Mike Moore turns the knife on Electoral Finance Bill

Mike Moore, former Labour Prime Minister and thorn in Helen Clark's arse takes another swing at the fascists voting for the Electoral Finance Bill.

The NZ Herald has once again given Moore an avenue to vent and once again I congratulate them for their commonsense attack on this Bill. Shame they don't have the same commonsense when it comes to their bizarre support of "climate change". We live in hope!

This bill is set to pass this week after much stalling by the National opposition and will be in force by January 1 2008.

The coming week is the darkest in our democracy's history because it will mean the end of free speech in an election year.

There are no foreign powers making comments at the death of democracy here, nobody seems to care that this sleepy little once free land in the South Pacific is turning into a bright yellow fascist/communist banana.

Will you care next year when you have to keep your mouth shut?

Its too late baby, its gone.

C Political Animal 2007

Moore continues attack on controversial Electoral Finance Bill

11:50AM Sunday December 16, 2007

Mike Moore

Democracy under attack

• Bill Ralston: Utu over, the real work begins
• Campaign could breach electoral bill

Mike Moore has continued his attack on the Electoral Finance Bill.

The former Labour Prime Minister has today labelled the piece of legislation as fatally flawed. He says the restrictions in the electoral finance law, promised by the Government to be passed next week in Parliament, are without precedent in the free world.

Mike Moore says the bill is wrong in principle and in substance and will end up doing the opposite of what its authors expected.

The fresh comments come in response to Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt's promise he will continue to run ads against funding cuts at Southern Institute of Technology, even if the bill passes and he is breaking the law.

Mike Moore launched a public attack on Prime Minister Helen Clark earlier this year, comparing her to Robert Muldoon.

C NZ Herald 2007

Peter Bauble's giving him big trouble

In the wake of Winston "Baubles" Peters striving, and failing, to attain positive recognition from the press and public earlier on this week by gifting $158,000.00 of taxpayer funds used to fund his 2005 election campaign, to the Starship Children's Hospital, instead of paying it back like he should have, we are likely to see not only another grab at the headlines in the coming days by trying to flog off the illegitimate funds to another charity but a flailing of arms and lips over the latest bid for Auckland Airport.

The mental masturbation of this individual has exploded all over his own face.

Peter's railed against the two previous bids by Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and will be grabbing it with both hands again next week and giving it a good tug for airtime.

This nitwit really doesn't understand that individual shareholders like myself have property rights and it ain't up to the likes of this closet Lenin lover to rain on my rights as a property owner.

He must be reminded by voters like you and me that grandstanding for airtime, just for the sake of exposure doesn't make you right or get you the exposure that you desire.

He is manipulative, selfish, arrogant, untrustworthy and an unmitigated liar.

Lets kick him under the kerb.


C Political Animal 2007


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DAE Bid for Auckland Airport
Canadians' first bid for airport
Government market manipulation

Second bite at Auckland Airport by CPPIB could just fly

Well, I got the offer for my Auckland International Airport Ltd [AIA.NZX] shares from the Canucks', Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, in my mailbox yesterday.

This is the second bid from the Canadians.

Its pretty basic, you can either accept the offer partially or fully for your shares and vote accordingly for CPPIB to take just shy of a 40% stake in AIA and for a NZ$3.6555c cash consideration.

Seems allot lower value than some have put on the company but it is a reasonable advance on the current share price of $2.80.

Brook Asset Management and other broker institutions look likely to back the offer but the two large council owned parcels of shares and those of Lloyd Morrison's Infratil, which make up around a 30% shareholding are likely to sit on the other side of the fence.

There are also regulatory issues in the way in regard to Overseas Investment Office and IRD approval of tax related matters germain to the deal and political pressure from the usual numbskull's like Winston "Baubles" Peters.

This bid however is more likely to succeed than the bid from Dubai Aerospace International, which was shot down by the AIA board even before it could be put to shareholders earlier in the year because there isn't the Middle East/Muslim factor involved and the DAE bid involved more control with a bigger stake.

Obvious problems with a Muslim company owning AIA made a big influence on my decision then to back shareholders holding onto their shares although I wasn't opposed to another foreign owner making a bid.

Having seen the CPPIB offer it looks good compared to the alternative if one was to stay a shareholder.

CPPIB has changed the terms of its planned amalgamation with AIA (assuming it gets to approx 40 per cent). Stapled securities issued under the proposed amalgamation will now include a convertible note with a face value of $2.75 (previously $3.35) an ordinary share with a face value of $.0.7055 (previously $0.1055) and $0.20 cash (unchanged). The convertible notes will pay a 7 % coupon rate.

So there is more debt servicing for the new AIA model under the Canadian proposal and this is clearly going to drag on profit in the short to medium term until the various benefits they have mentioned under the new structure are bedded down and then realised.

The Canuck investment board sure are canny investors with a good track record,

		$121.3 Billion At September 30, 2007 Financial Highlights Annual Report 2007

But it remains to be seen, if they are successful whether they can make their investment in AIA fly or if it is going to crash land.

There is going to be a AIA Board announcement and appraisal tomorrow(NZ Time) by Grant Samuel's, with valuation assessment and projections on passenger and aircraft demand.

Full CPPIB Offer


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Queenstown Airport: AIA purchase good Long-Term but will cost shareholders Short-Term


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AIA profit stays grounded
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Second bite at AIA by CPPIB might just fly
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DAE move on AIA: Will it fly?

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From Fishpond.co.nz



A Perfect Gentleman: The Sir Wilson Whineray Story



c Share Investor 2007

Money Manager's first step gives investors the middle finger

Today's column time warps back to 2002 when I started a thread on the financial forum Sharetrader. The thread was titled "Are Money Managers Dodgy? I cant find it on the site now as I suspect the owner of Sharetrader, Tarawera Publishing, has removed it due to the slagging off of Doug Somers-Edgar, the owner of MM, through a family trust.

The finance biz is very small in New Zealand and people don't like to step on toes, even though they should, should they want to continue to do business with each other.

Flick back to today and we find the on-going saga of Money Managers and their "First Step" product seems to have finally come to a soggy mess after being closed down in 2006.

Money Managers have told over 7000 investors they are unlikely to get all of their money back after First Step was liquidated, putting around $150 million of total funds invested at risk of being flushed away.


The NBR had this to say about First Step back in February 2002:

First Step's own financial statements showing related party lending at 29.58%.
There is still no information on where the money finally ends up, what the rate of return is for those related parties, and the level of risk to which First Step investors are exposed.

Among the questions Mr Somers-Edgar has refused to answer:

Could that expertise not be provided within First Step, thereby providing more transparent accounting for funds?

Are the returns in line with the level of risk investors are taking?

Why will Money Managers not open up to independent scrutiny?

What is the total "cost on funds" (how much money the investment is generating compared with how much investors are getting back)?

What are the total fees charged?

The National Business Review has revealed how the First Step structure puts walls between investors and their money, with no clear account of what happens behind the walls.

First Step has had a chequered disclosure history; the Securities Commission suspended its prospectus when it was first issued in February last year.

Presumably Money Managers didn't inform clients of the concerns of the likes of the NBR and myself and continued to take in client's funds in a dishonest, calculated and deceptive way.

This part of the NBR article is revealing:

First Step's own financial statements showing related party lending at 29.58%.

One would have to ask, if there is interrelated lending from First Step, as there is with every other "product" Money Managers peddle-Doug is known as "Mr Clip, Clip" for every time there is an inter-company loan or transfer he clips the ticket with a fee-why don't the more profitable areas of the business lend money back to First Step to bail out Money Managers 7000 clients?

I know it is a dumb question but it had to be said.

I urge anyone considering investing in any of Doug Somers-Edgar's companies to take a deep breath, Google his name and see what you come up with and then make your decision.

What has Somers-Edgar been up to lately?

Doug has mysteriously disappeared from his former high profile, since stepping down from Money Managers in 2006 but seems to have been busy suing people for critiquing his investment style.

From 27 June 2004, Somers-Edgar-related CTT companies in receivership (CTT Finance Holdings, CTT Financial Services, CTT One, Dental Finance, Paragon Factors and involved in numerous other liquidations of his own, related and other parties companies

Owning a dodgy Ginseng business.

Related Share Investor Reading

The "New" Money Manager's Investment Vehicle still tainted by its past
Don't forget Money Managers
Orange Finance collapse should turn investors red, with rage
Money Managers First Step saga: 3 Story wrap

c Share Investor 2007 & 2009