NZX Share Trades with Strings Attached

While trying to put a market order in today on the NZAX for Burger Fuel (BFW) it appears an individual cannot make his own mind up just what the market price for a particular share is on a given day.

I wasn't fully aware of this, only just in passing but for shares trading between 10c - $1 you have to bid a minimum of .7 multiplied by the closing price of the share on the previous day. Shares above $1 are multiplied by .8 , shares between 5-10c .6 and below 5c .5.

This little market manipulator came into force early July 2007 and really pumps my blood warmer than a ten year old relieving himself in a public pool on a cold Winters day!

I mean where do Mark Weldon and co get off, it is a Market Limit , what that means to this capitalist pig is that the market is supposed to decide what a share or company is worth on a given day, prospective shareholders are the market and it should be up to us to decide what value we place on a company.

I can understand why this little handbrake may have been applied-to stop a market from sliding too quickly on a bad trading day-but surely this kind of market manipulation must be open to all sorts of jiggery-pokery?

I'm quite sure the upper offer market limits are not enforced similarly so why the hell do weak companies need their hands held as their share prices get hammered on any given day?

Quite frankly they don't and Mark Weldon and the NZX board would be wise to take another look at this recent hamstringing of a so-called free share market and let the market decide what New Zealand listed companies are worth.

Incidentally, I wanted to bid $NZ .20c for 5000 BFW shares as the share price as of today has fallen almost 15% to .65c today. I have lowered my value of the company as I see further costs related to increased borrowing for the company and possible franchisees having an affect on medium term growth, expansion and obviously profit.


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Discuss Burger Fuel @ Share Investor Forum




c Share Investor 2007

Desperation by Labour Backfires

The New Zealand Labour Party is desperate.

2o points down in the polls, an all-time low against this National Opposition, Labour Ministers mired in scandal and political stuff-ups and the Prime Minister Helen Clark and her underlings are in full filth mode trying to dig dirt on John Key. If serious accusations are to be found true then any politician must be harangued , it just so happens that none of the accusations placed at the feet of Key are serious or truthful

While New Zealands financial and political security and economy is on the brink of collapse and looking like it will consume this government and the country with it, all Labour are interested in is hanging onto power any way they can.

Scurrilous accusations have been made against John Key which haven't stuck and in fact they have indeed backfired on the detritus that have pointed the wagging fingers. What is that phrase again about glass houses and stones?

The energy being put in by Labour to discredit the National Opposition would be better used to govern the nation out of its present sliding fortunes. On second thoughts it might be better for NZ inc if Labour didn't try to "help" us, things always get worse when they intervene!

To simply ignore the mayhem surrounding them though is a crime that should be punished by an early election and a solid beating of the government reminiscent of what David Benson Pope used to dish out to his pupils while he was a teacher at a Tauranga High School.

Labours thrust at another term in office has them ignoring the basic issues a government is elected to do. We have the highest interest rates in the developed world, hospitals unable to cope with patients, finance companies losing almost $2 Billion dollars so far, government Ministers and bureaucrats involved in corruption and cover-ups, crime at at an all-time high, education standards slipping, record numbers of Kiwis leaving the country while questionable immigrants flood in unabated and a continuing lust to curb our freedoms by Labours lap dogs in parliament, Winston Peters, Sue Bradford and the usual hangers on.

Perhaps the biggest lunge at power lust by Labour is the introduction of a a contentious bill to parliament that will make it almost impossible for detractors of the Government to criticise them or use money in an election year to advocate against them or for an individual or party that one supports. That includes blogs such as this one. (I will not remain silent though dear readers)

The Electoral Finance Bill would curb advertising by political parties from January 1 of an election year that would cap their electoral spending, while government advertising on programmes like KiwiSaver would be uncapped and able to continue unrestrained. This advantage would also apply to Labour supported interest groups such as left backed organisations like the PPTA and other unions.

This kind of introduced legislation-it hasn't been passed yet-is the kind of law that would be passed by jurisdictions such as Mugabe's Zimbabwe , Stalin's Russia, Mao's China and Hitler's Germany.

The successful passing of this bill and its repercussions on democracy cannot be understated. The main purpose of the bill is to shut down free debate and the ability of the silent majority to elect an alternative government, whatever colour that government might be. It cannot be allowed to pass and any individual in parliament who votes for it must surely hang their heads in shame and perhaps think of packing their bags for a seat in Zimbabwe's Governing dictatorship. Clearly those who vote for such individuals must also question their motives for doing so.

A government whose sole focus seems to be power at any cost and the neglect of the country and those that voted for them in the first place is indeed a sad state of affairs. Regardless of how badly Labour have governed New Zealand over the last 8 years and history will look back and judge this period as one of the blackest since the great depression and more recently Rob Muldoon's tenure in the late 1970s and early 80s, a Governments focus must be on governing the country. It is from the outfall, positive or negative, from a governments running a country that a voters ballot must be judged and cast not the corruption of the democracy by fascist law and filth flinging at opposition.

Either way Helen Clark's Labour Government must be judged and whatever angle one looks at it from , whether it be from Governmental success/failure or unbridled muck raking and various legal/ illegal attempts at remaining in power they have been a dismal failure at both.





c Darren Rickard 2007

Auckland Airport's incentive scheme should fly out the window

It seems to this humble soul that the good folks who manage Auckland International Airport (AIA) live in a world where up is down, on is off, black is white and well... you get the picture.

One of the biggest contributors to the drop in Full Year 2007 profit at AIA announced a few days ago was the employee incentive scheme. Such a scheme rewarded employees if the company share price did well, with share options.

As most know the share price has indeed risen over this last year and that has been due to first rumours of a takeover and now a firm offer by Dubai Aeronautical Enterprise and other suitors kicking the tyres.

Now usually when a companies share price rises it is due to the company doing well financially and most of that can be put down to good management. In this case though the share price has risen because of a takeover offer and indeed the share price would have gone down in the absence of this offer as AIA was headed for a flat profit this year anyway.

To be rewarded when a company share price goes up in the first place is a little dodgy because there can be many reasons why this is the case. You can bet company management don't get docked payments for share price falls! In AIA's case the share price rise has nothing to do at all with management doing well.

In the real world, incentives are given for financial results and that is just the way it should be in this case. The fact that profit dropped substantially-by more than 10%- because of undeserved employee share options being handed out is simply an outrage that shareholders shouldn't have to put up with.

The passionless way that this option free-for-all was reported in the media just leaves me guessing as to why this options rort isn't being questioned.

I know this sort of thing seems acceptable by those who are board members of public companies and is a widely carried out practice in New Zealand and abroad but it is something that really rankles my hackles-a wonderful turn of phrase if I do say so!

It is up to shareholders to make their displeasure of this practice known to company management. I am not one to say incentives should not be paid, they should, but only for increased financial results. The bigger the profit increase the bigger the incentive payout I say.

Seems management at Auckland International Airport don't know what the word incentive means. If an individual or company gets paid for a decreasing profit then what is the motivation to do better?

Simply nothing.


Auckland International Airport @ Share Investor

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Discuss this Stock @ Share Investor Forum - Register free 
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c Share Investor 2007

Restaurant Brands: Delivering increased profit in October 2007

The profit season in New Zealand rolls on, and by and large things look good company wise considering the sad state of the economy. One company set to announce their profit in October, Restaurant Brands Ltd [RBD.NZ] the operator of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks brands in New Zealand looks set to show an increase in its earnings.

Of course this wouldn't be difficult considering the bad results they have been posting these last 24 months.

RBD's KFC unit has shown another re-growth because of vast sums of shareholder money being thrown at it but it is still off its all-time sales figures way back in the 20th century, still, having said that KFC is still the main and only profit driver for the restaurant group and it is the greasy stuff that will give RBD another shot at breaking its $1 share price barrier again-it listed in 1997 at $2.20 and briefly once touched that price in 2002.

The main problem for RBD though, apart from bad management and poor service, is the competition from its smarter and more motivated rivals.

KFC's position as the number one purveyor of chicken product is being plucked at by several rival chains. Red Rooster and Nandos are picking off KFCs customers piece by piece.

Starbucks has always struggled here and is basically a tax right-off for the company and it has never turned a profit since arriving on these shores in 1999. Operating costs are way too high and revenue hasn't yet matched these expenses.

The biggest threat to RBD though and its Pizza Hut brand, are the inroads that Dominos has made on its sales and profit. In a profit announcement by Dominos today its CEO Don Meij stated:

However, New Zealand EBITDA improved, growing from $1.5 million to $2.7 million. "In New Zealand, Domino's Pizza continues to go from strength to strength, with its EBITDA contribution up 80 per cent during the year."

October's announcement will probably see another big dip in sales for Pizza Hut and everything management have done so far to compete with Dominos has been a dismal failure.

Hopefully shareholders will also find out whether the board have managed to find a new head for the company. Vicki Salmon was pushed out at the beginning of the year and the company dearly need a new direction, any direction really so they can move forward and make some drastically needed changes in operations at head office down all the way down to store level.

In a related matter, Burger Fuel Worldwide [BFW.NZ] the recently listed "gourmet" burger maker, has failed to have its shares traded at all for the last 5 days. We wait in anticipation for a movement soon.

RBD shares closed down 1c to NZ 84c today.


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Discuss RBD @ Share Investor Forum




c Share Investor 2007