Flight of Fancy

It looks to be like the twitters in National are starting to get the sickness of overinflated egos from the mad lefties over at the opposition benches.

The arrogance and sheer rabid stupidity of the Minister of Education, Anne Tolley to take a trip in a helicopter just so she can "get an overview of distance" in  Auckland simply defies logic and commonsense, things sadly lacking from Labour and one of the reasons they were turfed out on their arses last November.

Sure compared to the billions wasted by Labour this is small potatoes but it is the message you are sending that is the important thing. It is clearly the wrong message!

The message from me is have a look in the mirror before you do something stupid.

c Political Animal 2009

Mr Obama has a bad case of the Chamberlains

Imagine if you will Barack Obama as a small child in the schoolyard, a bully crowding in on him ready for a biff.

He gets hit, says hes a "bad boy", turns the other cheek and continues getting hit over the term of his school days.

Imagine again if you will a young good looking Barack Obama in his mid 20s walking down the road with his best friend, when a big fellow with malicious intent lays into Barack's buddy.

Barack utters "bad man", does nothing to defend his mate and he ends up paralysed after the attack.

Fast forward to today, Barack is President and is confronted with North Korea blasting a ballistic missile over Japan, destination unknown, Barack and the UN say "bad country" do nothing and we are all left wondering what next.

These things confronted one Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s.

Appeasement towards your bullies/enemies simply doesn't work, they will still be your enemies if you do nothing but then they will know they can continue to escalate the bullying without appropriate consequence.

Eventually when you turn that much cheek you can run the risk of getting taken from behind.

Related Amazon Reading

Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War (New Frontiers in History) by Frank McDonough

c Political Animal 2009

Sweetheart deal for Fletcher Building's friends makes small investors sick

Bruce Sheppard had a go at it yesterday and now it is my turn to have a go at Fletcher Building [FBU.NZ] management for the cavalier attitude they have for small Fletcher investors.

At the heart of that attitude is the recent capital restructuring to raise funds to retire debt and reinforce cashflow.

Institutional investors basically got a sweetheart deal from Fletcher management when they got cut price shares at NZ$5.35 per share on a pro-rata basis. That is, in proportion to the shares they already hold. A deal apparently will be offered to smaller shareholders, but capped at NZ$100 million and not pro-rata, so we got the arse end of the donkey here.

Compounding this favouritism, apparently non-institutional "large investors" (whatever that means) have also got some cream on top of the sweetheart deal for institutions that makes it so sweet smaller investors are bound to chuck up after reading it. This particular deal will give special rights to those large non-institutional investors to ratchet up their holdings to reduce the diluting effects of the placement to institutions.

Now I don't know about you but if you are a small Fletcher shareholder (I am, I have 1000) you might be suffering a diabetic reaction to all this sweet favouritism to the big boys by now and wonder out loud to yourself again why the NZX might be an unfavourable place for New Zealanders to invest considering they are not on a level footing with the big boys that Mark Weldon's NZX has granted a wavier to to snap up more of Fletchers.

According to the NZX website the folk who may have participated in the $405 million placement of shares concluded last week are connected to Fletchers by virtue of the fact that some are "Associated Persons of FBU Directors by virtue of having a common Directorship with FBU and several placees participating in the Placement".

Those people are:

(a) ANZ National Bank Limited, by virtue of Sir Dryden Spring’s and Mr John Judge’s common Directorship;
(b) Westpac New Zealand Limited, by virtue of Mr Ralph Waters’ common Directorship; and
(c) the Accident Compensation Corporation, by virtue of Mr John Judge’s common Directorship.

So it gets even worse when you dig down into the detail. Its like a bloody incestuous Utah Mormon clan!

I haven't got the time to read through the pages of verbose detail but I guess some will be revealed at a latter stage. Most will be lost on the average small mom and dad Fletcher share holder because media are too lazy to do the research - all except Bruce Sheppard, I am sure we will be hearing from him again on this matter.




There is however a solution to this.

Strong demand from those mentioned above for shares in the capital raising aside, Fletcher Building still operates in an environment of weak business prospects and an uncertain future as far as sales go.

Global stockmarkets have raced ahead over the last month or so and there is downside to come.

Shares in the company have ranged from $5.11- $6.50 over the last six months (see chart above) and it is not unlikely scenario that smaller shareholders like me could pick up extra shares cheaper than the proposed $5.35 to stop dilution of their holdings by buying them on the open market. You don't have to participate in this madness and still stay undiluted!

That is just what I am propose to do .

Bugger them.


Fletcher Building @ Share Investor

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Hugh Fletcher: Silver spoon no recipe for success
Long VS Short: Fletcher Building Ltd
Fletcher Building's Commercial arm keeps their head above the tunnel
Sweetheart deal for Fletcher Building's Friends
Fletcher House built on hard times
Fletcher Building down tools in the short term
Why did you buy that stock? [Fletcher Building Ltd]
A solid foundation for the future
Fletcher Building raises profit through canny management
Fletcher's got game

Discuss Fletcher Building @ Share Investor Forum - Register free
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c Share Investor 2009

Latest Colmar Brunton Poll reveals Phil Goff is history

In a week that revealed Helen Clark felt rejected by New Zealand when she lost in a landslide election to National last November comes more bad news for Labour.

New Zealand is in love with John Key and the National Party.

They have done well so far despite for delving into "big gay outs" and cycleways just to win popularity but John Key continues to urinate into Phil Goff's pocket.

ONE News Latest ONE News Colmar Brunton poll results as of 05/04/09

• WATCH the video (4:47)

It might be wrestling with the biggest economic down-turn in 70 years, but the National-led government is riding a massive wave of popularity according to the latest ONE News Colmar Brunton Poll.

Despite some of National ministers needing to be reined in like Richard Worth's, whose private business trip to India had the opposition accusing him of both a cock-up and a conspiracy, it hasn't affected National's or PM John Key's popularity with the masses.

It is still sky high in the polls with 57%. Labour is well back on 31%, the Greens are on seven percent and the Maori Party and ACT both hovering around two percent.

Translating that to seats in Parliament, it gives National 70, Labour 37 and the Greens eight.

Assuming electorate seats are held the Maori Party has five seats, ACT two and United Future and the Progressives one seat each. TVNV.co.nz

What is clear is that Kiwis wont even consider Labour as long as Phil Goff is spluttering his way through his opposition position.

c Political Animal 2009