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CBD

How mo will they go for Thodey? 

Telstra's chief executive, David Thodey, does not appear to have the same crowd-pulling skills as his Government-bashing predecessor Sol Trujillo.

The American Chamber of Commerce sent out an email alert yesterday that its members had their "last chance" to book for a luncheon hosted by Thodey on Thursday.

"Bookings close in 48 hours," warned the email, which had the ring of desperation about it. Maybe the event has struggled to sell enough seats as it is being hosted on Thanksgiving Day. And turkey is not even on the menu.

What does Thodey have to do to draw a crowd? Grow a moustache?

Making waves

It started out as a fund-raising Christmas knees-up for charity group SurfAid International; a few free Coronas at Kings Cross night club Kit and Kaboodle tomorrow night.

Titled "Surfing Suits", the idea was to tap into the gentleman surfer working out of Sydney's CBD to raise some cash for the group's health programs and relief work in Sumatra and the Mentawai Islands.

Then Charlie Lanchester got involved. A SurfAid donor, the Perpetual funds manager floated the idea that a day at the beach would be even better.

Before he knew it, he had 60 corporate types signed up and raring to go at North Curl Curl this Thursday morning with some expert tips provided by Cronulla legend, world champion Mark Occhilupo.

Attendees of varying skill levels include UBS's Australian chief executive, Matthew Grounds, Channel Nine boss David Gyngell, BT Financial's chief executive Rob Coombe, Ascalon Capital Managers' boss, Andrew Landman, and property developer Andrew Podgornik.

But the event will be dominated by fund managers, research sales people and analysts, including Macquarie's media analyst Alex Pollack, Paradice Investment Management's Troy Angus, BT fundie Andrew Waddington, Merrill Lyncher Matthew Unsworth, Colonial First Stater Martin Littler, Argo's chief investment officer Jason Beddow and former JP Morgan and now CLSA banking analyst Brian Johnson.

The charity was founded by the Kiwi doctor Dr Dave Jenkins almost a decade ago after he cruised through the Mentawais on a surfing trip and then decided to help eradicate malaria there.

The organisation came into its own when it was the only group capable of delivering food and aid after the Boxing Day tsunami.

Great lengths

The British are not known for their swimming ability. And the NAB chief, Cameron Clyne, recently found out that some of them also have some strange ideas about pool lengths.

On a trip to London, Clyne, a keen swimmer, was assured by his hotel that they had an "Olympic sized" pool.

"It left me with some concern that with the Olympics going to London, there's a vast array of British swimmers who are currently training for the eight metres," Clyne said yesterday.

The former rugby player went on to ascribe some swimming analogies for his mission at NAB, among them "I feel like I'm eight metres into a 1500 metre race."

But Clyne's metaphors became tangled in knots when he switched to athletics. "We know it's a marathon," he said of NAB's attempt to rebuild its reputation. Let's hope it will not be a 42 kilometre swim.

Body blow

A James Hardie chief executive, Louis Gries, yesterday picked an unfortunate way to describe an employee of the former asbestos sheet maker.

Fielding questions from analysts, Gries noted the company could soon start hiring more staff for one of its divisions. "I think I told you in September we thought we'd need 60 more bodies in R&R (Renovation and Repair)," he explained.

The good news, however, was that the bodies were at least joining Hardie, not departing. At a later half-year media briefing, Gries also received a pleasant shock.

He appeared gobsmacked not to receive one question from the press at the end of his lengthy results presentation, where it was outlined how the Federal and NSW Government would provide a $320 million facility to the cash hungry Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund.

Greiner grab

Former NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner has partly cashed in on the recovery of the listed foundry he chairs. Greiner has sold 50,000 Bradken Resources Limited shares at $7.16 a pop for $358,000, after overseeing an eightfold surge in the share price since their March low of 94c.

He is still sitting on a stake worth around $2.7 million. Greiner will no doubt be glad he picked up more shares under the Bradken dividend reinvestment plan in March when the share price was in the dumps.

The 28,291 shares he picked up then by reinvesting his $37,909.94 dividend cheque are now worth around $209,000.

Greiner is one of the few former Liberal/National leaders to have come through the financial crisis - along with John "Eastern Star Gas" Anderson - with his reputation as a company director intact.

The former federal Liberal leaders Andrew "MFS" Peacock and John "Elderslie" Hewson have not been so fortunate. Nor has the former National Rob "Asset Loans" Borbidge.

State of play

The Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, and his leadership team are not the only people to get some sympathetic coverage from the Chinese media.

The part-Chinese Government-owned copper and bauxite explorer Ord River Resources has gloated to the Australian Securities Exchange that it had scored some "positive coverage in China from Chinese state-owned and specialist financial media outlets".

Always helps when you have the state as an investor. Ord said the positive news related to its new joint venture in Laos. One story quoted by Ord noted how senior management at the company's new shareholder, the China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Company (CNMC), "believe this project is significant in terms of the group's bauxite reserve, sustainable growth strategy and continuing development in aluminium production".

CNMC's president, Luo Tao, offers more words of inspiration on his website: "A person with high aspirations should be magnanimous and strong-willed, regardless how heavy the burden and how long the road should be.

"Over the years, CNMC has kept firmly in mind its responsibility as a corporate citizen and happily accepted its social duties in resources utilisation, labour rights and interests, eco-environment, business ethics, and social development," he added.

CNMC also has investments in Burma.

Got a tip? email srochfort@smh.com.au

 

Insider

Edited by Jamie Freed

The property deal-makers are coming out to play again

The deal flow in the commercial property sector finally seems to be heating up now that many think the market is at or close to the bottom.

Commonwealth Property Office Fund (CPA), which was last week pipped by The Carlyle Group and South Korean's National Pension Service on the $685 million sale of Aurora Place, yesterday announced plans to spend $309 million buying assets in Brisbane and Perth.

CPA will buy a development property in Brisbane from Leighton Holdings and a 50 per cent stake in a building under construction in Perth from Charter Hall.

The purchases are being funded by a $100 million placement to institutions, managed and underwritten by Citi and CommSec, along with a $200 million convertible note issue.

It has ended a long dry spell for Citi's equity capital markets team. Elsewhere in property, Colonial First State Property is in advanced talks to buy the King George Central development in Brisbane from Devine for about $210 million.

Some traders speculated yesterday that CPA was looking at that purchase, but Insider hears that is off the mark. Also, the sole asset of the unlisted Stockland Direct Office Trust No. 1, a 50 per cent stake in Waterfront Place, Brisbane, could soon be for sale.

But it cannot be placed on the market until after a shareholder vote, due on December 11. Its co-owner, Stockland's listed arm, has a pre-emptive right over the holding, recently valued at between $207 million and $228 million.

British dreams

It may suit British Airways to try to revive the idea of a merger with Qantas, but under its new boss, Alan Joyce, the Australian airline seems much more focused on operations than corporate deal-making.

Yesterday Qantas held a briefing for analysts and fund managers in Sydney at which it gave an overview of its capital spending plans, hedging situation and plans to increase shareholder returns.

It revealed the Federal Government was due to make a decision on its tenders for preferred domestic and international airlines late next month.

About $500 million of annual business is up for grabs. Qantas has the most to lose because a stricter adherence to a best-fare-of-the-day policy could break its stranglehold, to the benefit of Virgin Blue.

Government employees tend to prefer flying with Qantas due to lounge access and frequent flyer point accretion, which means the national carrier benefits from the current lax enforcement of the best-fare-of-the-day policy.

Meanwhile, the British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, told the Financial Times he was still interested in a tie-up with Qantas, but he admitted he was aware of the negative response to the idea in Australia.

Local investors do not want Qantas's relatively strong returns diluted by the poorly performing British airline, which is about to merge with Spain's Iberia.

Qantas's main concern regarding British Airways is making sure the Australian competition commission allows them to renew their joint services agreement on the Kangaroo route to Britain.

Dawn of prime

In what is almost a new float, Prime Infrastructure, the recapitalised Babcock and Brown Infrastructure, will start trading under the code PIH this morning.

There is a new register, led by the cornerstone investor Brookfield Asset Management with 39.91 per cent, and there are three new directors, appointed by the Canadian group.

Brookfield was meant to own between 35 per cent and 39.9 per cent of the company after the recapitalisation, depending on the take-up of the share purchase plan.

The fact it ended up with a stake at the upper end means many retail shareholders did not invest in the new vehicle after having been burnt by BBI.

After a 4c a share distribution, BBI shareholders received only one Prime share for each 15,000 BBI shares owned.

Brookfield underwrote the first $87.5 million of the $250 million share purchase plan and clearly took up that portion, and the remainder was sub-underwritten by institutions that backed the recapitalisation.

Prime shares were in effect offered at $5.08, which compares with UBS's valuation of $4.89.

The broker is concerned Prime's assets will depreciate by $340 million this year, compared with its guidance for $90 million of capital spending on maintenance.

UBS thinks that over the longer term capital spending on rail and port assets such as Prime's should be similar to depreciation.
 
jfreed@smh.com.au

 

Business briefs

Investigation

Deloitte delays The liquidator of Babcock & Brown, Deloitte, has deferred its investigations into the failed investment group until early next year to allow more time to review a large number of documents.

Motor sales

Rates may rise A surge in motor vehicle sales last month could help convince the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates next month. New vehicle purchases rose 3.7 per cent, seasonally adjusted, to 81,122 units last month, from 78,243 units in September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Banking

ANZ buys asian ANZ Bank has completed its acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland's Philippines operation and will finalise its purchase of RBS's Vietnam division by December 31, it said yesterday.

Mining

Sam's looks to coal The one-time seafood wholesaler Sam's Seafood Holdings has caught the eye of investors after branching out into coal mining and acquiring up to 16 new coal concessions and six manganese concessions in Indonesia.

Toll shake-up 
 
Ludeke to leave The chief operating officer of Toll Holdings, John Ludeke, is to retire at the end of the company's financial year as part of an organisational and managerial shake-up.

Factory closure

200 jobs to go A decision by the vegetables processor McCain's to close its Tasmanian factory in favour of expanding its New Zealand base will cost up to 200 jobs and force local farmers to find new crops.