Thursday, October 18, 2007

Sharetrader do dirty on Share Investor Forum

Further to the saga of Sharetrader VS the old Share Investor Forum site.

I have finally put two and two together.

Ive just been busy really.

One of the individuals has "connections" with the removal of my Share Investor Forum in July 2007 is the owner of Tarawera Publishing, Good Returns Books and owner of Sharetrader and Sharechat, my competition at the time.

They emailed me months back asking me to remove "unauthorised" advertising of their Good Returns Bookstore on my sites in 24 hrs otherwise legal action would be taken against me.

I was actually an affiliate of theirs.

The owner also pointed out to me in a phone conversation that the reason for removal of my site was for "copyright violation" but he denied links to the Sharetrader site.

He is clearly the owner.

In my opinion, when you take everything I have stated above, I find it hard to believe that the company is not connected with the shenanigans that I have outlined.


Related Links

shareinvestorforum.com




c Share Investor 2007




Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Wednesday Political Soup: Edition 2

Do ya think we are suckers ?

The vacuum of ideas that is the Labour Party Front bench never ceases to underwhelm.

The spectre of The National Party selling state assets to enable them to return a decent amount of capital to investors, in this case the taxpayer, is a case in point.

In recent days in the house the Labour Sisterhood takes every opportunity to attack the opposition that they will take the country "back to the bad old days" of the 1990s when the market ruled and greed was good.

Under performing taxpayer assets should be sold and even Labour agrees because they have sold and continue to sell taxpayer assets to this day. They forget that they started the ball rolling in the 1980s.

When the National Party suggest market led policy though Labour screams capitalist pig but when Labour sell taxpayer assets it is because "we can put the proceeds into better performing assets to get a better return", so said Trevor "looks like a duck, must be a duck" Mallard in Parliament today.

The suggestion by Bill English that schools might be financed and built by the private sector sends Steve "smarmy from Palmy" Mahary apoplectic but the financing of hundreds of private schools and state funded handouts to "early childhood centres has smarmy hiding his large head in a dark place indeed.

The crowning jewel is the kerfuffle over the so-called cap on doctors fees.

National wanted to remove the "cap" and let competition decide but Labour and the shrill left from the socialist pulpit decried that as crass and cruel.

The funny part of this is that there really isn't a cap under Labour.

Doctors are allowed to increase their rates by any amount they see fit. Increases are put before a board and so far none have been disallowed.

The only difference between National's proposal and Labour's current regime is that Labour have employed another platoon of bureaucrats to administer the board.

In the Labour heartland of Glenfield, one of the poorest areas of Auckland's North Shore, doctors are charging $60 a time. Not the less than 20 bucks that the hypocrites from Labour have lathered themselves up about.

The song is getting tired girlie's put on another MP3.


Cullen's Dogma eats its Tail

In the light of Australian Conservative leader John Howard promising major tax cuts next year for all Australians, Minister of Finance in New Zealand Micheal"Ive got your money and you ain't getting it back unless its through welfare" Cullen continues to prevaricate and prostrate himself into a frenzied soap-less lather over when and who is going to get a tax cut before next years big buy up election.

Cullen continues to mislead and treat kiwis like mushrooms, that an across the board tax cut wont help the "needy" and will help those "rich" instead, that is those on incomes over $40,000.00 dollars.

It isn't true to say that those that earn more are better off when taxes are cut because proportionally they pay more tax as the tax rates go up. They are actually penalised . The very opposite of what this pathetic socialist monetary historian would have us believe.

If you were to do what Howard has done though and make the first $10000.00 and more in the future, dollars tax free and cut the top tax rates you benefit everyone equally and you help out those on low incomes the most PLUS, wait for it, you give everyone the incentive to do better and work harder because the top tax rates are lower!

Sadly Cullen's dogma wont let him see reason and because he wants control, his tax cuts come in the form of welfare through his oxymoronic titled "working for Families" welfare package.

Local Hero's

Finally, the local council elections last week across New Zealand saw a huge move to the conservatives.

In Auckland, my local patch, the face for radio, Dick "Serial Killer" Hubbard, was sunk by the aptly named "Banksie".

Banksie has promised to stem Dick's out of control spending, when at one silly stage ratepayers were forking out 70,000 bucks for Somali families to call back home to see if elections were going OK.

That is not a joke.

Hubbard was a Labour backed lackey frequently seen on the lap of Helen Clark, our fearless Prime minister.

On Auckland's North Shore, where I live, George "If you cant afford increased rates then bugger off somewhere else" Wood was ousted for his lavish spending on overseas travel, a $40,000.00 council chocolate biscuit bill and a fleet of council vehicles so large stacked end to end would reach to the moon and land on that expensive white elephant the North Shore Busway, should a small wind blow.

Elsewhere, noted lefties and local radio racists Willie "one eyed" Jackson and John "Good Cop" Tamihere where spectacular failures in their quests to get the mayoral chains.

Jackson was heard to say on radio the next day that uncontested "Maoori Seats should be brought in so people like him could represent "their" people.

South Aucklanders were the clear winners for Little Willies absence.


Greed is Good


Emerson, NZ Herald, Thursday October 11 2007



C Darren Rickard 2007

Greed is Bad: Geneva Finance Folds

Geneva Finance, the latest New Zealand Finance company to go belly up has me slightly barking.

I say this because while directors and presumably trustees of the company have either been silent and or untruthful about matters unfolding over the last several weeks as their Standard and Poor's credit rating slipped from B+ to B- and now a D.

My first beef concerns the company and company trustee failing to adequately inform investors and prospective investors in the company, that the condition of the company was dire.

Investors and business media were repeatedly told by those in the know that Geneva was "doing fine" and they were able to trade themselves out of difficulties.

My take on the company at the this time was more negative than management and the writing really was on the wall when confusion reigned about a week ago when mainstream media were alerted to serious problems by a customer of Geneva that was told that they were not processing any further loans.

When questioned by several media about whether loans had been suspended it was at first denied then days latter validated.

Even at that point Geneva Finance was still taking deposits from investors and continued to do so until Monday, when the company announced they had defaulted on interest payments to investors.

My second beef comes to the point that directors of Geneva were accepting deposits from investors when they knew the company was in deep trouble.

Going further to this, the trustee, who is supposed to look out for investors when difficulties such as this arise has been strangely silent all this time.

Clearly the conduct of the directors of Geneva Finance and the Trustee has been less than adequate and serious questions put to them need to be answered.

The company is now going to ask investors in Geneva that they allow a moratorium be agreed to where the company will cease payments to investors for 6 months while they "restructure" the company.

Mr Riley said the plan would allow Geneva to stabilise its position, focus on negotiating a significant debt and equity transaction that would secure the long-term future of the company."

Shaun Riley, the chief executive stated:

The company had needed to "act quickly and prudently in the interests of our investors", he told Radio New Zealand.

"We're extremely confident that the period of the moratorium will be enough for us to put the company back into that stable position, secure that significant debt and equity transaction and really secure the long-term future of the company."


This is interesting language, it was also used over the last few weeks by the board to explain to investors that the company was doing OK.

Geneva Finance is owned by Finance Investments Holdings, which in turn is half owned by three Auckland property developers, Peter Francis, Gary Hitchcock and Nigel Burton.

As well as the 50 per cent holding, the trio own $7.1 million in preference shares, ranking above ordinary shares, and equivalent to another 35 per cent of the company's total capital.

Francis was a high profile "financier" in the 1980s and was chief executive of the failed Chase Corp, a top 10 company on the stock exchange in the mid-1980s which posted New Zealands biggest ever corporate loss before going belly up in the aftermath of the October 1987 crash.

Ironically it was only a day before the 20th anniversary of the crash that Geneva folded its tent.

Directors were not upfront with media and failed to fully inform investors in a prudent and sufficiently quick time frame.

The message is clear to me though.

It looks like management of Geneva Finance are simply trying to stave off the inevitable.

All the language and slack attitude of directors and the trustee points to this and directors so far haven't inspired the confidence in the market for us to think that they will come out with a positive conclusion in 6 months time.


Related Share Investor Reading

Hanover Finance: Hotchin Ponzi Scheme Suppression
Mark Hotchin Comes Out Swinging
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


Recommended Fishpond Reading

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Buy The Intelligent Investor & more @ Fishpond.co.nz

Fishpond


c Share Investor 2007





Tuesday, October 16, 2007

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

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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
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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
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Sky City debts levels now more manageable
Insider Trading on Sky City shares
Sky City Profit Upgrade: Always on the Cards
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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
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NZX Press release: Sky City profit to HY end Dec 2007
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Sky City Management: Blind, deaf and numb
Sky City sale could be off
Opposition to takeover
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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)
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham
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c Share Investor 2007