Full Disclosure / Mark Hawthorne Columns
Friday November 21, 2008
Puntland offers up a Range of possibilities
Perth-based Range Resources is quick to issue a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange regarding its relationship with the self-appointed government of Puntland.
Wednesday November 19, 2008
Mrs Fang in a flap as her nest egg turns bodgie
A budgie, a housewife with a dodgy share portfolio and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 are an eclectic trio.
Tuesday November 18, 2008
Bud Gerigar gets his wings clipped
Loopholes exist within Australia's off-market transfer system that allow a budgerigar named Bud Gerigar to own a share portfolio.
Tuesday November 11, 2008
Opes filings reveal many tricks, no treats
Former Opes Prime boss and founder Lirim "Laurie" Emini has been fairly quiet around town of late.
Thursday November 06, 2008
Squeezing the last few drops from the cask
There's no doubt that Crown Oaks Day today will have its required impact on the nation's alcohol sales.
Wednesday November 05, 2008
Fat cats' playing field levels out on flat day
Celebrations at the the Birdcage had a decidedly sober flavour this year, as though some of the A-list revellers were still feeling subprime after previous years' splendidly excessive soirees.
Friday October 31, 2008
$55m executive payout takes its Toll
It's not going to be a season to be merry for corporate fat cats.
Thursday October 30, 2008
Newsagencies could be off Express hook
Australian newsagents could be spared from paying millions of dollars of lease payments for useless Bill Express equipment after the competition watchdog launched legal action against the failed electronic payments company.
Wednesday October 29, 2008
ASX casts Broad daylight on Opes trades
Opes Prime and its margin loan book of penny-dreadful stocks is still giving regulators headaches.
Wednesday October 22, 2008
Food for thought, fresh from the carnival
Charity starts at home, they say. During this year's spring racing carnival it will start at first light after each race day.
Tuesday October 21, 2008
Tabcorp fails to feature in winning circle
It has certainly been a star-crossed year for the nation's horse racing industry.
Thursday October 16, 2008
Tighten your belts: food takes next big hit
You can't criticise Joey Chestnut for not doing his bit for the US economy.
Wednesday October 15, 2008
Early indicators show the crisis is catching
Most executives are keeping an ear out for news of financial spot fires.
Tuesday October 14, 2008
Rebound leaves high-flyers grounded
The market rising 5% would normally bring great cheer to the plusher CBD offices of Sydney and Melbourne, but there is plenty more pain to be felt in the big end of town as bankers, brokers and traders lament what may amount to a dead cat bounce.
Thursday October 09, 2008
Shareholders have Rizzo in their sights
Talk about kicking a dog while it's down.
Wednesday October 08, 2008
Shareholders have words with Telstra
Telstra directors are used to getting the odd whack over their brash approach to government, rivals and regulation.
Friday October 03, 2008
Donald Trump hardly a draw card
It took Malcolm Quinn a year to sign up billionaire businessman Donald Trump for a record-breaking speaking tour of Australia.
Friday September 26, 2008
Graeme Samuel stands up to the Mike
It was an enlightened decision by Australia's fourth-biggest bank to sign a Brit as boss back in June last year.
Thursday September 25, 2008
Shemesian shenanigans continue in court
Fight for $320 million cashbox Cape Lambert Iron Ore heads into courtroom in Perth, with challengers to board seeking injunction to halt proposed African investment.
Tuesday September 23, 2008
Boisterous farewell for 'unquiet American'
Telstra chief mouthpiece Phil Burgess has made plenty of noise, so it is hardly surprising that he is departing amid much fanfare from the nation's dominant telco.
Friday September 19, 2008
Gravedigger joins hole diggers in the black
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.
Wednesday September 17, 2008
Power play targets Cape Lambert's big cashbox
No sooner had the cheque arrived with Cape Lambert Iron Ore's board than the well-planned smash-and-grab raid went into action.
Tuesday September 16, 2008
Some compensation amid Wall St deluge
A second tempest swept through the US over the weekend besides hurricane Ike, which hit Galveston, and is drowning the Wall Street banking model under a deluge of debt.
Thursday August 28, 2008
NAB's CDO man offered several RDOs
Melbourne's bankers, like Fairfax journos, are ducking for cover right now, as management swings a hefty axe in the direction of staff.
Wednesday August 27, 2008
Austrade all quiet over wrongful dismissal
The Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) has always been quick to tout its successes, whether it be flogging sheepskins to Russia or Aussie rules football to India, Austrade has an impressive record of helping Australian exporters crack new markets - at whatever the cost - and a well-tuned PR machine spreads the news.
Tuesday August 26, 2008
Packers don't always have the Midas touch
Timing is everything, the Packer clan will tell you.
Friday August 22, 2008
All quiet on the who-earned-what front
Telstra boss Sol Trujillo and his board have taken a public relations hammering over their significant pay packets.
Thursday August 21, 2008
Reporting season is open season on English
The joys of reporting season, a biannual corporate numbers festival that keeps the nation's accountants in work and out of sleep for months.
Wednesday August 20, 2008
BHP numbered for historical revisionism
Amid BHP's trumpeting of its results, a few investors noticed that a little bit of history seems to have been rewritten among the numbers.
Wednesday July 23, 2008
Merchants feel transferred terminal pain
Many newsagents and merchants have been stuck with rental agreements for Bill Express equipment that no longer works.
Friday July 18, 2008
Bill Express leaves $210m debt mountain
Those involved with the labyrinth of companies working out of the Bill Express headquarters in Eaglemont knew the end was coming months ago.
Thursday July 17, 2008
Sacre bleu! Le bail-out ruffles US feathers
Armed police are standing guard out the front of US IndyMac branches amid a run on the bank.
Tuesday July 15, 2008
The good oil on heated words in boardroom
There has been a boardroom split at listed oil exploration minnow Range Resources, with executive director Peter Landau resigning over the weekend after his relationship with managing director Mike Povey and key shareholder Leo Khouri reached boiling point.
Friday July 11, 2008
Bill Express web takes some unravelling
Bill Express and On Q empire labyrinth of related companies almost impenetrable.
Thursday July 10, 2008
B for belly up, not billions at Bill Express
AMID all the repercussions of the fall of Bill Express, burnt investors keep coming back to the same question - where did all the money go?
Wednesday June 25, 2008
Bill Express bad debt news bogs down ANZ
Another day has passed since Bill Express chief executive Ian Christiansen declared there was hope on the horizon for investors in embattled Bill Express and On Q, but shareholders are still waiting for news of a possible white knight.
Friday June 13, 2008
Anon. posts wicked wiki slurring our Sol
The broadband battle between Telstra and its rivals has been murky from day one, with mud flung from all sides.
Thursday June 12, 2008
Choiselat chooses the best form of defence
Paul Choiselat is getting pretty good at fighting battles, especially in the wake of the collapse of Opes Prime.
Wednesday June 11, 2008
Tatts gets all possessive over counter space
Today marks the official launch of new gaming industry player Intralot in Victoria, with a party at Sumac in Docklands to spruik the company's wares.
Friday June 06, 2008
Gun day trader picks himself up post-Opes
Since the collapse of Opes Prime, there has been plenty of action in the small-cap mining sector.
Wednesday June 04, 2008
Cheaper shots available OS for Grange
The conspiracy theorists have been having a good old time of late with Foster's Group.
Tuesday June 03, 2008
Perth office link to the tale of gold and guns
"Location, location, location," is the mantra of property investors around the world. For West Australian mining hopefuls, you don't get a better real estate location than 34 Parliament Place, West Perth.
Tuesday May 20, 2008
Tax, Wheatley and a tale of two Wickenbys
High-profile tax cheat, music industry supremo Glenn Wheatley, is back in his South Yarra mansion, where the meals are no doubt superior to those at Beechworth Correctional Centre.
Friday May 09, 2008
Circle three times and settle back to sleep
Paris of words - there are many couplings to be feared in modern management speak.
Tuesday May 06, 2008
No return to investors on Hoy's $8m yacht
The luxury yacht owned by Chartwell Enterprises boss Graeme Hoy is up for sale in Queensland, but burnt investors shouldn't get their hopes up for a return.
Wednesday April 30, 2008
Agius camp fights to keep information out
The business partners of Vanuatu-based accountant Robert Agius are mounting a last-ditch legal bid to stop information seized in police raids being sent to Australia.
Thursday April 24, 2008
Opes collapse claims Singapore victim
The fallout of the Opes Prime collapse knows no bounds: lawyers, gangsters, chief executives and mum and dad investors.
Friday April 11, 2008
Opes connections missed margin calls
Opes Prime portfolio statements for Sarah Brown and Cardiac Jolt confirm that both men should have received a margin call in July last year.
Wednesday April 09, 2008
Check Gatto's Opes' victim action website
After first courting the media, underworld figure Mick Gatto is now courting former Opes Prime clients and has launched a website for victims of the stockbroker's collapse.
Tuesday April 08, 2008
Opes victims go for Gatto
Melbourne underworld identity asked to intervene in collapse of stockbroker by anonymous group of investors who wish to recoup some of their losses.
Thursday April 03, 2008
Oh what a tangled web we weave ...
The more digging one does into the carcass of Opes Prime, the messier it all gets.
Thursday March 13, 2008
Perth mayor drops BHP HQ relocation bomb
It's a rumour that has run rampant through town for the past year - that BHP Billiton will shut up shop in Melbourne and move its head office to Perth.
Wednesday March 12, 2008
Savaged, but Big Jack brings home the bacon
Former Elders IXL boss and Liberal Party president John Dorman Elliott has officially been a cleanskin since June, when a court order issued in 2003 banning him from corporate life for four years expired.
Friday March 07, 2008
It's party time, but warning clouds gathering
Markets are plunging, interest rates are rising, but nothing gets in the way of a good function for Melbourne's rich and famous.
