FRAN GIVES GOVT A NUDGE ON BIZ SUPPORT

We admire the work and musing of the primo financial and political commentator Fran O'Sullivan. Today she does a " tut tut" get on with it column to the govt

We think its worthy of a leisurely read.

ITS YOUR JOB WELDON

Apparently there is no love lost between NZX Mark Weldon and the Shareholders crusader Bruce Sheppard.

Anyway Bruce has been on the warpath and has done some analysis of a few companies and worked out about 7 are in deep schtuck.

He suggested that some are " sitting on the edge of a debt precipice. "


NZX says he should reveal who the companies are.

We find that a bit rich. Now we thought that was the job of NZX to monitor the continuous disclosure stuff. Make sure that investors were working with as much info about companies as possible.

So it appears one of the argument is about the disclosure of banking covenants. We think they should be .

Bruce responds here.

Update : Cactus has a bloody good round up of the issue here too...

CACTUS'S ELEGANT DISSECTION OF NZX

Cactus has the flu. That means she has had an awful lot of time to think over the weekend and as a result she has picked the wings of the fly that is NZX and she has done it with academic precision and elegance. If we were NZX we would send Cactus some tamiflu anti viral and some flu vaccine so she doesn't get the chance to think too much again. Or they could just send her a few cases of Krug and a decent shag or two. Otherwise the Barbed Barbie is going to keep on their case until there is some action.

Its a mammoth read - but the guts of it is as follows.

Executive Summary

1. NZX is privy because of their Regulatory position to information that makes them a trusted source.
2. NZX charges for dissemination of this information to the marketplace and generates 45% of its operating revenue in this fashion.
3. NZX is spreading its Regulatory role of a trusted source collector and disseminator of this information into commercial publications it is planning to purchase.
4. NZX has had no permanent Head of Supervision for a year and it is arguable that this person is truly independent anyway.
5. NZX claims that its Supervisory and Commercial operations are "quarantined".
6. NZX Supervisory staff have been financed into an employee share scheme. The NZX CEO is according to the latest accounts, the third largest shareholder in the company and has a sole financial incentive to increase the earnings per share to receive more shareholding.
7. The Securities Commission has previously raised issues of conflict with respect to NZX.
8. The Securities Commission is over stretched and under resourced, more so due to recent finance company issues.
9. The Securities Commission has called internationally for "independent, strengthened, and well-funded regulators for implementation at the domestic level" due to recent subprime crisis issues.
10. The NZX CEO has a new politicised role and is seen by political advisors as having large influence on John Key.

We reckon Cactus is on the money. As she tends to be. We wait with interest the response from the MSM.

NZX - COMMAND AND CONTROL ?

We like Cactus think that there is a fair degree of whiffiness about the purchase of CountryWide Rural publishing by NZX. Yesterday we put up a post about the concerns Australian regulators are having over the merging of advertorial and editorial, the greying of the media. Trans Tasman is asking ComCom to take a look a the purchase.

Fran O'Sullivan has done a very considered piece on the NZX media purchase but she too wants ComCom to take a look at just what they are on about after leaked memo indicates that NZX is heading towards " world dominance" of rural information.

We think that the last few paragraphs of this story are the most pertinent. Fran asked Weldon if the new stable of publications would have editorial independence - of course says Weldon. Then she asked him about the feisty Alan Robb who has written some pithy articles in Diary Exporter about Fonterra and NZX's wimpy attitude to some disclosure issues.

""One intriguing factor is that NZX Rural will now own NZ Dairy Exporter, which has published some vigorous articles by accountancy expert Alan Robb questioning why the exchange did not compel Fonterra to restate its recent interim accounts to directly marry up with the 2007 financial year interim result.

Robb has taken a gutsy approach on this score.

Weldon maintains that Fonterra disclosed the nature of the changes to the market, and the NZX had communicated with the co-op and was comfortable that there was sufficient disclosure to meet the needs of bond investors.

Herald: "Would the exchange protect the editorial integrity of its publications?"

Weldon: "The answer to that is, without question, yes. There is, I have to say, a fair degree of disappointment from myself and internally that we've got this person Alan Robb whom we now pay who apparently has issues with presuming what our level of integrity about editorial is."

Speaks volumes.""

Yip we agree, ComCom needs to have a look and it reiterates our point in running the post about the merging of editorial and advertising. If Weldon doesn't get it then he has no business buying an independent media stable.

NZX IS ON NOTICE FROM THE BARBED BARBIE

Not sure how many billables Cactus is pumping out but she sure as shit is writing some bloody good stuff. She puts most business reporters and commentators to shame. She should be picked up by the main stream media to add some pith into the bland NZ business reporting landscape. We are lucky to have Fran O'Sullivan, Brian Fallow, the stable at Trans Tasman who poke out some good stuff from time to time and we dont always agree with her but Jenni McManus is always a good read. Patrick Smellie is left of the totem pole as well but he still writes like a dream. And there is some great stuff coming out from NBR's online site as well. Rob Hosking being one. But thats pretty much where it ends. So read Cactus's latest barb pointed at NZX.

She is doing the country a favour. And we agree its time ComCom got off its arse and investigated the purchase of Countrywide rural publishing by NZX.

NZX SHIFTS FROM CORE BUSINESS

Just in from NBR

This does not look like an inspired decision.

NZX has bought the paper stable of rural publisher CountryWide.

We find it a strange investment in troubled times.

Mr Weldon says the deal is important as the primary sector underpins the New Zealand economy and the team at Country-Wide deeply understands its farmer readership.

“Farming is the biggest single industry in New Zealand, and farmers are innovative businesspeople who rely on timely and robust data and information to make sound decisions.”

The publisher produces 78 publications a year under seven mastheads and had a turnover of more than $7 million in 2008.

WELDON IS A GOOD CHOICE

We are delighted that Key has chosen Weldon to chair the summit that's aimed at sorting shit. He's an ideas man and thats what we need.
We also did a bit of scan of the SOE lists of board members and boy are there some lightweights - even some bird who lists among her achievements- Aerial ribbon gymnastics to fill out her profile. We didn't know if we should laugh or cry and there are some bad balance sheets among the SOE's - we smell a clean out coming.
There is also another really good thing about the appointment of Mark Weldon. Both he and Key are easy on the eye. So it will be much easier hearing bad news from some thinking girls eye candy.

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS NOT OVER

The markets are up and down like a whores drawers...

Its what a lot of financial pundits predicted - volatility and lots of it..


Its going to be a roller coaster for a while yet..

NZX STILL WOBBLY

A lack of a plan has meant that the NZX hasn't lifted this morning - Hard hats on.

Read more here

WE NEED A PLAN - OR OUR ECONOMY COULD BE IN THE CRAP

Mark Weldon is saying it at Stuff

Fran O'sullivan is saying it in the Herald


And Gareth Morgan says we are " Unbelievably Exposed"

ad we agree - we need to hear from both political parties about what their strategy will be to counter the global credit crisis - we are burying our collective heads in the sand if we think that its not going to trickle down and impact on the families on Struggle street.

We can't afford to wait and then have to do a patch up job like the bail out the US has just voted on. They waited until their country was on its knees. And it is clear it might be too little too late.

We are a very small nation and we depend on exports for our economic survival so we must to plan to protect our fragile existence on the global stage.


We need leadership
We need a strategy
We need to hear from Clark and Key this week.

AN "OH SHIT" MOMENT IN THE USA

The Americans have voted against the bail out - wow.... this will probably create havoc world wide today.....