Wednesday Political Soup: Edition 4

Mallard's Fisticuffs rewarded in Cabinet Reshuffle



Trevor Mallard and the new Labour Cabinet - He's now The Speaker of the House 2017


While Helen Clark has been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic today, her cabinet reshuffle excluded boffer boy Trevor Mallard from being demoted and therefore he has managed to walk away from the violence that he inflicted on Tau Henare last week.

No surprises that Clarke has let yet another Cabinet Minister off their responsibilities when they f up because that has been par for the course over the last 8 years. Almost a dozen ministers have been let off for their various crimes and not so mis-demeanor's.

Drunken driving, fraud, assault, dishonesty and corruption have been among the list of misadventures by ministers.

The driving force behind these lapses has of course been our own fearless leader.

Aunt Helen has stolen taxpayer money to fund an election, lied about passing the anti smacking bill, fraudulently applying her signature to a document, sped at 170km through a small town in her car and a multitude of other crimes that escape my memory at present.

She hasn't taken responsibility for any of these things

No wonder Duckman was let off the hook.


Playing snap has never been this much fun


News last week that Pita Sharples used the race card to get political exposure was rounded upon by Labour lap dog Winston Peters who agreed that yes Pita was using the race card and what was he doing using the card that he was accustomed to using leading up to an election year.

The race card was pulled out by political racist Sharples when he called the raids against terror suspects in the Uraweras racist against Maori, even though the suspects were training with illegal weapons, napalm and god knows what else-possibly army surplus swiss army knives.

Peters called snap on Pitas race card when he said Pita was using the race card by calling the raids racist and he was only doing it for political gain.

Pita subsequently snapped back that Peters was using the whole situation for political gain and criticism that he was doing the same was condemned as racist.

The game has continued but given that Peters is dressed much more immaculately than Pita, Peters is bound to win this game of snap.

Christ the race card is Peters game!

No news yet that Sharples isn't playing with a full deck.


Tizard the Joker in reshuffled Deck



News today that the Auckland issues portfolio is going to be ditched can't be much of a surprise to the Minister Judith Tizard.

She has struggled to make any headway in the big smoke and the negative legacy of her mother as the Mayor of Auckland in the 1980s lingers in the Junior Tizard's failure to get Auckland traffic moving in a forward direction.

Perhaps the single biggest loser by her was her failure to get another habour crossing anywhere close to being built.

The aging bridge is in danger of collapsing but don't worry Judith has faith that it will stay upright.

Lets cross our fingers.




Cartoon: Emmerson







c Darren Rickard 2007

Auckland Airport Merger deal nosedives

News today that a bid by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for a sizable stake in Auckland International Airports [AIA.NZ] has been rejected by the Airport board is no surprise considering what was on offer.Chairman of the Board of Auckland Airport, John Maasland, said the proposal would have involved an amalgamation and the creation of a newly listed airport company. Under the deal Canada Pension would have owned between 39% and 49% of the new company.

"If the amalgamation proposal went ahead existing Auckland Airport shareholders would have retained between 51% and 61% of the new company and maintained an investment in the restructured company."

It is understood that there were offers of various structures giving value to shareholders of up to $3.90 per share.

The company would also have been loaded up with considerably more debt.

I didn't think this or any other deal would go through and I said so months ago but the reason for the deal falling through, while clear, I never considered.

While I am extremely pleased that the deal fell over, I think at least shareholders could have been asked for their input on the proposal.

The company has excellent long term prospects and shareholders who didn't bail out today will reap the long term rewards.

AIA shares were down NZ .21c today to $2.87 on heavy volume.


Disc I own AIA shares in the Share Investor Portfolio



Queenstown Airport Buyout @ Share Investor

Queenstown Airport: Air New Zealand's Crocodile Tears
Queenstown Airport: AIA purchase good Long-Term but will cost shareholders Short-Term


AIA @ Share Investor

Long Term View: Auckland International Airport
VIDEO - Simon Moutter on Australian Airport Purchase
Auckland Airport Capital Raising a fair call
Auckland International Airport lands Australian Ports
What Infratil sale of Auckland Airport stake means...
Is another Auckland Airport bid likely under a business friendly Government?
Latest Airport coverage
Cullen's move on Auckland Airport has far reaching effects
Cullen's move on AIA tax plan Anti-Business
AIA profit stays grounded
Softening opposition to CPPIB bid for AIA
Directors of AIA bribe brokers not to sell
What is Auckland Airport worth to you?
Second bite at AIA by CPPIB might just fly
AIA new directors must focus on shareholders
Auckland Airport merger deal nosedives
The Canadians have landed
AIA incentive scheme must fly out the window
Government market manipulation over AIA/DAE deal
DAE move on AIA: Will it fly?

Discuss this Stock @ Share Investor Forum - Register free
Download AIA Company Reports
Download Queenstown Airport Company Reports





c Share Investor 2007

The Black Economy makes Sense

No the title of this post isn't really about slave labour but it might as well be.




New Zealanders have been beaten over the head over recent years regarding tax cuts. Labour has been taxing and spending their way through the last 8 years and National have promised to give back the stolen booty should they seize the Treasury benches in 2008.

What have these high taxes been doing to our economy and what do they do to economies in general though?

If New Zealand Inc was a business, apart from the fact that it would be a very small one on a global scale, its shareholders would be demanding higher dividends, more accountability for company spending and more investment back in the "business".

The high rate of tax removed from NZ Incs balance sheet hasn't gone back into productive spending, it has really been taken out of the business completely, washed through many levels of management and then spent on fast cars, big houses, expensive chocolate biscuits and left handed screw drivers for the company executives and their friends.

Certainly not the kind of spending that produces income and also not sustainable in the long run.

If this huge amount of tax money was allowed to stay in the business of New Zealand Inc then the company would clearly be manifold times better off than it is now and we would all benefit from some quite large special dividends.

Lowering taxes actually stimulates economies and business and in the long run more tax is collected because the business functions allot more efficiently because capital is not tied up or wasted in pockets burning to spend it on wasteful things.

One only has to look at economies with low tax rates to see how well they do. Ireland and Singapore are two excellent examples of how well economies do when they are not burdened with the weight of high taxes.

Of course the "black economy", where there is no tax and only two participants, the buyer and the seller, involved in the transaction, is the single most efficient form of economy or business there is.

The way of the world of recent decades has been to cut out the "middleman", chain stores like Walmart and The Warehouse get goods delivered directly to their warehouses instead of buying through an importer and most retail now works this way.

Perhaps the most obvious example of the middleman not longer taking his cut is business done through the Internet.

Musicians, writers, movie makers , individuals auctioning their household furniture and a whole host of entrepreneurs are now doing business without using a go between with his hand out taking a cut of your income.

It is so efficient, why wouldn't you!

This is why the Internet works so well for business. It is most like how the black economy in the "bricks and mortar" world works.

Lets strip out those extra burdens to business and economies, the high taxes, and then we will all prosper for our hard work, as we should.

Clearly there needs to be some sort of nominal tax, of about a 10% maximum, to allow defence and police to function but any more than that just encourages waste and inefficiency.

I wont hold my breath but it is worth writing about so at least it might plant a seed in some of my dear readers heads.




c Darren Rickard 2007

The Black Economy makes Sense

No, the title of this post isn't really about slave labour but it might as well be.

New Zealanders have been beaten over the head over recent years regarding tax cuts. Labour has been taxing and spending their way through the last 8 years and National have promised to give back the stolen booty should they seize the Treasury benches in 2008.

What have these high taxes been doing to our economy and what do they do to economies in general though?

If New Zealand Inc was a business, apart from the fact that it would be a very small one on a global scale, its shareholders would be demanding higher dividends, more accountability for company spending and more investment back in the "business".

The high rate of tax removed from NZ Incs balance sheet hasn't gone back into productive spending, it has really been taken out of the business completely, washed through many levels of management and then spent on fast cars, big houses, expensive chocolate biscuits and left handed screw drivers for the company executives and their friends.

Certainly not the kind of spending that produces income and also not sustainable in the long run.

If this huge amount of tax money was allowed to stay in the business of New Zealand Inc then the company would clearly be manifold times better off than it is now and we would all benefit from some quite large special dividends.

Lowering taxes actually stimulates economies and business and in the long run more tax is collected because the business functions allot more efficiently because capital is not tied up or wasted in pockets burning to spend it on wasteful things.

One only has to look at economies with low tax rates to see how well they do. Ireland and Singapore are two excellent examples of how well economies do when they are not burdened with the weight of high taxes.

Of course the "black economy", where there is no tax and only two participants, the buyer and the seller, involved in the transaction, is the single most efficient form of economy or business there is.

The way of the world of recent decades has been to cut out the "middleman", chain stores like Walmart and The Warehouse get goods delivered directly to their warehouses instead of buying through an importer and most retail now works this way.

Perhaps the most obvious example of the middleman not longer taking his cut is business done through the Internet.

Musicians, writers, movie makers , individuals auctioning their household furniture and a whole host of entrepreneurs are now doing business without using a go between with his hand out taking a cut of your income.

It is so efficient, why wouldn't you!

This is why the Internet works so well for business. It is most like how the black economy in the "bricks and mortar" world works.

Lets strip out those extra burdens to business and economies, the high taxes, and then we will all prosper for our hard work, as we should.

Clearly there needs to be some sort of nominal tax, of about a 10% maximum, to allow defence and police to function but any more than that just encourages waste and inefficiency.

I wont hold my breath but it is worth writing about so at least it might plant a seed in some of my dear readers heads.



Recent Share Investor Reading

• BOOK REVIEW: Warren Buffett on Business
• Auckland International Airport lands Australian Ports
• Feb reporting season will indicate any economic "recovery"
• Share Investor's 2010 Stock Picks
• The Warehouse: Big Brands, Big Opportunities
• Metlifecare: Its Assets could be worth more under better management

Discuss this topic @ Share Investor Forum - Register free




c Share Investor 2007

Share Investor Portfolio

I used all the second half 2007 dividends to buy some more shares today.

I added another lot of Pumpkin Patch(PPL) and two new companies to the portfolio.

Postie Plus Group(PPG) and Kiwi Income Property(KIP) are the newbies.

I like Postie Plus because of its wide range of brands at the lower end of the market and Kiwi Income because its mall looks set to dominate the area that it is situated in for some time to come.


The full portfolio is as follows

Auckland Airport
ASB Bank Preference Shares
Fisher and Paykel Health
Fletcher Building
Freightways
Goodman Fielder
Kiwi Income Property
Mainfreight
Postie Plus
Pumpkin Patch
Ryman Healthcare
Sky City Entertainment
Steel & Tube
The Warehouse Group




c Share Investor 2007

The Dots get the Hots

Dominos Australia wants
a slice of the Global Pizza
Market.

Doing what our domestic Pizza Franchisee with the Pizza Hut license, Restaurant Brands [RBD.NZX] couldn't do, Dominos Australia [DMP.AX]the Australian arm of US giant Domino's is successfully expanding overseas.

It will open at least 35 stores in Europe each year until it reaches 1000 stores, betting on rising demand for home delivered food.

Domino's has a total of 667 stores, with 404 in Australia, 65 in New Zealand and a combo of 198 in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Restaurant Brands [RBD.NZX] delivered appalling results when it bought the ailing Pizza Hut chain in Victoria Australia in 2000, with a total of around 60 stores.

Poor management was unable to turn company fortunes around and RBD has now almost finished selling their OZ arm after losing 10s of millions of shareholder dollars.

The pizza biz is a very competitive industry but if Domino's OZ expansion works then their slice of profits will get bigger.

Their approach to the New Zealand pizza market is far more aggressive and competent than RBDs and the signs look good for them to take it to Pizza Hut in a big way.

Domino's Australia is listed on the ASX .


Related Share Investor reading

Domino's Australia dominant in Australasia




c Share Investor 2007

Tim Saunder's independence in question

Contact Energy[CEN.NZX] got together for an annual meeting yesterday. The biggest subject on the agenda, the appointment of some directors, particularly little Timmy Saunders, who was a director of failed Feltex Carpets.

Like all boards, Contact's board is supposed to be made up of independent directors but Tim Saunders allegiances lie with Origin Energy [OST.ASX]the majority Aussie owner of Contact.

Institutions want Saunders removed because of his involvement with the Feltex collapse and his twice advocating a bungled a sale of Contact that cost the company millions but Origin want him to stay to keep them primed for another attempt at a takeover.

The offer by Origin for Contact was at a massive discount to market and shareholder expectations but because Origin owns just over 50% of Contact and has enough Origin aligned shareholders on the board Timmy and his mates decided to give the deal the big rubber stamp.









Contact Energy @ Share Investor

Stock of the Week - Reprise 3: Contact Energy Ltd
Long Term View: Contact Energy Ltd
Stock of the Week: Reprise 2 - Contact Energy
Stock of the Week: Reprise - Contact Energy
Not so fast Davy Boy
Still Watching Contact Energy
Beam me up Davy
Stock of the Week: Contact Energy
MarketWatch: Contact Energy - June 2009
MarketWatch: Contact Energy - Jan 2009
Contact Energy looks bright during dark times
Share Investor's 2009 Stock Picks
Follow the Monopoly Board

Discuss this stock at Share Investor Forum - Register free

Download CEN Company Reports



c Share Investor 2007

Share Investor Friday Free for all: Edition 9

Airport lands big numbers in 2011



Auckland Airport

News today that Auckland Airport(AIA) is going to plunk down a huge NZ$180 million to expand the international terminal to coincide with the 2011 Rugby World Cup-the year we get the cup back,yeah right-means that the company clearly needs to borrow more or has a partner with deep pockets.

The extension will almost completely revamp the entire terminal and mean extra revenue streams through extended retail, car parking and the like.

No more news about the Canadian Pension Fund takeover yet but an extension such as this could make any possible sale more palatable given that Manukau and Auckland City Councils are shareholders and would want the airport to cope with all those South Africans springboking over here in 2011.

Long-term, Auckland Airport looks good for growth and shareholders would be much better off holding on to their shares.


Sky City Folds


Auckland Sky Tower,
just above the Casino


I'm not sure about you but the Sky City Entertainment(SKC) Annual meeting today left me none the wiser.

Recent profit guidance's were confirmed, much was made of the revamp of Auckland Casinos main floor and the usual blah.

Of more concern was news that the Adelaide Casino sale process was on hold and shareholders wont find out whether the company is going to be bought until the end of November.

We were told not so long ago that we would find out at the end of October and that Adelaide would still be on the block.

Now there is talk of revamping Adelaide in a similar way to the Auckland Casino because they know they can get it right, after years of getting it wrong and this is a turnaround from a few months back where management were "identifying assets to sell" and Adelaide was a prime candidate.

You would have to ask what has changed?

At least management have confirmed that the Cinema division is still on the block and we will know what for at the end of October.


Contact has Gas



Contact Energy Geothermal Plant

Contact Energy(CEN) also got together for an annual meeting today. The biggest subject on the agenda, the appointment of some directors, particularly little Timmy Saunders, who was a director of failed Feltex Carpets.

Like all boards, Contacts board is supposed to be made up of independent directors but Tim Saunders allegiances lie with Origin Energy, the majority Aussie owner of Contact.

Institutions want Saunders removed because of his involvement with the Feltex collapse and his twice advocating a bungling a sale of Contact, that cost the company millions but Origin want him to stay to keep them primed for another attempt at a takeover.


NZX up in the Charts


Mark Weldon

Stock Exchange operator NZX today reported a 49 per cent lift in third quarter net profit after tax to $NZ2.3 million.

The company said the lift in net profit for the three months to the end of September from $1.5m in the third quarter of 2006, was achieved on operating revenue up 34 per cent to $8m.

We have seen a dearth of listings this year, unless you count spectacular failures like Burger Fuel(BFW) and Xero(XRO), a number of companies have been swallowed up and a high number of the larger blue chips look set to go as well, with The Warehouse(WHS) Auckland Airport(AIA) and Sky City Entertainment(SKC) under the cloud of a sale process.

Weldon said that he looked forward to more quality listing in 2008, with a number of private equity owners looking to sell down.

One he mentioned was the owner of Griffins and Tegal, Pacific Equity Partners.


NZX Market Wrap

A slide to one-month lows for top stocks Telecom(TEL) and Contact Energy(CEN) depressed the New Zealand sharemarket today, in contrast to solid gains for markets around the region.

The NZSX-50 benchmark index closed down 40.43 points, or 0.9 per cent, at 4226.71, on turnover totalling just $88 million. Falls outnumbered rises 62 to 40.

"Our market bucked the trend really. We were down, but mainly around company-specific news like Contact," said Philip Hunter of First NZ Capital.

Telecom fell 11c, or 2.5 per cent, to a month low of $NZ4.31 after announcing an undertaking to have fast broadband to every town in the country within four years. Telecom will spend $1.4 billion on its next generation network and fast broadband over five years.

Contact Energy fell 19c, or 2 per cent, to $9.05 after it told shareholders that earnings would be flat, as the company battled high gas prices and low wholesale power prices.

"They just reiterated that the environment was going to be a bit tougher this year, so the market took that as a cue to just bring the stock price back a bit," Mr Hunter said.

Sky City(SKC) was down 2c to $5.40 after it said it was quitting the sale of its Adelaide casino while bidders sized the company up. It said it was comfortable with its August projection of a 10-12 per cent increase in profit in fiscal 2008.

NZX jumped 19c to $9.50 after it reported a 49 per cent rise in third quarter net profit to $2.29m.

Mainfreight(MFT) rose 8c to $7.40, continuing a strong run recently, (FRE)Freightways lost a cent to $3.79.

The general tone is that the domestic economy is getting a little bit tougher, costs are coming up a bit and margins are getting squeezed."

Auckland Airport(AIA) fell 5c to 306, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare(FPH) was flat at $3.28, F&P Appliances(FPA) shed 12c to $3.45, and NZ Refining(NZR) fell 15c at $7.41.

Air New Zealand(AIR) was down 2c at $2.12, Rakon(RAK) was 9c lower at $5.26, Pumpkin Patch(PPL) fell 3c to $3.05, and Fletcher Building(FBU) was off 8c at $12.18. Fletchers has dropped markedly this week over market worries related to a possible takeover by the company of Carter Holt.

Ryman(RYM) gained 4c to $2.15, Tourism Holdings(THL) was up 4c at $2.36, Nuplex(NPX) gained 8c to $7.58.

NZPA & Share Investor

NZ Dollar Wrap

Reuters currency rates:

4.30 today 5pm yesterday(NZ Time)

NZ dlr/US dlr US76.38c US75.36c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A83.89c A83.47c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5334 0.5281
NZ dlr/yen 87.30 86.95
NZ dlr/stg 37.22p 36.81p
NZ TWI 71.03 70.24
Australian dollar US91.03c US90.28c
Euro/US dollar 1.4322 1.4269
US dollar/yen 114.28 114.07

Disclosure: I own SKC, AIA shares

C Share Investor 2007

Duck Season Extended: Trevor Mallard must go

Trevor takes out the Trash


You don't get comedy written this well. Trevor Mallard took a swing at Tau Henare and him square in the face in a Parliamentary corridor yesterday.

Mallards motivation was the taunting by Henare in chambers about Mallards personal life falling about his ears.

The main spark to the big ducks fire was the National Party member Henare calling Mallard a hypocrite for abusing Don Brash in Chambers last year about leaving his wife for a new partner 20 years ago, while all the while Trev had left his wife or was possibly cheating on her, although that cannot yet be confirmed.

Mallard was one of the collectivists who voted for the anti smacking bill this year, a bill supposedly passed to stop violence. The "h" word is clearly appropriate again.

Lets face it, Mallard is one if the most inappropriate people to be in the position he is in.

His nasty, venal and ugly form of politics is more at home in Muldoons era rather than the touchy feely PC hairiness of Helen Clark's far left smothering.

He can dish out the nastiness but cannot take it. He clearly ain't clever enough to use his intellect to retort so has to resort to fisticuffs.

The most interesting part of this whole saga though is the reaction of Clark and her sisterhood to the violence that Mallard has displayed.

If this had been Hehare throwing the punch you can be sure Helen and co would be baying for Henare's job and the language used by her to describe the incident would be forceful and straightforward.

Instead Mallard has apologised and Clark has done her best to sweep the whole thing under the carpet.

The double standards are obvious here.

The physical violence of Mallard is of course is only surpassed by the social, psychological and economic violence of Labour Party policies of the last 8 years, so the acceptance by the Labour Party of Mallards despicable behaviour could be at least understood somewhat.

Parliamentary rules require that such incidents require severe punishment even losing ones position in Parliament completely.

Clearly this needs to happen in this case and nothing short of Mallard losing his job should be acceptable to the New Zealand public, excluding nutcase Labour voters of course.

Real violence like this, isn't acceptable. Duckman has made a habit of this kind of offensive stuff, once threatening to place a large Heineken bottle up a prominent persons dark places. This should be the last post for him.

Any other person in any other job would be sacked instantly.

Duckman needs the bullet.


C Darren Rickard

Conflicting Emotions

I was prompted to write this piece after having a discussion with someone in the real world-offline that is-about this blog, my reasons for writing and how I could possibly write about companies that I have a financial interest in.

What I would argue, is how can you write about a company with any authority and conviction without having some of your own moola on the line.

Of course one of the biggest arguments against writing and having a pecuniary interest in your subject is that your output may be tainted and that of course you have a financial imperative to spin your story to make it positive and fluffy.

That is true of some but you are bound to get caught out eventually if all that you commit to the PC is unmitigated candy floss.

I prefer to write about what is happening in the company from day to day, good or bad.

Of course I may put my own "slant" on things but it is unintentional and is purely my own style of writing.

Once you get to know how I write then I guess you may be able to see right through the crap!

Clearly I bought the companies that I sometimes write about so I do see them as good buys and I am bound to accentuate the positive when things are going well. On the other hand if anything is going wrong, I will be one of the first to point it out.

If anything, when I have a financial interest in my subject I tend to be more critical than if I had no money invested. My passion for the subject allows me to explore the negative aspects of a company even if individuals reading it get the wrong idea and perhaps decide they wouldn't want to buy shares in a company because I may have have written something disparaging about it.

Every company goes through bad patches and I will talk about those as well as the good times, I will leave it up to broking houses, brokers and some mainstream commentators to give the market the spin.

In the end it is up to the reader and individual investor to accept or reject the screeds of comment about some companies and make up their own mind.


c Share Investor 2007

Wednesday Political Soup: Edition 3

Two Time Loser

Last week saw the Labour Party chief finger wagger Steve Maharey announce that he wasn't going to run for the 2008 Election but take up the offer by Massey University for the position of Vice Chancellor.

He was previously a student, then a lecturer at the University and after nearly 18 years in Parliament has never held a productive job in the private market sector in his life.

A perfect candidate for the Labour Party of course but both Labour and Massey University will be losers. Losers because Labour need an effective smarmy politico to push more nut case lefty social reforms and Massey are big losers because they are lumbered with a collectivist who will want to push the same sorts of "Labour Like" Socialist reforms on campus.

The only winners will be the New Zealand public who no longer have to put up with this control freak who was behind one of this countries biggest attacks on the family, the anti smacking law, that was passed earlier this year.


Say what?

Dillousional Labour MP
Darien Fenton.

From the department of silly walks and departmental office of equidistant paper clips comes news this week that Labour wants to outlaw working over 40 hours per week.

That is, not just lowering the working week and allowing workers overtime rates after that but making it illegal to work more than 40 hours!

State worshiper and freedom hater, Labour MP Darien Fenton says, "employees currently work too hard". She says the grind of long hours at the office is, "causing too much stress".

Surely individuals are big enough and ugly enough to decide whether they want to work or not eh Darien?

No, not Ms Fenton, a lifelong union "advocate" and succubus of the working man.

Quite apart from the stupidity of Fenton's idea, the chaos that it would cause employers , employees and the economy would be horrendous and would be vast and far reaching.

Employees would have to apply for state assistance to provide additional income and employers would have to find extra imaginary employees to fill the vacuum left.

It fits the Socialist argument that everyone should be equal though, and that of course extends to income, where Labour's bright idea for a 40 hr week would be yet another tool to achieve that end.

France tried the 35 hr week and it nearly sunk their economy. They are of course now trying to move away from that sort of nonsense.


Let them eat Cake


"A lie told often enough becomes truth" Lenin

Tax cuts are on the agenda again this week.

Yes Micheal "Fiscal Drag" Cullen has been making excuses again in Parliament as to why he wont give back the money he has stolen in high taxes to those that earned the money in the first place.

This quote may help out readers of this column:

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation" Lenin

Replace bourgeoisie with middle classes and you get what Cullen and Helen Clark are doing to New Zealand's new proletariat.

Nanny State worshiper Helen Clark is also a disciple of Lenin and seems intent on grinding the masses to a lifeless pulp or until most of them leave to live in Australia.

Cullen and Clark are not about to relinquish the control that they have over the hapless middle class that comes with high taxes.

Any "tax relief" in the grab for control next election year will come in the from of State sanctioned or controlled benefits, like the "working for families" welfare package and bribes that have some sort of State apparatus attached to them for absence of the State means no control over the people:"When there is state there can be no freedom, but when there is freedom there will be no state" Lenin



PC Banging


Almost the end of a Kiwi institution this Guy Fawkes Day when a multitude of restrictions come into use over the sale and restriction of fireworks.

Sure, fireworks are dangerous but they are also fun and the labeling last year by David Benson "Tennis Ball" Pope of Kiwis who like to have a little fun with fireworks as "naughty boys and girls" and if they don't behave public use of fireworks will be made illegal is more than a little over the top when one considers what Mr Pope used to do with school pupils in his days as a teacher in Tauranga.

State sanctioned hand wringing will be De rigour again this year and it is possible that State run firework displays will be sanctioned by the anointed should New Zealand have the misfortune of morons having them elected again in 2008.





c Darren Rickard 2007

The Warehouse: Outcomes of Commerce Commision Decision

The Warehouse Group [WHS.NZ]watchers will know that the appeal case of Supermarket operators Foodstuffs and Woolworth's being allowed to bid for the company started yesterday in front of the Commerce Commission in the High Court at Wellington, after a decision barring either from taking over discount chain The Warehouse was brought down in June.

You will also know that the possible outcome of a Commerce Commission decision is probably going to be far from clear cut and is unlikely to provide investors or speculators with a clear focus on which to base any further investment.

My intention here is to outline what decisions the Commerce Commission possibly going make because it just isn't clear which way the cash register will open. It could go either way, with or without conditions but with the added confusion of The Warehouse itself being involved in the appeal.

What I would like to point out are the possible permutations that any decision by the Commerce Commission might have for the parties involved and investors in The Warehouse.

If the decision goes the way of both Foodstuffs and Woolworths Australia [WOW.ASX] being allowed to bid for the Warehouse then clearly this will be the best outcome for investors as there will be a fierce bidding war in which Woolworth's is likely to be the winner because its pockets are deeper than Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and that Mexican Billionaire who just made the top of the B club, combined.

Also with a open yes decision by the Commission it may leave the possibility of either Foodstuffs or Woollies partnering with Stephen Tindall to buy the company.

A no decision for both would of course lead to another appeal and would also leave the aisle open for Stephen Tindall, the majority owner of the Warehouse, to reignite his bid to launch a buyback of the company in conjunction with a private equity player or perhaps a new grocery entrant.

Woolworth's could be allowed to buy The Warehouse simply because its market share is significantly smaller than Foodstuffs.

Issues involved over domination of retail market segments should any of these decisions become reality may also rear its head. Selling of conflicting parts of any merged business that may cause competition issues may also be part of a Commerce Commission decision.

Whatever the outcome, the decision by the Commerce Commission is going to be a difficult one for them to make and is going to take a long time.

Since the sitting began on Tuesday 23 October the market has given the share price a boost by 20c to $5.65 today.


Disclosure: I own WHS shares


The Warehouse Group @ Share Investor

Long Term View: The Warehouse Group Ltd
Share Investor Short: Warehouse Group yield worth a look
The Warehouse Group: 2010 Interim Profit Review
The Warehouse: Big Brands, Big Opportunities
Warehouse strike opportunity to buy
Long Term Play: The Warehouse Group
Share Investor Short: Warehouse Group yield worth a second look
Woolworths supermarket consolidation an indicator of a move on the Warehouse?
Stock of the Week: The Warehouse Group
Warehouse 2009 interim profit a key economic indicator
When will The Warehouse bidders make their move?
Long vs Short: The Warehouse Group
Warehouse bidders ready to lay money down
The Warehouse set to cut lose "extra" impediment
The Warehouse sale could hinge on "Extra" decision
The case for The Warehouse without a buyer
Foodstuffs take their foot off the gas
Woolworths seek leave to appeal to Supreme Court
Warehouse appeal decision imminent
Warehouse decision a loser for all
Warehouse Court of appeal decision in Commerce Commission's favour
MARKETWATCH: The Warehouse
The Warehouse takeover saga continues
Why did you buy that stock? [The Warehouse]
History of Warehouse takeover players suggest a long winding road
Court of Appeal delays Warehouse bid
The Warehouse set for turbulent 2008
The Warehouse Court of Appeal case lay in "Extras" hands
WHS Court of Appeal case could be dismissed next week
Commerce Commission impacts on the Warehouse bottom line
The Warehouse in play
Outcomes of Commerce Commission decision
The fight for control begins soon

Discuss WHS @ Share Investor Forum - Register free

Download WHS Company Reports

Shop online at The Warehouse


From Fishpond.co.nz



Buy Bird on a Wire: The Inside Story from a Straight Talking CEO & more @ Fishpond.co.nz





c Share Investor 2007 & 2009