Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd: Opposition to Takeover

As you may or may not know, Sky City Entertainment Group [SKC.NZ] is under a possible takeover offer.

Much has been written about the possibility of this happening over the last few weeks including a reasonable bit by myself.

You may also know that I don't want to part with my shares, I am a long-term holder and the possibility of a sale doesn't excite me as it appears to have excited some.

I also believe a possible bidder will try and grab the company for a bargain basement price, the "above 6 bucks at share" price has been mentioned many times by a multitude of market commentators.

I personally wouldn't be interested in such a valuation as long term it is worth much more than that.

It is a virtual monopoly wherever it operates and a substantial premium above 6 bucks needs to be paid to take control.

I would ask any Sky City Shareholders to contact me, Darren Rickard at shareinvestornz@gmail.com if they are interested in getting a group together to oppose any definite sale/and or stand firm for a better offer.

Would be grateful for any feedback.


Disclosure: I own SKC shares in the Share Investor Portfolio


Share Investor Q & As

Share Investor discusses Convention Centre proposal with Nigel Morrison
Sky City CEO, Nigel Morrison
Sky City Entertainment: CEO Nigel Morrison discusses 2010 HY

Sky City @ Share Investor

Sky City Convention Centre Expansion a Money Loser: Part Two
Sky City Convention Centre Expansion a Money loser
Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd: Download full Company analysis
Sky City 2010 full year profit looking good
Long Term View: Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd
Sky City Entertainment: CEO Nigel Morrison discusses 2010 Half Year
Sky City Entertainment Group 2010 Interim Profit Review
Sky City to focus on Gaming
Sky City debts levels now more manageable
Insider Trading on Sky City shares
Sky City Profit Upgrade: Always on the Cards
Sky City's Current Cinema "Boom" a Horror Story in Disguise
Stock of the Week: Sky City Entertainment Group
Are Insiders selling Sky City Stock?
Sky City Entertainment 2009 Interim Result Preamble
2008 Sky City profit analysis
Sky City share offer confusing and unfair for smaller shareholders
Sky City Entertainment 2008 Full Year profit results , NZX release, 2008 full year presentation, result briefing webcast, financial statements
Sky City 2008 profit preamble
Sky City outlines a clear future plan
As recession bites Sky City bites back
Sky City Assets: Buy, sell and hold
Why did you buy that stock? [Sky City Entertainment]
Sky City Share Volumes set tongues wagging
Sky City half year exceptional on cost cutting
NZX Press release: Sky City profit to HY end Dec 2007
Sky City Cinemas no Blockbuster
Sky City Entertainment share price drop
New Broom set to sweep
Sky City Management: Blind, deaf and numb
Sky City sale could be off
Opposition to takeover
Premium for control
Sky City receives takeover bid
Sky City Casino Full Year Profit to June 30 2007
Setting the record straight
Sky City CEO resigns
Sky City Casino: Under performing
Sky City Casino 2007 HY Profit(analysis)
Sky City Casino 2007 HY Profit

Discuss SKC @ Share Investor Forum

Download SKC Company Reports


Recommended Amazon Reading


The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham
Buy new: $14.95 / Used from: $6.99
Usually ships in 24 hours





c Share Investor 2007

Global Warming: Power to the People

The grab for more taxes by the Labour Government increased this week.

In the week where a NZ$8.7 billion dollar surplus for the last financial year was announced, it seems lunacy that the nanny state would want to steal even more of your money right out of your pocket.

But yes siree Darryl and Sharon New Zealand, you are about to be right royally frisked again because the power you are using is not "sustainable" and therefore you will be taxed to pay for the damage they say you are doing to the environment because of it.

You see the Labour Governments latest tax is being foisted upon us in the form of "fear" taxes, new taxes that will come about because of the left and Greens adherence to the lunatic man made "global warming" lie.

I'm not here to argue the merits of the man made "global warming" movement because quite frankly it has none.

The "science" on which it is based is severely flawed despite what the leftist politicians, green freaks and the self proclaimed inventor of the Internet and Nobel Prize winner, Al "I'm running for President " Gore tells you.

For goodness sake do some objective reading people!

The sinister undertone of all this green washing from the GW proponents is that it is a push for imbecile individual knuckle draggers like Gore to make money out of the fear and lies that they are spreading and for Governments around the world to raise taxes.

It just so happens that Helen Clarke, the Prime Misinster of New Zealand and her Sisterhood, through the bequest of Jenette Fitzsimons from the Green Party, because they hold the balance of power, seem to be at the vanguard of this movement to tax New Zealanders for living their normal lives.

New Zealand is going to have to rely on wind power and solar energy to power our economy, according to David Parker, the Chief idiot and slopey fore headed one charged to drive Kiwis back to the middle ages.

According to Parker, we need to be driving electric vehicles, using public transport and doing away with old appliances.

Jenette Fitzsimons goes a step further and wants the size of large screen TVs restricted.

Remember these are the people who like to tell us what to do and have changed laws to get us to eat, drink, smoke,watch and listen to what they want us to.

Restricting our right to parent by removing our ability to lightly smack indolent children its another moral crime they are guilty of.

Certainly, Jenette Fitzsimions lack of morals and boundaries also crosses into the financial sphere.

We have our very own New Zealand Al Gore in Fitzsimons.

While Gore is making hundreds of millions of dollars from his ownership of a fund that puts its money into the carbon free environment that he is slavishly advocating, our little Jenette is doing similar stuff here in NZ.

You see Fitzsimons is the 6th largest shareholder in a company called Windflow Technologies, a company that is developing the very technology that she advocates for and has changed New Zealand laws to benefit her company.

Like Gore, Fitzsimons doesn't make her biases clear when discussing the mushrooming of these visual polluters all over our countryside. We cant have Shania Twain having her house show on a ridge near Queenstown eh Jenette, but we can have these monstrosities covering the nation just so you can get rich from your shareholding in WT.

The Green taxes that Fitzsimons and the Clark sisterhood want to impinge on Kiwi individuals isn't about "saving the planet" or reducing pollution.

It is actually about wealthy green tinged individuals making money, state control and raising taxes to re-distribute them to those individuals too lazy to work and to those 3rd world countries who form a bloc in the UN, that want to lay their hands on Western nations money because they have successfully developed their economies and the 3rd world hasn't.

Aunty Helen, Fitzsimons and their lap dog David Parker clearly want to punish those individuals in society that have made a success of their lives through hard work and innovation and NZ as a whole.

Of course, that is the way of socialism an ism that they all slavishly follow.

The lack of a spiritual and religious base for these 3 collectives and their mates is being fulfilled by the new religion of worshipping at the foot of the Global Warming crusade.

Like all religions the GW movement is based on fairy tales, superstition, fear, greed and jealousy and it is going to end in confrontation.

The sensible among us mustn't be silent against the bias of left wing media that would have you believe that GW is an issue. It clearly isn't.

Let the war begin.


c Darren Rickard 2007

Share Investor's Friday Free for all: Edition 7

The Dominoes keep Falling


The week kicked off with yet another finance company meltdown.



Geneva Finance, definitely not Geneva based, stopped lending money to clients.

A few weeks ago there were warnings about this company and latter on this week its credit rating was dropped by Standard and Poor's from B+ to B-

Standard & Poor's defines a B- rated company as one able to meet its financial commitments but vulnerable to adverse business, financial or economic conditions, doesn't look good.

Meanwhile, Nelson finance company LDC and its 700 odd investors could get up to 90% of their funds returned, company liquidators have announced.

This is one of the better returns from the 10 finance companies that have collapsed over the last 18 months or so.

Bridgecorp investors, who between them risk losing up to half a billion kiwi dollars have decided to discuss the merits or otherwise of taking legal action against Bridgecorp and financial advisers who gave clients the thumbs up to plunge their bucks into this rotting corpse.

Finally, Hanover Group, one of New Zealand's biggest finance companies, seems in a huge hurry to quit an apartment building that it helped finance and that has got into difficulty.

Instead of flicking off the 92 units individually and getting more money back, they are forcing a mortgagee sale and risk getting roughly half the proceeds that they could.

The problem with the most recent finance company collapses has been liquidity and cash flow issues.


A Slap on the Back



The New Zealand franchisee of KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, Restaurant Brands(RBD) this week announced a net profit of NZ $4.5 Million.

This is up nearly 100% on last year, as the company barely managed a positive result in 2006.

Revenue increased marginally on last year

Much has been made by management of the KFC "transformation" through store refurbishments but the head chickens at RBD still have a long way to go to get close to sales figures from its listed heyday.

Starbucks continues to plod on without contributing to the bottom line but Pizza Hut has slowed the downwards flow in sales for its round dough making stores.

I was expecting better and it doesn't look good for next years announcement in May.


The Power to Succeed


Another nail in the coffin for New Zealand's economy was rammed home this week when the climate change disciples from the Labour Party and Green Party announced that this country would no longer be able to build fossil fuel power stations for the next 10 years.

We are currently short of reliable power sources for a much needed expansion of our economy and today's announcement means that we now risk current industry and put the price of power to consumers and business up simply because worshipers at the climate change altar want to collect more taxes.

Business especially needs the surety of a sustained supply of electricity to allow expansion of their business and the confidence to invest.

Look for more manufacturers to head across foreign waters because of this decision.

Nuclear energy would be the answer to this problem if it actually existed but the n word will not be discussed by the Gore-ites in the Labour party.


NZX Market Wrap



The NZSX-50 index, down earlier in the day, rose 9 points to 4305.62. Turnover totalled $NZ95.9 million, with falls outnumbering rises 54 to 59.

Telecom (TEL) fell 6c to $4.44, while Fletcher Building(FBU) jumped 23c to $12.78, and Contact Energy (CEN) rose 22c to $9.57 in the wake of the Labour Government's new energy strategy released yesterday.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare(FPH) was up a cent at $3.30 and its sister company Fisher & Paykel Appliances(FPA) up 5c at $3.70.

Sky TV (SKT) lost 5c to 570.

Among companies under M and A speculation, The Warehouse(WHS) was up 5c at $.548, casino company Sky City Entertainment(SKC) was even at $5.28, and Auckland Airport(AIA) climbed 3c to $3.10.

On the downside were Michael Hill(MHI),down another 14c to $11.26 following disappointing quarterly sales figures yesterday, and tech company Rakon (RAK) 12c lower at $4.80 in reaction to the higher currency.

Freightways (FRE) (POT) rose 5c to $7.10, Pumpkin Patch(PPL)was up 8c at $3.91, 

Mainfreight(MFT) rose 5c to $7.05, Port of Tauranga(POT) gained 2c to $3.13, and Tourism

Holdings(THL) was up 4c at $2.31. The influential Fund Manager, Fisher Funds, from Auckland's 

North Shore, sold down Freightways and purchased more Pumpkin Patch.

Infratil(IFT) fell 4c to $3.05, fish exporter Sanford(SAN) fell 3c to $4.27, Steel & 

Tube(STU)lost 3c to $4.41, and Hallenstein Glasson(HLG) the clothing retailer was down 2c at $4.53.


NZ Dollar Wrap

Reuters currency rates (12.07.07) NZ Time
(5pm today 5pm yesterday)

NZ dlr/US dlr US77.02c US76.42c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A85.52c A85.05c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5427 0.5398
NZ dlr/yen 90.41 89.62
NZ dlr/stg 37.89p 37.43p
NZ TWI 72.31 71.79
Australian dollar US90.07c US89.86c
Euro/US dollar 1.4192 1.4158
US dollar/yen 117.36 117.19




c Share Investor 2007

Marketing Burger Fuel's Future

The opening of a new Burger Fuel Worldwide [BFW.NZ] outlet in Sydney a couple of days ago shows me that Directors at Burger Fuel are great marketers.

Their style of marketing clearly didn't and doesn't suit their IPO as it was a dismal failure but the siting of the new Sydney store under the coke sign at Kings Cross, the 24hr sex and nightclub area of Sydney, is marketing genious in my humble opinion.




Site of the New Sydney Burger Fuel Outlet
Josef Roberts was the founder and CEO of the Red Bull energy drink business in Australia and New Zealand and as a director of Burger Fuel he is clearly using his marketing experience to catapult the company's image, food and brand into the realms of an Australian household name, just as he has done with Burger Fuel in New Zealand.

By putting their second OZ outlet into such a vibrant and tourist dominated strip, in the "Cross" Roberts will be able to further leverage the brand and expose it to foreigners of dozens of different countries which will clearly make it easier for the company to expand into other overseas markets.

Getting a spot under the Coke sign has got to be the coup de grace!

The energy that Josef Roberts put into Red Bull, pun intended, made the brand a very successful one in this part of the world and the fact that the parent company bought it back means that large corporations value the expertise of individuals such as Roberts.

Roberts clearly loves the company he works for and the time, effort ,care and passion taken to make Burger Fuel a brand in New Zealand means that success in other territories is more likely to happen.

If you look at a company such as Restaurant Brands Ltd [RBD.NZ] , the operator of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks in New Zealand you will see what not to do with brands. This company had almost run its 3 brands into the ground because of neglect and lack of care.

If Roberts and his mates at head office can keep the enthusiasm and care for their brand over the years then they are sure to go the way Red Bull did.

BFW shares closed up NZ 4c today to 65c on low volume.

Burger Fuel Worldwide @ Share Investor


Burger Fuel 2010 Full Year Profit Analysis
Burger Fuel 2010 Full Year Profit Preview
Burger Fuel Worldwide: 2009 Half Year profit analysis
Stock of the Week: Burger Fuel Worldwide
Download full company analysis from Thomson First-Call
Burger Fuel doesn't rule out capital raising
Burger Fuel Worldwide: Closer look at Company Accounts
Analysis - Burger Fuel Worldwide: FY profit to 31/03/09
Burger Fuel: Running on Empty
Burger Fuel leaves investors hungry
Burger Fuel management cagey over company progress
Burger Fuel cooks up Dubai deal
NZX share trades with strings attached
Don't buy Burger Fuel, yet
Burger Fuel: Inside info?
Burger Fool IPO: Burger Fool?
Exclusive Interview with Burger Fuel's Josef Roberts
Burger Fuel's Daytime drama
Burger Fuel share price out of gas
Beefing up store numbers
Director explains share price drop
Burger Fuel slims down in value
Burger Fuel and Coke
Marketing Burger Fuel's future
Pumpkin Patch VS Burger Fuel
Burger Fuel results and commentary

Discuss BFW @ Share Investor Forum - Register free







c Share Investor 2007