calling for the Takeovers Panel to force Virgin Australia to use this service in an attempt to compensation non-participating retail investors in capital raising, but it didn't even rate a mention when the "reasons for decision" were released.
Crikey contributions in 2013
It has been a frantic year on the council and ASA front which has meant less time for freelance journalism, including contributions to Crikey. Indeed, there was only the following 18 contributions to Crikey over the course of the year:
How Citi and the cabal of billionaires shafted Network Ten shareholders
Crikey, Thursday, January 18, 2013
Time is right to bring Rio Tinto HQ Down Under
Crikey, Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Another year of media failure on campaign finance
Crikey, Monday, February 4, 2013
Mayne: Lachlan Murdoch firing bullets in all directions
Crikey, Monday, February 25, 2013
Gina Rinehart gets behind campaign to bring Rio Tinto to Australia
Crikey, Monday, April 8, 2013
News Ltd bites the hand that feeds on local government recognition
Crikey, Monday, April 29, 2013
Are the Lowys worth their $300m in salaries?
Crikey, Thursday, May 23, 2013
How Murdochs, Packers and Lowys play power and control
Crikey, Monday, May 27, 2013
How to reform pay rates for Lowy labour at Westfield
Crikey, Thursday, May 30, 2013
Feeney battling several fronts in Batman
Crikey, Monday, June 3, 2013
Holy factions Batman: preselection battle hots up
Crikey, Friday, June 7, 2013
Barnaby and Albo hug hides referendum divisions
Crikey, Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Strange trading in News Corp demerger
Crikey, Friday, June 21, 2013
O'Farrell breaks promise, gifts Packer $250m in two days
Crikey, July 5, 2013
Ugly billionaires dance on grave of independent journalism
Crikey, July 24, 2013
Media winners were those who got out of print
Crikey, July 26, 2013
Explaining Abbott's double slug on investors
Crikey, August 21, 2013
Foreign airlines snaffle an extra 3.88% of Virgin for $51.6m
Crikey, December 12. 2013
Sign up for campaign and governance Tweets
This might be the first Mayne Report email update in 4 months but we've been pumping out a tonne of content through Twitter, including several hundred tweets related to the thrills and spills of the AGM season. Click on the image above to join almost 19,000 followers on Twitter and get regular updates on breaking news, business, AGMs, council, media and politics.
From the member edition archive
The Mayne Report email newsletters go to more than 17,000 people but if you're a relatively new reader, here are links to some of the more interesting email editions sent out over the past five years.
2013
Franking robbery, East West trust breach, BHP bonuses, John Gay and plenty more
Sunday, August 25, 2013
ASA policy paper, Kevin Andrews on the pokies, Senate preferences and much more
August 19, 2013
ASA, Billabong, Westfield, Newcrest, Shorten, Turnbull, pokies and then some
Monday, July 22, 2013
Rudd v Gillard, referendum, Labor sleaze, Clive Palmer, ASA, City of Melbourne and plenty more
Monday, June 24, 2013
Calling time on Lowy excess, local govt referendum, MAV state council and Patricia's Skywhale
Sunday, May 20, 2013
Referendum, pokies, remuneration, Packer, Melbourne reforms, Downie and Briffa
Monday, April 22, 2013
2012
Backing Rudd, Lachlan Murdoch, Bob Brown media debate, Manningham governance, Gunns, Darebin, Lend Lease and St Kilda AGM appearance
Monday, February 20, 2012
The OZ goes mad, Murdoch piracy, AFR, pokies double rate, Gina unfit for Ten, council super blowout, BoQ rip-off, power speech and AGM mini-season
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
2011
Murdoch special, media inquiry, pokies, Manningham win, Zara, secretive Shortenite councillors and a Vodafone take-down
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Elected to ASA board, pokies, Rio, Santos, RHG, Hartigan, Manningham, capital raisings and Rich List
Thursday, May 19, 2011
2010
Election wash-up, Mayne Report strategic review, Manningham, Ten, Gina, Falloon for Fairfax, Orica AGM, ABC year-ender, Cornwall, Rich List and then some
Friday, December 17, 2010
Woolies anti-pokies campaign speech, Manningham mayor boxes on, campaigning for women, Bob Brown, pokies forum, HTVs, Rich List and then some
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Paperlinx, Packer, Murdoch, Manningham, pokies, Rich ex wives, foreign takeovers and much more
Saturday, October 23, 2010
DJs, legislate women on boards, ex Lib goes no pokies, preferences, Pratt-Shorten, Labor's debt, AG's report, Manningham council audio and then some
August 3, 2010
Director rankings, Rio, Westfield, New Matilda, MAP, Manningham, Paatsch, state election, Darebin, Moreland, rich list, pokies and much more
June 9, 2010
Political donations, Stokes, Westfield tower, Richard Colless, Manningham nursing home, state debt, Rich List, Grand Prix and more
February 23, 2010
2009
Woolies, Higgins, Manningham, upcoming elections, Fairfax, Centro, Rich List, Rams, Fitzie and much more
December 6, 2009
Seven AGM, crazy Perth visit, Fairfax, Telstra, Transfield, capital raisings and much more
November 9, 2009
News Corp AGM, Packer, Fairfax, James Strong, Woolies, Eastern Golf, Kohler-Gatto and much more
October 20, 2009
Bad Bendigo, Mark Day, Manningham, pokies, NAB, Asciano, Rich List, Paladin, hostile EGMs and much more
September 15, 2009
Macquarie AGM, Melbourne's decline, Asciano EGM, capital raisings, Goyder's pokies, speeches, fire, AGM diary and much more
July 28, 2009
2008
Collingwood AGM, Rizzo survives, ANZ shareholders MIA and Qantas delusions
December 19, 2008
ABC Learning, CBA's Centro brutality, sworn in, pokies, PacBrands and SPP plays
December 10, 2008
After 37 straight defeats, the drought is broken
December 1, 2008
71% backing at Centro, $11bn backing at BHP and huge Qantas protest
November 28, 2008
BHP backflip after $7bn backed our tilt
November 26, 2008
Combank's $700m ABC Learning debacle
November 13, 2008
2007
Fortescue Metals AGM: time for Twiggy and FMG to grow up
Sunday, November 8, 2007, 10.30pm
How $5bn worth of votes backed us against Rupert's dodgy gerrymander
Saturday, 20 October, 2007, 7.20am
Mayne family news
Laura and Alice have now both finished up at the local primary school and are excited about a new school environment in 2014.
Laura was girls school captain this year and handled proceedings smoothly at the final assembly on Friday.
Paula has had a good year working as a family law mediator, plus she assumed the chair of a not-for-profit family violence service and will soon finish up as President of the school council, now that we're down to just Philip remaining at the school.
Whilst many of you might be watching Insiders on a Sunday morning, we've spent the past few Sundays playing competition tennis with Laura, Alice and Philip being the only members of the 3 person team.
Opposition players and parents are quite surprised to come up against a one family team comprising Mayne, Mayne and Mayne, coached by Mayne.
In a few years time, we might even have a similar line-up producing an expanded and more regular Mayne Report - or running on tickets in various elections!
Just joking, Paula.
That's all for now and hand on heart it won't be another 4 months before the next edition.
Do ya best and Merry Christmas for tomorrow, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a website, Twitter deluge and occasional email newsletter which seeks to promote transparency and good governance in the corporate, political and media worlds. It is published by Stephen Mayne, the founder of Crikey.com, shareholder advocate and City of Melbourne councilor. To unsubscribe from this email list, click here.
Greetings for the first time since our last email update on August 25 and apologies for the 4 month gap between missives. If you'd rather not receive these increasingly occasional newsletters, click here to unsubscribe.
A first experience with the Takeovers Panel
After getting no satisfaction from the Virgin Australia board at the AGM, this application was lodged with the Takeovers Panel after the company proceeded with a highly dilutive $351 million capital raising which was designed to increase the voting power of three government-controlled foreign airlines - Etihad, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand - whilst giving Virgin the fire-power to do maximum damage to Qantas.
Our main beef was the artificial limit on the amount of additional shares that retail investors could apply for as was explained in this Crikey piece after our application was rejected but also vindicated by the huge $51.6 million shortfall in the $69 million retail component of the offer.
Does anyone else think it is ridiculous that Virgin's well-paid CEO John Borghetti did not take up even 1 new share, so his entitlement as one of the largest retail investors just transferred across to the three government airlines. Even chairman Neil Chatfield failed to take up his full entitlement in the 5-for-14 offer.
In a normal non-renounceable pro-rata capital raising, the fully surrendered Borghetti entitlement and partially surrendered allocation for the chair would be available for their more committed retail colleagues to take up so that retail investors as a class would not be diluted.
Instead the Virgin directors - only 3 of whom took up any stock - did a deal with under-writer UBS to limit "overs" to just 40% of a shareholder's entitlement which guaranteed there would be huge retail dilution, especially given the known apathy of retail investors when it comes to these sorts of offers.
Virgin shares finished up 0.5c at 39c yesterday, so the airline investors are in the money on the 38c offer, plus also pocketed a tidy under-writing fee on the way through whilst Etihad and Singapore lifted their economic interest through complex derivative arrangement despite not being allowed to creep above 20% under the Corporations Law and also not yet having approval to do so from Joe Hockey.
You can read the full Takeovers Panel decision here. Please note that the Panel also declined to require Virgin to announce a detailed breakdown of the shortfall in this ASX announcement, in stark contrast to the pro-disclosure culture shown by Ansell in the next item.
Modest Ansell take-up rate demonstrates retail apathy that Virgin exploited
The January edition of ASA's magazine Equity includes this "Bouquet" for a company which went out of its way to protect the interests of its retail investors:
To Ansell for looking after the interests of retail shareholders in their recent capital raising made in connection with a major US acquisition. While our preferred pro rata rights issue was not a practical option because of time constraints imposed by the acquisition vendor, the $100m share purchase plan (SPP) component represents about 23% of the capital raising whereas retail shareholders are only about 16% of the register. In addition, the SPP is priced advantageously for retail shareholders as the lower of the placement price and a weighted average market price during the offer period, less a 2.5 % discount. Many SPP raisings associated with placements are made solely at the placement price.
Sadly, the results of the SPP were announced yesterday and participation rates were quite pitiful for an offer that was always in the money and had the additional safeguard of a 2.5% discount to the trading price in the final days of the offer. Ansell has about 33,000 retail shareholders but only 2,932 of these or 8.88% did the rational thing and applied for the full $15,000 offer at the recent institutional placement price of $18.50. Based on last night's closing price of $20.83, these investors will enjoy a profit of 12.6% or $1680 if they sell on December 31, the day the shares are allotted.
That's what I'll be doing but why aren't other Ansell investors behaving rationally?
The average application for shares in what finished as a $72 million share purchase plan was $11,439 given that Ansell has informed us that only 6,294 shareholders applied, equivalent to 19% of the full register.
The ASA is becoming increasingly concerned by issues of retail dilution and we very much appreciated Ansell responding positively to our request for an email reminder about the offer the day before it closed on December 18. This generated an additional 690 applications but it doesn't help that Ansell, like most companies, only has email addresses for about 20% of its register. Virgin and Network Ten have also sent last day email reminders to retail shareholders after requests from ASA and we've also asked CFS Retail to do it with their SPP in January.
However, if there are any brokers or accountants out there who are not passing on these in the money Ansell-like opportunities to their clients then they should have a good look at their systems and service levels.
It is clear that ASA, ASX, the Federal Government and issuers generally have a challenge to educate and engage with their retail shareholders because this data from the Ansell offer is quite disturbing.
Participation rates usually fall away when a stock is performing badly but Ansell has been on a stellar run in recent times so you would think their shareholders would have enthusiastically stepped up to support an in-the-money SPP that would deliver instant gains.
Given that UBS has agreed to spend $1 million on financial literacy after admitting to rigging interest rates in Australia, maybe some of this cash could be directed at retail investors in the share market.
Keeping the pressure on over unfair capital raisings
Staying with capital raisings, we've also had the disappointing situation of last week's $1.4 billion Insurance Australia Group equity issuance which led to this letter being submitted to The AFR, although it was published in a reduced form:
IAG SPP should be $500m
Insurance Australian Group is the nation's 4th most widely held stock after Telstra, AMP and the Commonwealth Bank. So when the board decided to raise $1.4 billion of new equity capital to fund the Wesfarmers acquisition, why were the 754,061 investors who currently own less than 5000 IAG shares each limited to just $200 million in the proposed share purchase plan?
These ordinary Australians collectively own one-third of the company, yet they have been limited to just 14.3% of the capital raising in what is a clear decision to dilute retail investors as a class. Instead, the unknown clients of Swiss investment bank UBS have been selectively placed $1.2 billion worth of new IAG shares.
Surely it is time to reform the most flexible capital raising regime in the developed world when it comes to selective placements? If the Federal Government believes the property rights of shareholders can be trampled in this way, at the very least we should be told who UBS has placed the shares with.
And it is not too late for the board to lift the arbitrary cap on the SPP from $200 million to $500 million in order to allow IAG retail investors to collectively maintain their one third ownership of the company.
Stephen Mayne
ASA Policy and Engagement Co-Ordinator
Based on the low take-up rate at Ansell, IAG may not hit the $200 million cap, but it still begs the question as to why it was imposed in the first place.
UBS most likely to be involved when retail is mistreated
Brisbane-based company ERM Power raised $75 million through an institutional placement in November which was priced at a 10% discount to the prevailing market price. There was no attempt to accommodate retail investors with a Share Purchase Plan and, as usual, Swiss giant UBS was one of the key underwriters in a deal which was focused on the big end of town. The ASA will continue to press the company to better understand why it didn't respect the rights of small investors to retain their percentage stake in the company when capital needed to be raised.
And in recent days we've had another example with Hobart-based Ruralco which did a $25 million placement under-written by UBS with no sign of an equivalent SPP for smaller investors. The Ruralco AGM is coming up in February and if no SPP is announced by then, ASA will be in attendance coming off the long run.
A big AGM season for ASA
ASA generated a record amount of media coverage during the December quarter, as you can see here on our website.
Here are a few specific examples from the AGM season:
Sydney Morning Herald - 18 November 2013 - Virgin rebuked by ASA over capital raising - full story here
The Australian - 13 November 2013 - ASA wants Aurizon chairman to resign - full story here
The West Australian - Shareholders send message through strike threat
| The Australian - 4 November 2013 - ASA calls time on six chiefs - full story here ABC News - 22 November 2013 - Australian Shareholders' Association applies to Takeovers Panel to stop Virgin's capital raising - full story here Australian Financial Review – 11 November 2013 – DJs should apologise over shares and move on: ASA – full story here |
Courier Mail - 21 October 2013 - Suncorp directors forced to invest under new rules, positive and negatives with policy - full story here
Business Spectator - 21 October 2013 - Newcrest suffers another pay blow - full story here
Sydney Morning Herald - 22 October 2013 - Southern Cross Media chairman must apologise for 'sh*t happens' nurse prank comment: British MP - full story here
Inside Business, ABC TV - 27 October 2013 - Panel discussion about AGM season
Speaking of Inside Business, it is a real shame to see the program go out of business after 11 years. Alan Kohler, Steve Letts and the team did a great job and we'll miss it going forward. The farewell party at Bell's Hotel in South Melbourne was an entertaining and interesting night three weeks back.
Crunch time for finalising ASA's future policy guidelines
We had more than 80 submissions responding to our policy discussion paper which was released before the main 2013 AGM season.
A deadline of January 26 has been set for producing a response to the submissions and the next version of what ASA's final policy guidelines and standards will look like in 2014.
That will lead to plenty of work over the coming month as there's so much detail, conflicting advice and competing interests to accommodate, not to mention ASA's own historical journey down the policy road.
One thing that will help is if you take our a membership of the ASA to help resource our expanding research effort in 2014. If interested, just click on the image below:
James Packer gets slugged as Vic pokies revenue falls short
John Brumby's move to a venue-operator model for poker machines in Victoria does not appear to have been a great success.
The current Victorian Treasurer, Michael O'Brien, is the former Gaming Minister so he was well placed to understand the options for clawing back some revenue shortfalls.
The mid-year budget update released on the second last Friday before Christmas included a proposed slug on Crown, which sent its share price down 5% in one day.
Given that Victoria has a higher high-roller tax than its major Australian competitors, including Crown's proposed enormous casino at Barangaroo, stand by for the Victorians to cut Crown's high roller tax back to the national standard of 10% in exchange for this new pokies levy.
Finally on the pokies front, check out the latest from Paul Bendat's Pokieact website and this package of our past pokies coverage.
And try watching this 30 second anti-pokies ad made by Paul Bendat featuring our daughter Alice, who was 6 at the time:
Joe Hockey paying 30 basis points more for debt than Labor when defeated
It was very strange to hear Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens make the following statement in 2010: "There is virtually no net public debt in the country at all in contrast to much of the developed world."
The Federal Government's own debt management website now puts the gross debt figure at $296.6 billion and the bond issues will continue coming at a rapid rate now that 2013-14 budget deficit forecast has blown out to $47 billion, albeit partly because of the $8 billion capital injection into the Reserve Bank.
Joe Hockey and the Greens did well to negotiate the abolition of any debt ceiling and the Greens were sensible in negotiating a raft of good transparency measures as part of the deal.
The falling dollar might be good for resources exporters, but it certainly won't help to retain the confidence of our foreign bondholders. The key metric to watch is demand for Australians bonds and this is how the last few bond issues have finished:
December 13: $700 million of 3 year bonds which went for 3.01% and was covered 4.79 times.
December 11: $800 million of 12 year bonds which went for 4.457% and was covered 2.47 times.
December 6: $1500 million of 5 year bonds which went for 3.5738% and was covered 3.13 times.
Compare those outcomes with the last few tenders led by the Rudd Government:
Friday, August 23. 2013: $800 million 5 year bond offer expiring in January 2018. Average yield 3.198% and was 3.74 times subscribed.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013: $800 million 12 year bond offer expiring in April 2025. Average yield 4.168% and was 2.27 times subscribed.
Friday, August 16, 2013: $800 million 4 year bond offer expiring in February 2017. Average yield of 2.87% and 3.4 times subscribed.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013: $800 million 10 year bond offer expiring in April 2023. Average yield of 3.835% and 3.21 times subscribed.
Whether it's 3 years or 12 years, investors are demanding about 30 basis points of additional compensation to buy Australian bonds, which is not a good sign.
The next AOFM bond tender won't be held until January 15 but given the borrowing program ahead it is vital that Australia doesn't lose its coveted AAA credit rating. Given the large structural deficits faced by most Australian governments at the moment, there has to be some risk of a downgrade, especially if the Abbott Government proceeds with unsustainable tax cuts (ie carbon and mining tax) combined with unsustainable program expansions (ie PPL, Gonski, health and NDIS) at a time when unemployment has risen back above 800,000 and the commodity super cycle is tapering.
Grappling with deteriorating finances at the City of Melbourne
The latest quarterly financial update from the City of Melbourne continued a recent trend of declining financial strength after a heavy capital investment program.
Our cash balance, whilst still strong at more than $80 million, is down to a 19-year low after the council received a $230 million windfall from the sale of its electricity business in the mid-1990s as part of the Kennett Government's privatisation program.
If huge new investments like the Queen Victoria Market are to be delivered, council will need to think outside the square in terms of revenue and spending initiatives if it wants to remain debt free.
Over the past couple of months there have been very useful visits to both Brisbane City Council and City of Sydney to better understand their financial levers and pressures.
Sydney is in an enviable position with a $572 million investment portfolio, $55 million a year in rental income from commercial leases and $2 million a week coming through the door from developer contributions. This is why they only need to raise about $60 million a year from parking compared to more than $100 million from fees and fines (including Queen Victoria Market) in Melbourne. We'll struggle to squeeze that lemon any more and if anything we need to be less dependent on parking revenue going forward.
Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia at the moment and this is partly being driven by our low tax environment compared with Sydney and Brisbane where developers faces state and council taxes of up to $20,000 per apartment when they receive a permit. The Fisherman's Bend urban renewal area may see something like this for the first time in inner city Melbourne.
An evolving position on the East West Link
The City of Melbourne's position on the East West Tunnel continues to evolve at both the technical and political level.
At the August council meeting this year, officers produced a 25-page preliminary assessment and councillors voted 6-5 in favour of the proposition that council "does not support the East West Link as announced".
The six councillors who supported that proposition were the two Greens, the two ALP councillors, Cr Arron Wood and myself. Listen to the audio of the debate here, starting at around the 17 minute market.
Fast forward to December 10 and the officers came up with an excellent detailed technical submission for the CIS process which wasn't accompanied by any particularly strong political sentiment as you see in the outcomes. Based on press reports, it looks like the Linking Melbourne Authority is going to take up our suggestion to effectively bury the concrete flyovers in Royal Park before the East West Link accesses City Link.
A week after the big technical submission at the final meeting of the year, Labor's Cr Richard Foster put up the following motion as you can see in the agenda:
That council oppose the proposed East West Link and calls on the State Government to prioritise public transport infrastructure projects such as the Melbourne Metro rail project, to deliver long term sustainable solutions to Melbourne's urban congestion.
Cr Wood was uncomfortable with the bluntness of this motion and came up with an alternative which was more palatable to me, so we both voted against the original motion which was defeated 7-4 with only the Greens and Labor councillors voting in favour.
Cr Wood's alternative motion was passed 7-4 largely because 3 out of 5 members of Team Doyle ticket supported it. These formally supported words were certainly a hardening of the council's position beyond the words from August, but it wasn't as implacably opposed to the East West Link as the original motion from Cr Foster:
That council:
1.1. Reinforces its position that the East West Link is not supported in its current form, and defers its final position following the outcome of the CIS consultation process.
1.2. Advocates strongly to the State Government that the Melbourne metro project is council's top transport infrastructure priority and should proceed well before the East West Link, whether the proposed Link is supported or not.
Both the Lord Mayor and Cr Foster were at the top of their respective games during what was a very interesting and lively debate. You can listen to the full debate here, starting at the 57 minute mark.
Mega list tracking every AGM in 2013
The ASA produced this mega-list tracking every AGM that occurred in 2013, although we're still probably missing about 100 that will be added in time for the all-important re-launch of our website in the first quarter of 2014.
Whilst the ASX200 AGMs that we focus on tend to be pretty evenly spread between October 9 and November 29, it is clear that there is quite a ridiculous concentration of meetings in the last two weeks of November in the smaller end of the market.
For instance, there were more than 200 AGMs on the last day of the season, November 29, with the majority of these in Perth. With AGM attendance numbers continuing to weaken, we really need companies to work hard on both scheduling and the content to attract shareholders.
For instance, rather than be satisfied with only 8 independent retail shareholders attending the JB Hi Fi AGM, the board should better market the event to investors and hold it near one of their stores (ie South Wharf in Melbourne) with the lure of a modest spending voucher for those who choose to attend.
How institutional investors do better than retail from an earlier bookbuild
This list tracks the contrasting experience of institutional and retail investors when a renounceable entitlement offer has two separate bookbuilds to deal with the shortfall. The reason for this skewed result is that bidders in any later retail bookbuild have usually had their fill of stock from the earlier institutional component:
Westfield: did a $3 billion 2-for-23 rights issues at $19.50 a share in June 2007. The entitlement offer was non-renounceable but both retail and institutional shareholders were promised a premium from the sale of shares not taken up. The retail take up was 15.7 million shares and the surplus of 22.9 million were sold into a bookbuild at $19.50, with no premium. The institutional bookbuild fetched $19.60, so instos collected 10c compensation for not participating.
Primary Healthcare: did a $1.231 billion entitlement offer at $5.40 in early 2008 which raised $958 million from institutions and was about 80% subscribed. The shortfall generated a premium of $1.20 per share. Retail only invested $70 million and non-participants only collected 10c per share as the broader market was weakening.
Alumina: raised $910 million through a renounceable 5-for-19 offer at $3 a share in September 2008 which saw retail investors who didn't participate receive a 35c premium courtesy of the institutional bookbuild. This was less than the 70c paid to the 8% of institutional holders who declined the offer.
Wesfarmers: $2.9 billion entitlement offer at $29 in 2008. Institutions took up 96% and the shortfall attracted a premium of $8.25 from the bookbuild. Retail investors received a premium of $9.75 from the bookbuild. A rare win for retail!
FKP: a $324 million renounceable offer in 2009 at 40c. The $204 million institutional component was 97% subscribed and the shortfall clearing price was 46c a share, giving the non-subscribing institutions 6c a share. The $120 million retail offer was only 46% subscribed but the 162 million share shortfall generated no compensation in the retail bookbuild conducted a few weeks later.
Orica: a $900 million 1-for-8 entitlement offer at $22.50 in mid-2008. Institutions took up 70% of their entitlement and non-participants received 25c in the bookbuild. Retail investors only took up just over half of their entitlement, leaving a shortfall of 6.3m shares which attracted a 10c premium in the retail bookbuild.
Connect East: 1-for-2 entitlement offer in August 2009. Institutional component 87% subscribed and whilst the institutions received 3.5c a unit, the retail investors received only 0.5c a unit.
Sigma Pharmaceutical: did a 1-for-3 at $1.02 in September 2009. The institutional shortfall went off at $1.07, giving the institutions that did not subscribe a payment of 5c a share. The retail bookbuild went off at the issue price, leaving nothing for the holders that did not take up their entitlements.
ALE Property Group: entitlement offer in 2009. The $64 million institutional component attracted a 50c premium for non-participants and retail received 41c, but this was unusual because retail could also apply for overs.
Rio Tinto: everyone renounced, institutions and retail on the same terms, although it was slightly different for UK and Australian shareholders.
Lend Lease: launched a 5-for-22 offer at $7.70 in 2010 to raise $806 million. Was most unusual with a combined book build of 28.2m shares which sold at $8.60, given non-participants 90c in compensation.
ALS Ltd: the old Campbell Bros raised $246m at $7.80 a share in 2013. The $112 million institutional component was 92% taken up and non-participants received 95c for their rights. The retail shortfall was 3.89m shares and each attracted a value of 95c in the bookbuild.
ASX Ltd: conducted a $553 million entitlement offer in 2013. Institutions received $3.70 in compensation, whereas retail investors only received $3.40.
What happened to the News Corp AGM?
ASX-listed companies with a June 30 balance date must have their AGM by the end of November but the situation with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is hard to fathom.
For the last few years the News Corp AGM has been held in the last two weeks of October in either New York or Los Angeles.
However, when 21st Century Fox was demerged from News Corp, the smaller legacy company focused on print went off the rails.
Firstly, they asked for an extension to the deadline for their annual results, whilst 21st Century Fox was one of the earlier companies to report.
But the real surprise is with the News Corp annual meeting which still hasn't been called.
The only other major ASX-listed company that was late this year was Billabong, but it still managed to meet on December 10 on the Gold Coast.
If you believe this page on the News Corp website, there has only been one event for investors since June 5. C'mon Rupert, stop all this gratuitous tweeting on political matters and get your house in order by calling the AGM.
The company has a majority of its net assets Down Under so ideally it would be held in Australia.
The Mayne Report Rich List
BRW magazine used to do a great job with its various Australian Rich Lists but then Fairfax Media closed the magazine. Over the past five years we've broadened BRW's efforts to track any Australian who has ever been worth more than $10 million. We've got more than 1500 names with those who've fallen back below $10 million now italicised. Some of the entries are becoming a little dated and we'll endeavour to do a major update in 2014 but this list remains easily the most popular page on our website.
Deals starting to flow for Onmarket Bookbuilds
It is good to see some deal flow for the new service being offered by ASX Onmarket Bookbuilds.
Geoff Wilson was first out of the blocks raising capital through the facility before the business was even formally launched, then LNG Ltd raised $10.85 as you can see here.
However, the biggest deal so far involved the IPO of U&D Coal which raised just over $50 million in an IPO which closed on Friday. See the announcement here along with this story in The Australian today.
Having seen retail investors get diluted out of more than $10 billion since the GFC, I'm keen to support any facility which reduces discounts, challenges the investment banking crowd and potentially allows retail investors to directly bid into offers once the system evolves.
Keep an eye on the Onmarket Bookbuilds blog or the Twitter feed of its CEO, Ben Bucknell, for more developments in 2014.
Interestingly, I was calling for the Takeovers Panel to force Virgin Australia to use this service in an attempt to compensation non-participating retail investors in capital raising, but it didn't even rate a mention when the "reasons for decision" were released.
Crikey contributions in 2013
It has been a frantic year on the council and ASA front which has meant less time for freelance journalism, including contributions to Crikey. Indeed, there was only the following 18 contributions to Crikey over the course of the year:
How Citi and the cabal of billionaires shafted Network Ten shareholders
Crikey, Thursday, January 18, 2013
Time is right to bring Rio Tinto HQ Down Under
Crikey, Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Another year of media failure on campaign finance
Crikey, Monday, February 4, 2013
Mayne: Lachlan Murdoch firing bullets in all directions
Crikey, Monday, February 25, 2013
Gina Rinehart gets behind campaign to bring Rio Tinto to Australia
Crikey, Monday, April 8, 2013
News Ltd bites the hand that feeds on local government recognition
Crikey, Monday, April 29, 2013
Are the Lowys worth their $300m in salaries?
Crikey, Thursday, May 23, 2013
How Murdochs, Packers and Lowys play power and control
Crikey, Monday, May 27, 2013
How to reform pay rates for Lowy labour at Westfield
Crikey, Thursday, May 30, 2013
Feeney battling several fronts in Batman
Crikey, Monday, June 3, 2013
Holy factions Batman: preselection battle hots up
Crikey, Friday, June 7, 2013
Barnaby and Albo hug hides referendum divisions
Crikey, Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Strange trading in News Corp demerger
Crikey, Friday, June 21, 2013
O'Farrell breaks promise, gifts Packer $250m in two days
Crikey, July 5, 2013
Ugly billionaires dance on grave of independent journalism
Crikey, July 24, 2013
Media winners were those who got out of print
Crikey, July 26, 2013
Explaining Abbott's double slug on investors
Crikey, August 21, 2013
Foreign airlines snaffle an extra 3.88% of Virgin for $51.6m
Crikey, December 12. 2013
Sign up for campaign and governance Tweets
This might be the first Mayne Report email update in 4 months but we've been pumping out a tonne of content through Twitter, including several hundred tweets related to the thrills and spills of the AGM season. Click on the image above to join almost 19,000 followers on Twitter and get regular updates on breaking news, business, AGMs, council, media and politics.
From the member edition archive
The Mayne Report email newsletters go to more than 17,000 people but if you're a relatively new reader, here are links to some of the more interesting email editions sent out over the past five years.
2013
Franking robbery, East West trust breach, BHP bonuses, John Gay and plenty more
Sunday, August 25, 2013
ASA policy paper, Kevin Andrews on the pokies, Senate preferences and much more
August 19, 2013
ASA, Billabong, Westfield, Newcrest, Shorten, Turnbull, pokies and then some
Monday, July 22, 2013
Rudd v Gillard, referendum, Labor sleaze, Clive Palmer, ASA, City of Melbourne and plenty more
Monday, June 24, 2013
Calling time on Lowy excess, local govt referendum, MAV state council and Patricia's Skywhale
Sunday, May 20, 2013
Referendum, pokies, remuneration, Packer, Melbourne reforms, Downie and Briffa
Monday, April 22, 2013
2012
Backing Rudd, Lachlan Murdoch, Bob Brown media debate, Manningham governance, Gunns, Darebin, Lend Lease and St Kilda AGM appearance
Monday, February 20, 2012
The OZ goes mad, Murdoch piracy, AFR, pokies double rate, Gina unfit for Ten, council super blowout, BoQ rip-off, power speech and AGM mini-season
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
2011
Murdoch special, media inquiry, pokies, Manningham win, Zara, secretive Shortenite councillors and a Vodafone take-down
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Elected to ASA board, pokies, Rio, Santos, RHG, Hartigan, Manningham, capital raisings and Rich List
Thursday, May 19, 2011
2010
Election wash-up, Mayne Report strategic review, Manningham, Ten, Gina, Falloon for Fairfax, Orica AGM, ABC year-ender, Cornwall, Rich List and then some
Friday, December 17, 2010
Woolies anti-pokies campaign speech, Manningham mayor boxes on, campaigning for women, Bob Brown, pokies forum, HTVs, Rich List and then some
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Paperlinx, Packer, Murdoch, Manningham, pokies, Rich ex wives, foreign takeovers and much more
Saturday, October 23, 2010
DJs, legislate women on boards, ex Lib goes no pokies, preferences, Pratt-Shorten, Labor's debt, AG's report, Manningham council audio and then some
August 3, 2010
Director rankings, Rio, Westfield, New Matilda, MAP, Manningham, Paatsch, state election, Darebin, Moreland, rich list, pokies and much more
June 9, 2010
Political donations, Stokes, Westfield tower, Richard Colless, Manningham nursing home, state debt, Rich List, Grand Prix and more
February 23, 2010
2009
Woolies, Higgins, Manningham, upcoming elections, Fairfax, Centro, Rich List, Rams, Fitzie and much more
December 6, 2009
Seven AGM, crazy Perth visit, Fairfax, Telstra, Transfield, capital raisings and much more
November 9, 2009
News Corp AGM, Packer, Fairfax, James Strong, Woolies, Eastern Golf, Kohler-Gatto and much more
October 20, 2009
Bad Bendigo, Mark Day, Manningham, pokies, NAB, Asciano, Rich List, Paladin, hostile EGMs and much more
September 15, 2009
Macquarie AGM, Melbourne's decline, Asciano EGM, capital raisings, Goyder's pokies, speeches, fire, AGM diary and much more
July 28, 2009
2008
Collingwood AGM, Rizzo survives, ANZ shareholders MIA and Qantas delusions
December 19, 2008
ABC Learning, CBA's Centro brutality, sworn in, pokies, PacBrands and SPP plays
December 10, 2008
After 37 straight defeats, the drought is broken
December 1, 2008
71% backing at Centro, $11bn backing at BHP and huge Qantas protest
November 28, 2008
BHP backflip after $7bn backed our tilt
November 26, 2008
Combank's $700m ABC Learning debacle
November 13, 2008
2007
Fortescue Metals AGM: time for Twiggy and FMG to grow up
Sunday, November 8, 2007, 10.30pm
How $5bn worth of votes backed us against Rupert's dodgy gerrymander
Saturday, 20 October, 2007, 7.20am
Mayne family news
Laura and Alice have now both finished up at the local primary school and are excited about a new school environment in 2014.
Laura was girls school captain this year and handled proceedings smoothly at the final assembly on Friday.
Paula has had a good year working as a family law mediator, plus she assumed the chair of a not-for-profit family violence service and will soon finish up as President of the school council, now that we're down to just Philip remaining at the school.
Whilst many of you might be watching Insiders on a Sunday morning, we've spent the past few Sundays playing competition tennis with Laura, Alice and Philip being the only members of the 3 person team.
Opposition players and parents are quite surprised to come up against a one family team comprising Mayne, Mayne and Mayne, coached by Mayne.
In a few years time, we might even have a similar line-up producing an expanded and more regular Mayne Report - or running on tickets in various elections!
Just joking, Paula.
That's all for now and hand on heart it won't be another 4 months before the next edition.
Do ya best and Merry Christmas for tomorrow, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a website, Twitter deluge and occasional email newsletter which seeks to promote transparency and good governance in the corporate, political and media worlds. It is published by Stephen Mayne, the founder of Crikey.com, shareholder advocate and City of Melbourne councilor. To unsubscribe from this email list, click here.