Executive summary: November 30, 2009
By Scott Rochfort | smh.com.au | 30 November
If the residents of Dubai are a little jittery over the concept of the entire emirate landing in debtors prison, they at least have the poetry of their ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to comfort them.
Sheikh Mohammed has penned a poem called Jilted that could describe the emirate's relationship with its bankers.
"Oh, who jilted me, sublime images with me remained, oh, who jilted me. Follows you a heart whose owner, for love, owns it not," says one passage from the rhyme.
There is even a verse called I am patient, which could help to keep Dubai's creditors at bay. "I am patient with them, and patience endured. I may for my patience receive favour," it begins.
CBD's favourite poem by His Highness is The Night: "The night, oh home of pains and wonders. So much in you, of love, worry and mawaweel [sad love songs]. Haunted by the lashes of beautiful girls. Whose eyes are kohled without kohl."
Sheikh Mohammed's uncle Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum will head up to the Blue Mountains this Thursday to officially open his Emirates Airline's new six-star resort at Wolgan Valley.
MFS MONEY TRAIL
Creditors of the collapsed MFS Limited (aka Octaviar) are expected to push tomorrow for the liquidator of the Gold Coast finance group to dig deeper into transactions undertaken by the group before its collapse and when it was in the hands of its former administrator Deloitte.
Of particular interest are the $940,000 in consultancy fees paid by MFS to a firm set up by the group's former chief financial officer, David Anderson, over an 11-month period when it was under the control of Deloitte.
A nine-member committee representing creditors of the fallen investment group will hold a meeting in Brisbane tomorrow to discuss the next steps they want the court-appointed liquidator, Bentleys Corporate Recovery, to take.
Last week Bentleys issued an update to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that estimated the group had $2.24 billion of liabilities. Heading Bentley's list of reasons for MFS's collapse: "Poor strategic management of business."
Some creditors are also believed to be interested in the $2 million-odd in wages paid out by Deloitte when it was in charge, even though the company was running on a skeleton crew.
One of the crew members is believed to have been Craig Chapman, who was appointed chief executive when the former MFS shareholder Chris Scott led a management and board coup of the company. Scott also happens to be a former colleague of one of the creditor committee members meeting tomorrow, Jenny Hutson. Her firm Wellington Capital took management control of MFS's Premium Income Fund early last year, which happened to be owed money from its parent MFS.
Other transactions that may attract interest are the payments to a Gold Coast document shredding business, Shred X Pty Ltd. Deloitte took more than $1 million in fees.
THRIFTY ADVICE
The invalid of the property sector, Valad Group (aka Vlad the Impaled), has finally made some positive moves to prop up the finances of its suffering shareholders.
The Trevor Gerber-chaired company that racked up about $1.9 billion of losses provided budget tips for travelling to the Pitt Street venue of its annual meeting this morning.
In its notice of meeting, Invalid noted how Wynyard Station is within walking distance and how buses run along nearby George and Bridge streets. It remains to be seen if the only Invalid shareholder who seems to have done well for himself, Kevin McCabe, shows up.
McCabe signalled his intention to resign as a director last month. Today shareholders will be asked to ratify the $23.7 million placement, which was accompanied by a further one-for-four rights issue (at 10c a share), that helped to fund Invalid's final £29.5 million ($53 million) payment to McCabe from its purchase of his Scarborough UK property business in 2007.
When Invalid first announced the purchase, it raised $1.2 billion at $1.92 a security to help fund the deal. Now Invalid has a market capitalisation of $281 million, and McCabe owns a 3 per cent stake.
His interest in the Sheffield United Football Club seems in far better shape than Invalid. McCabe is chairman of the club, which reported a £5.7 million profit last week.
JUDGMENT GEMS
The toast of Phillip Street, Jodee Rich's silk David Williams, strayed into dangerous territory on Friday.
Justice Bob Austin delivered a thumping victory to Rich and Williams on November 18, but that doesn't give them carte blanche.
On Friday Williams was trying to persuade the judge to award "broad-brush" costs himself rather than hand the job to a court official or a referee.
"The obvious question is how would such a person start his job," Williams said. "He would start by trying to read the judgment."
Austin cut in. "What do you mean 'trying to'?"
Every word of the mammoth decision is a gem and on our calculations, with an average of 330 words a page, and 3105 pages, there are 1,024,650 of them.
BATTERY FLUID
The chances of Australians being able to energise themselves from a drink with a Duracell-like copper top are under threat.
The battery maker has applied to put its brand on energy drinks, beers, liqueurs and sparkling water in what seems to be an attempt by its owner, Gillette, to head off a Czech company's plans to bring a Duracell-looking energy drink to Australia.
Gillette recently published an ad that threatened legal action against anyone who infringed its trademark in Australia.
Sadly for drinkers of energy drinks that look like batteries, Duracell does not appear to be preparing to bottle its battery acid for consumers to sample. A spokeswoman for the company in Australia said: "We are not in the beverage business and are not launching an energy drink. Nothing has changed."
Sources expect the Duracell-like drink to be launched in Australia soon and potentially spark a legal battle. CBD will be keen to see if it has been tested on lab rabbits.
First published by Smh.com.au on November 30 2009
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