The 2008-09 $100m loss club - a chronology

August 24, 2020

The 2008-09 reporting season was the worst we've ever seen. Here's a chronological list of how the 53 losses above $100 million were rolled out.

Monday, November 16

Incitec Pivot: recorded a loss of $179.9 million for the 2009 fiscal year. This is in comparison with a profit of $604 million in the previous financial year. Despite this loss, revenue rose 17 per cent to more than $3 billion from its acquisition of Dyno Nobel.

Thursday, August 6

News Corp: reported a $US3.4 billion ($A4.2bn) bottom line loss courtesy of write-downs on investments such as Dow Jones.

Thursday, August 13

Stockland: announced a full year net loss of $1.8 billion. This compares with a profit of $705 million for the previous year and was caused by $2.4 billion in writedowns on investment properties and equity plays in rivals such as ING Office and GPT.

August 17

Lend Lease Primelife: announced a $247 million dollar loss for 2008-09 after poor market conditions and revaluations of retirement villages contributed to the change from the $41 million profit in 2007-08.

Tuesday, August 18

Dexus Ltd: the property company announced a full-year loss of $1.46 billion for 2008-09, compared with a profit of $428 million in 2007-08. The property portfolio was devalued by $1.6 billion.

Commonwealth Office: even the Commonwealth Bank's trophy office fund took heavy write-downs which delivered a $544 million net loss for 2008-09.

CFS Retail: even the Commonwealth Bank's trophy retail property fund took heavy write-downs which delivered a $367 million net loss for 2008-09.

Thursday, August 20

Challenger Infrastructure Fund: paid too much for assets in the UK so write-downs delivered a $139 million net loss for 2008-09.

Macquarie Infrastructure Group: announced a $1.71 billion loss for 2008-09 after belatedly writing down the value of its over-geared toll road investments, mainly in the US.

Lend Lease: a raft of write-downs sent the property giant plunging to a net loss of $653 million in 2008-09 compared with a profit of $254 million in 2007-08.

Macquarie Office: heavy write-downs of its large global office portfolio sent the bottom line down to an embarrassing $1.37 billion loss in 2008-09 compared with a claimed net profit of $208 million in 2007-08.

Friday, August 21

Macquarie Countrywide Trust: the shopping mall owner announced an annual net loss of $1.4 billion in 2008-09, largely due to write-downs on its over-geared US portfolio, much of which has now been sold.

Macquarie DDR: a $220 million loss for the December half blew out to $616 million for the full 2008-09 financial year after further write-downs of its regional shopping centres in the US.

Tishman Speyer Office Fund: the half year loss of $223 million was bad enough but further write-downs sent the US property fund tumbling to a $621 million loss for 2008-09.

Monday, August 24

AWB: troubles in its bleeding Brazilian business sent the old wheat monopoly to a net loss of $156 million in 2008-09.

ConnectEast: announced a $531 million loss for 2008-09 after writing down its single tollroad asset in Melbourne by $400 million and announcing a $421 million capital raising.

Cromwell Group: the Brisbane-based property group tumbled to a $113 million net loss for 2008-09 after taking a $104 million write-down on its investment properties.

ING Office Fund: the real estate group announced a net loss of $764 million for 2008-09 after property write-down and losses on hedging. This represented a turnaround of more than a $1 billion from a $246 million profit for 2007-08.

Fairfax Media: announced a net loss of $380 million for 2008-09, largely due to write-downs of its newspaper assets.

HFA Accelerator Plus: announced a loss of $150 million for 2008-09, reflecting falling investment markets.

Tuesday, August 25

Astro Japan Property Trust (formerly Babcock & Brown's Japanese play): heavy write-downs of Japanese property investments delivered a $367 million net loss for 2008-09.

Mirvac Real Estate Investment Trust: the half year loss of $158.1 ballooned out ever further to a $251 million loss for 2008-09 after more write-downs.

Wednesday, August 26

Australian Vintage: it has been a tough time for the wine industry and the old McGuigan-Simeon took write-downs which delivered a $123 million loss in 2008-09.

Centro Properties Group: shopping centre owner and operator announced a full-year loss of $3.54 billion as it slashed the value of its properties. This represents an increase of losses after the $2.4 billion loss recorded for the December 2008 half.

Mirvac Group: the property group posted a $1.08 billion loss for 2008-09, which was driven by $487 million in property revaluations.

Mirvac Industrial Trust: after a half year loss of $92 million, further write-downs took the full year loss to $224 million in 2008-09.

Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group: announced a $977 million full-year loss for 2008-09 but it arguably should have been much greater given the group still claims it is worth more than $1 billion.

Westfield Group: announced a net loss of $708 million for the first half of 2009 courtesy of $2.9 billion in property write-downs.

APN European Retail Property Group: write-downs and derivative losses produced a net loss of $309.4 million for 2008-09 but this only reduced net assets to $267.6 million when the market capitalisation is barely $20 million.

Lihir Gold: the gold miner announced a loss of $300 million for the first half of 2009, thanks to a $409 million write-down of its disastrous Ballarat gold mine.

Pacific Brands: the clothing manufacturer announced a $234 million loss for 2008-09 which is down from a profit of $117 million from the previous year. This result can be attributed to writedown charges and restructuring expenses, although sales revenue also fell 5.5% to $2 billion.

ING Real Estate Community Living Group: announced a $284 million loss for 2008-09 courtesy of property write-downs.

LinQ Resources Fund: mining investment write-downs led to a $193 million loss for the full year ending June 30, 2009.

Thursday, August 27

Abacus Property Group: one of the smaller property players but still took write-downs big enough to deliver a net loss of $102 million for 2008-09.

Crown: write-downs on its US, Canadian and UK assets delivered a loss of $1.2 billion for 2008-09, compared with a $3.5 billion profit in the previous financial year when it was demerged from the Packer family's media assets.

Eircom Holdings: the old Babcock & Brown Capital took an axe to its goodwill line and managed to come up with a net loss of $1.48 billion in 2008-09 which took it to a rather farcical position of having negative net assets of $660 million.

GPT Group: forced to write off $1 billion of value in a joint venture with the now defunct Babcock & Brown, the property trust announced a $1.19 billion loss for the half year to June 2009.

GEO Property Group: the former MFS fund took write-downs which delivered a net loss of $131.6 million for 2008-09.

OZ Minerals: with about $1 billion in cash and negligible debt, the old Oxiana and Zinifex still announced a $585 million loss for the June 2009 half courtesy of the fire sale of most of its assets to the Chinese government.

FKP Property Group: the retirement village owner announced a loss of $319 million for 2008-09. This compared with a profit of $145 million for the same period a year earlier.

Virgin Blue: announced a net loss of $160 million for 2008-09, down from a net profit of $98 million in 2007-08.

Valad Property Group: heavy write-downs after a foolish UK expansion program delivered a bone-crunching $1.49 billion loss for 2008-09 after the half year figure had come it at $821 million.

Friday, August 28

Sims Group: announced a $150.3m loss for 2008-09 after some write-downs.

Goodman Group: heavy property write-downs on its global industrial portfolio delivered a $1.1 billion loss for 2008-09 as it unveiled a massive capital raising to fix the over-leveraged balance sheet.

Babcock & Brown Power: the write-downs could have been a lot heavier but still deliverd a $148.9 million loss for 2008-09.

Monday, August 31

Paperlinx: should have declared a 10-figure loss but only managed to come up with a bottom line figure of a $798 million loss. The write-downs were certainly on the light side and is now claiming to have net assets worth $1.27 billion. That looks over-optimistic when compared with the market capitalisation of below $500 million.

ING Industrial Fund: reported a $1.17 billion loss for 2008-09 after heavy write-downs. They have probably still got more to go because claimed net assets were only cut from $2.09 to 96c a unit, still well above the current market price.

Keybridge Capital: announced a $129 million loss for 2008-09, reflecting falling investment markets.

Multiplex Acumen Property Fund: property write-downs sent it tumbling to a $107 million loss for 2008-09.

VDM Group: the Perth-based engineering and project management group took $88.8 million in write-downs which delivered a painful $105.6 million net loss for 2008-09.

Trinity Group: the Labor mates lobbying scandal has hit this property fund manager for six and the net loss of $225.9 million for 2008-09 showed how far the Brisbane-based company has fallen.

Paladin Energy: big write downs led the uranium miner to a $585 million net loss for 2008-09.

Friday, September 4

Elders (formerly Futuris)
Malcolm Jackman came in as the new CEO in September 2008 and managed a net loss of $329 million in the December half after $346 million in write-downs. However, this blew out to a $414 million full year loss which was delayed pending finalisation of a massively dilutive $550 million capital raising at just 15c.

September 30

Hedley Leisure & Gaming Fund: declared a $178 million loss for the full year after hefty write-downs which reduced claimed net assets from $326 million to $160 million when the market capitalisation is down below $50 million. The auditor is Graham Coonan from KPMG's Cairns office.

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Still to come
Galileo Japan Trust: was late with its December 2008 results which came in with a net loss of $196.4 million after heavy write-downs and we're still to see the full year disaster as banks consider pulling the plug.

No Announcement
Orchard Industrial Fund:
write-downs and derivative losses delivered a $137.6 million loss for the December 2008 half but this only reduced claimed net assets from $337 million to $191.6 million when the market capitalisation is about $60 million.

Not Finalised
Allco Max Securities and Mortgage Trust: writedowns delivered a $105.17 million loss for the December 2008 half.

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The 2008-09 $100m loss club - a chronology

August 24, 2020

The 2008-09 reporting season was the worst we've ever seen. Here's a chronological list of how the 53 losses above $100 million were rolled out.