CBD
Getting into the act … Peter Mattick and Philip Salter. Illustration: John Shakespeare
The founders of the junk mail company Salmat, Philip Salter (Sal) and Peter Mattick (Mat), are bracing for more social unrest today outside their watering hole in the northern NSW town of Chinderah.
More than a year since the Chinderah Tavern owners backed off taking a chainsaw to the historic strangler fig in the pub's car park (after a sit-in protest by a local tree surgeon), tempers are again riding high. Tree-loving locals will hold another rally around the tree at 6.30 this morning, armed with Christmas decorations, to protest the pub's plans to prune up to 60 per cent of the fig.
''Specialist veteran tree experts have advised the extensive pruning planned would be an indirect death knell,'' the Tweed Shire Council's Greens councillor Katie Milne has warned.
Cr Milne informed CBD in a ''red alert emergency'' email over the weekend that the ''health of the tree would be severely compromised'' if more than 20 per cent of its limbs were pruned. The tree was planted in 1894.
The unrest in the pub's car park all started when a climbing cactus caused one of the tree's branches to break off.
''Standing over 35 metres in height, this magnificent tree has provided shade and shelter to all who visit the Chindy,'' the pub's website notes. The tavern is part of Sal and Mat's Taphouse Hotel Group.
AMAZING RACE
The amazing journey of the previously-listed and Liverpool-founded loan shark best known for its links to the murdered businessman Michael McGurk and his accused murderer Ron Medich continues.
Amazing Loans pulled off in 2009 what was believed to be the first reverse takeover-demerger-takeover in Australian corporate history when a company run by its managing director Paul Mathieson (Investment Evolution Global Holdings), which itself appeared to be have been originally taken over by Amazing, came back to launch a takeover for Amazing. Truly amazing stuff.
Now the Mathieson-led IEG is back, with a scrip offer for the 932,081 cumulative redeemable preference shares in Amazing that were originally issued at $1 each in 2006, when Amazing was still listed. The shares were meant to have been redeemed on June 30. They have been unpaid since 2008, accruing a further 48¢ in entitlements.
But the amazing thing about the offer, aside from being in IEG scrip and not cash, is that it is priced at 15¢ a share.
Bizarrely IEG, which is making the scrip bid and owns 91 per cent of Amazing, says it cannot afford to fund the redemption of the preference shares at their issue price.
''AZD [Amazing] has advised IEGH that it does not have sufficient profits available to enable redemption of the CRPS [cumulative redeemable preference shares] nor does AZD consider that there are sufficient funds to pay the CRPS dividend entitlement,'' the offer documents note. Amazing.
MIND-BOGGLING
While Amazing cannot afford to pay out its preference shareholders, it has amazingly managed to build up more than $7 million of impaired loans to its mother company IEG (and two other IEG vehicles) last financial year - up from less than $3 million the previous year.
Meanwhile, Mathieson, who fled to the US in 2009 fearing McGurk would harm him (before McGurk himself was gunned down on a Sydney street), is now based in Las Vegas.
Amazing has now racked up about $154 million of losses. IEG is sitting on $132 million of accumulated losses.
IN PRINCIPLE
The Wayne McCrae-headed and Gold Coast-domiciled copper explorer CuDeco has sought to appease busy bodies in the corporate governance community after announcing a reshuffle in its board committee ranks.
The company on Friday night said it had appointed a non-executive director David Taylor to replace an executive Peter Hutchison on its audit committee. It will also appoint a non-executive director to its remuneration committee.
In its annual report CuDeco failed to provide a response to one item on the ASX's list of corporate governance council principles.
The principle sets conditions on how ''companies should have a structure to independently verify and safeguard the integrity of their financial reporting''.
In its response to the ASX council's governance statement (binding on all ASX 300 companies) CuDeco silently moved from principle 3 to 5. But in Friday's announcement, it said the board changes would comply with the ASX's principles.
BRITISH BURDEN
The Cameron Clyne-led National Australia Bank is being held back not just financially by its British banking operations.
It appears it has a customer service problem as well. The marketing research firm J.D. Power last month ranked the NAB-owned Clydesdale Bank at the bottom of its league-table for customer satisfaction. The UK Retail Banking Satisfaction Study ranked Clydesdale 13th in customer satisfaction after surveying 3899 people.
Got a tip? Email srochfort@smh.com.au
