Court of Appeal delays Warehouse bid

Contrary to a comment made earlier last week when High Court Judge Jill Mallon had said an appeal could be made by the Commerce Commission to overrule her decision in November 2007, that Foodstuffs and Woolworths Australia [WOW.ASX] could make a bid for The Warehouse Group [WHS.NZ] and it should be under the condition that the case was heard urgently, the Court of Appeal has ruled that it would hear an appeal on April 29.

The latter court date will be after a court imposed ban on bidding for the Warehouse ends on February 29.

It is difficult to see a bid be made by either Foodstuffs or Woolworths after the bid deadline but it has been an unusual tussle so far and stranger things have happened in other takeover processes.

It would be presumptuous for any of the two possible bidders to show their hand early though and clearly wouldn't look good for their defence in the Court of Appeal case because the last thing the defence needs is a pissed off learned judge because his authority has been undermined in his court.

What is clear though, is that we are unlikely to get a result either way anytime soon.

If either side doesn't get their desired result in April they are likely to have another go at a case packed Supreme Court in Wellington.


Disclosure: I own WHS shares


The Warehouse Group @ Share Investor

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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

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Michael Cullen's history on tax cuts comes back to haunt him

Michael Cullen's education as a Dr of History clearly lacked the basic tenant that as history is more often than not written down for posterity it can often come back to haunt the history maker:

"We just don't believe in tax cuts - it's against our fundamental philosophy - after all we are socialists and proud of it".A hardly stunning admission by Michael Cullen a while back but hard to fathom considering his announcement of personal tax cuts in an address to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce today.

Cullen trumpeted 4 billion dollars of tax cuts annually and gave examples as: " working for families, business tax cuts and Kiwisaver.

Of course Working for Families is not a tax cut but welfare, Kiwisaver isn't a tax cut either and business tax cuts were long ago gobbled up by Labour Government imposed business taxes like increased holidays, Kiwisaver contributions and administration, Government imposed energy hikes and a whole range of other taxes too long to list here.

If there are any tax cuts this year or in the following years by Labour, they will be linked to a Government agency and distributed that way not by the usual method of more cash directly in the hand.

Strangely enough, a 66c across the board tax cut was promised in the 2005 budget, coincidently another election year, but Labour broke their promise after reelection because they commented that economic conditions didn't allow such a cut.

Now 3 year latter, and with a crippled stagnant economy tax cuts are going to happen?

The truth is though Labour were and never will deliver proper tax cuts because they are philosophically opposed to them:

"Tax cuts are a path to inequality. They are the promises of a visionless and intellectually bankrupt people".

— Helen Clark, speech to 2000 labour Party Conference

On the contrary though, tax cuts show true vision and are not only "intellectually enriching" but in the long term they enhance every sector of society, socially and economically.

What is "intellectually bankrupt" though is promising personal tax cuts in election year.

The facts are that any time is a good time for tax cuts. They stimulate business and economies and have an upside long term, not a downside on the tax take by governments, and are especially relevant during the tough economic times we are now going through.

Tax cuts have been affordable since Labour came to office almost 9 long years ago and the excuses used to dodge such cuts have been coming as thick and as fast as Parekura Horomia on speed.

Cullen sites several: "we will have to cut Government services", "tax cuts lead to inflation and higher interest rates", "we will have to borrow money to fund tax cuts".

All clearly bollocks.

What has led to inflation and the highest interest rates in the Western world is reckless Labour Party spending, cut that and you can afford to return stolen taxpayer funds.

Ditto borrowing and government services, cut back Cullen, New Zealanders have, and have had to borrow because of your tax and spend mentality.

Finally, Cullen hinted today that any tax cuts must be "fair" and he clearly meant that those who earn't high salaries, probably wont be getting a tax cut.

Those earning higher salaries don't traditionally vote Labour anyway so they will be left out if there are personal tax cuts, but in an ironic twist, those receiving welfare through "working for families" benefits, mainly middleclass voters who could vote either National or Labour, maybe getting some of the taxes back that they have been paying to fund WFF in the first place!

Cruel but true.

I will leave you dear readers with a quote Robin Hood probably originally made:

"Tax cuts are a very sort of blunt weapon to redistribute income"

— Mike Williams, President of the Labour Party

To sum it up Labour's real attitude to tax cuts. Firstly Labour clearly don't believe in them and they truly believe that the high taxes they have imposed are there to "redistribute income".

You certainly can't vote for a party like Labour, The Green Party, The Maori Party, NZ First, Jim Anderton because they all fundamentally agree with Cullen, the Labour Party philosophy on tax cuts and cannot be trusted to deliver as part of a Labour-led Government in 2008.

Vote for either Act or National, they have promised real tax cuts and have done for years.

Related Political Animal reading

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c Political Animal 2008

Michael Hill Jeweller's profit sparkles

In what will probably be one of this reporting seasons pleasant surprises, Micheal Hill International(MHI), today announced profit guidance of around $NZ 20 million approx for the last half year. A stellar performance given the 2007 full year result was slightly over $ 20 million.

It will be a record profit for the company.

The full press release, courtesy of the NZX, from the company is as follows:


MHI
05/02/2008
HALFYR

REL: 0835 HRS Michael Hill International Limited

HALFYR: MHI: Michael Hill International - Half year profit guidance

Tuesday 5th February 2008

Michael Hill International Limited - Half Year Profit Guidance

Net profit after tax for the 6 months ended 31 December 2007 is now expected
to be in the range of $19.25m to $20.00m (last year's comparable period
result was $15.331m and the full year result for the 12 months ended 30 June
2007 was $21.017m).

The improvement in profitability was driven principally from "same store"
bottom line growth and from "new store" contributions (15 stores opened in
2006/07 traded for the full 6 months). The company also continued to reap the
benefits from our supply chain initiatives over the previous 2 years.

The company expects to release its full half year result on Friday 22
February 2008.

This announcement is made in accordance with the continuous disclosure
requirements of the NZX.

RM Hill
Chairman
5th February 2008

Clearly the cost savings have helped immeasurably and that can only be good when factored into new stores as they roll out.

The same store sales growth is a good sign but some of that can be explained by the move from the company to go upmarket, their shop floor prices are higher than before.

So this doesn't necessarily extrapolate to more customers but higher margin ones and this is just what management were aiming for.

It will be very interesting to see the detail come Feb 22 when half year results are poured over and direction for the coming year/s are mapped out.



Related Share Investor reading

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Disclosure: I own MHI shares


C Share Investor 2008

Having a multiple Muslim

A news report today on Muslim men in Britain officially getting benefits for multiple wives has got me more than a little hot under the headdress.

Apart for the immorality of collecting money for doing nothing and the small fact that it is indeed illegal to be married to more than one person seems to have escaped the reasoning of the radical left in power in the mother country.

The muslimization of Europe continues apace.

While listening to this account on the Leighton Smith talkback show(Listen to Leighton Smith Live(Weekdays 8.30am-Midday NZ Time) ) today there was also a caller that recounted the case of a wonderful recently arrived Muslim individual who just happened to have two wives, in two state houses, side by side and receiving the largess of the taxpayer twice for two benefits for his small harem.

She didn't say where these individuals lived but it is more than likely going to be in a place like Mt Roskill, the centre of the universe when it comes to all the waifs and strays that nobody else in the world will have but us poor saps.

It is also more than likely that the fine taxpayer funded Harem discussed above is not the only example of this gross stupidity.

I myself am aware of such a "family" living in the state house area in the suburb of Northcote, on Auckland's North Shore.

Would another faith be given this sort of leeway to break our laws in the name of cultural diversity?

I think not, be best it not be critiqued should the Mullahs get angry. We are all well aware the lengths they will go to to show their disapproval of our intolerance to their cultural practices.

Couple this with statistics out today about the number of kiwi born people leaving for the more golden shores and you can see the obvious problems we are going to face.

I'm not anti immigration, we need lots more people with skills and jobs, and who fit in with the lifestyle, to come from nations all around the world but we also need to keep the good kiwis here.

You don't do that by importing riff raff to take their place.

John Key commented that Labour had clearly lost support because people were voting with their feet, while Helen Clark was quite nonchalant about the record losses of New Zealanders leaving because, "The population grew by about 3 per cent in the first five of six years of this century and that was done by net migration".

She should be concerned about those of us leaving, and thinking of leaving, if we all go mad at the end of the year and vote her back in, but the reason for her casual attitude is the simple fact that those, like the aforementioned multiple wive crews, that enter the country, are more likely to vote Labour and conversely those who are leaving would have voted for an opposition party.

Who needs Kiwis when you have "cultural diversity" though !

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