Jan Cameron has made her first move, after a restraint of trade was lifted on May 2, to compete directly with the company she sold in 2006 Kathmandu Ltd [KMD.NZX]. It has been reported that she has invested an initial 20 million into kiwi outdoor clothing chain, Macpac to go head to head with KMD in Australasia and presumably in other markets KMD trades in. She is one smart cookie whose business acumen in retailing should never be underestimated by her competitors and she has strong contacts in retail and retail suppliers in this part of the world and elsewhere and her expertise in the outdoor retail sector cannot be underestimated.
Cameron has several individuals within Macpac that are former associates at Kathmandu and they have an aggressive expansion plan in place to take on KMD. While Macpac currently has fewer branded stores than Kathmandu's 100, with only 29 in Australasia, Macpac's products are stocked in over 100 retail outlets worldwide so have a broader brand recognition if a global business is what management are looking at in the long term. Kathmandu as a strong in your face brand have the outdoor sector mostly to themselves in New Zealand and Cameron's expertise and contacts in retail will be a formidable challenge to Kathmandu and its impressive retail margins that they have placed their whole business model and recent IPO on. Management at KMD will be seriously worried about this and as Macpac gets a larger retail footprint across this part of the world revenue and profits will be cut. Make no mistake it will be cutthroat between these two brands and the winner will be the consumer in the end. It remains to be seen which retailer will come off the big winner but my money is on Jan.
Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd [SKC.NZX] has just been announced as the preferred bidder for the New Zealand National Convention Centre.
This will cost approximately $350 million to be funded by Sky City.
The funding for the centre comes with a negotiation over gaming rules so that the company can expand their gaming offers at their Auckland Casino, something that has been previously barred by legislation. Previously the bulk of the funding would have come from the taxpayer in the Sky City Convention Centre proposal but in return for shareholders funding the loss making centre CEO Nigel Morrison clearly would like some payback for his generous gift.
News reports on Sky City winning the bid have left out detail about previous bidders all relying on the taxpayer subsidy - including the Auckland City Council proposal - so those that are ill-informed or playing politics about yesterdays news might think or give the impression that Sky City are getting a special favour from Government for them to even consider changing gaming laws.
Now clearly Sky City could be set to benefit - although that is not a given - from the extra foot traffic the convention centre brings into the casino proper but given the tough economic conditions the world and country is facing the taxpayer should not look the Sky City gift horse in the mouth.
As I said above politics is already playing a part in this with the Labour opposition making a comment yesterday and local politics will come into play as well, even though the left-wing Mayor is backing the proposal several members of the council have made recent public comments about their opposition to the casino expanding any part of their business.
The council had their own convention centre proposal and of course must rubber stamp any expansion to the Sky City Auckland site and I see some very strident opposition coming from various members of council that may see it scaled back or changed some way and certainly any expansion of the gaming floor will be checked at every point.
This is an exciting proposal for the city of Auckland, it will provide jobs and add value to businesses all around the CBD and possible value to shareholders if the company negotiates a good relaxation of gaming rules.
The Share Investor Portfolio was down in the second week of June, the third time in 3 consecutive weeks - the longest losing streak since tracking for this portfolio began. The portfolio was down by 0.6% or $1621.20 on the June 3 update . For the first 22 weeks of 2011 the portfolio has increased by 12.86 % or $32703.13 . This weeks drop was due, primarily, to a 12c drop in SKC, extending last weeks 12c loss. There were a number of smaller falls and good rises in other stocks like MFT, BGR & RYM but if not for a rally of 21c for FRE the portfolio would have been down over $3000.00 more than it was.
The total of unspent dividends and interest in the bank as at 26 May from the 2010 - 2011 earnings years is $25382.95 at close of reporting season for 2010 and at the end of the 2011 1st half reporting year. There are also approx $55000.00 in tax credits earned from the portfolio since it began in late 2002.
Jan Cameron has made her first move, after a restraint of trade was lifted on May 2, to compete directly with the company she sold in 2006 Kathmandu Ltd [KMD.NZX].
While Macpac currently has fewer branded stores than Kathmandu's 100, with only 29 in Australasia, Macpac's products are stocked in over 100 retail outlets worldwide so have a broader brand recognition if a global business is what management are looking at in the long term.
