THE flight to gold and oil stocks was expected as Wall Street burned, but one name that snuck into the list of 10 biggest risers on the Australian stock exchange was InvoCare — listed purveyor of funeral services and owner of funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums across the country.
Managing director Richard Davis sees the logic in his company's rising share price. "Maybe you could take our rise as a symbol of the times," Davis mused. "But my guess is you could call us a defensive stock. Ours is an industry that is somewhat recession-proof, you could say, and in these very interesting times the market will turn to defensive stocks."
It was also a timely rise, as Funeral Services Awareness Week begins on Sunday.
InvoCare was up more than 3%, at $5.35, during trading yesterday, to be one of the few stocks in the black amid a sea of red on the ASX boards.
It closed at $5.19, up 1.4%.
It was nestled among the miners: Sino Gold, St Barbara, Lihir Gold, Newcrest, Coeur D'Allen, OZ Minerals and Lynas Corp.
Oil and gas giant Woodside Petroleum was among the biggest risers on Wednesday, and was again in the black yesterday.
It wasn't just the funeral industry providing bad omens. The Brisbane Lions announced that No. 1 ticket holder John Pearce would retire after seven years in the role with the AFL club.
Pearce is the co-founder of listed debt collection business Collection House — a company you would imagine just might have a little bit on its plate in coming months.
Pearce remains co-chairman of Collection House.
The market is certainly concerned the receivables management sector will face tough times amid the global financial chaos, with many creditors heading for bankruptcy — Collection House was down 11.76% to 45¢.
Jail for ad man
Tsingaris, of Rosanna, Victoria, will serve a minimum of 18 months in prison.
The sentence follows an Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation into Tsingaris' flat-screen TV advertising business, Marketing Solutions Group Australia (MSGA).
ASIC alleges that between November 2003 and March 2004, Tsingaris transferred $160,000 of investors' money from MSGA's bank account to the accounts of two other companies he controlled — Marketing Solutions Group and IRM Digital. The money was used for "lifestyle and entertainment expenditure", according to ASIC.
Tsingaris pleaded guilty to one charge of dishonestly obtaining a $35,000 credit limit for MSGA with Arrow Electrical Imports, and two charges of misusing his position as a director of MSGA to gain an advantage for himself, in addition to managing a business while disqualified.
Lambert board battle
A vote to remove directors and replace them with a list of colourful characters — including day trader Leo "The Gun" Khouri — has been put in motion by Mick Shemesian and his Hong Kong-based company, Power United, which owns 11.38% of the stock.
One of Khouri's long-time friends and business associates, Steve Dellidis, was among the crowd at Mick Gatto's fundraising shindig in Melbourne on Wednesday night. The dinner was to raise money to fund the legal defence of alleged murderer Faruk Orman. Continued…
