Clik here to view.
A Spotless problem: How to tell when your executive ranks are bloated
How big is too big for a company’s head office? At Melbourne-based corporate services company Spotless, the new owners, private equity group Pacific Equity Partners, have decided 900 head office...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stiffing the shareholders: Litigation and our big banks
This week, the National Australia Bank published its 2012 annual report, confirming that its net profit for the year had fallen by about 21%, mainly from higher bad and doubtful debt charges. Buried...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bonus clawbacks and take-home-pay: Government to standardise executive pay...
Proposed laws standardising how executive pay is reported have been welcomed, with reservations, by remuneration and corporate governance experts. According to the Australian Financial Review, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What makes analysts say `buy'?
Wall Street analysts’ recommendations can move markets. But even though leaders of public companies spend significant amounts of time interacting with this constituency, there’s little information...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Investment: When’s the best time to buy shares?
One of the questions I get asked regularly is when is the best time to invest, which correctly implies that there are both good and bad times to invest in a stock or market. While to me there is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Insolvency tips that Retail Adventures’ suppliers wished for
Imagine if one of your customers had the legal power to reach into the corporate bank account and take back the past six months of payments they have made to you. There is such a customer: an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Consumer staples 2011-12: Which companies flourished and which floundered
Treasury Wines, whose Australia-New Zealand chief we profile today, led the pack of Standard & Poor’s consumer staples index in the 2011-12 financial year, a LeadingCompany analysis has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The ‘vulture funds’ terrorising the poorest nations
Since defaulting on its debt in 2001, Argentina has been locked in a decade-long battle with international investors. Tensions between the country and institutional bondholders reached new highs on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to halve your Christmas party budget
The Christmas party is a key part of most companies’ end-of-year celebrations. Or at least, it used to be. Morgan Stanley cancelled its staff Christmas party this year, The Australian Financial...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interest rates bringing businesses – and bank managers – to tears
As a business that exports in US dollars, or deals directly with customers reliant on US-dollar exports, we follow the economic orthodoxy that we deserve an offset against the Aussie dollar by way of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Big Squeeze: The problem facing leaders of cashed-up companies
The great recession that has ravaged many developed economies since the global financial crisis has profoundly changed management practices, especially in public companies. There has been a shift...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Spotless problem: How to tell when your executive ranks are bloated
How big is too big for a company’s head office? At Melbourne-based corporate services company Spotless, the new owners, private equity group Pacific Equity Partners, have decided 900 head office...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We were wrong: IMF report details the damage of austerity
In a rare about-face, the International Monetary Fund this week admitted that it grossly underestimated the impact of the austerity regime it advised Europeans to adopt. A paper authored by IMF...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Casella success story on hold: 5 steps to surviving the high dollar
Twelve years ago, John Casella of Casella Wines turned the usual strategy of Australian wineries on its head. Instead of building up his wine business in Australia, he started selling straight to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Catalyst’s media play: Why private equity players see plenty of juice left in...
When it comes to Australian private equity, Catalyst is one of the big fish. The firm has funds in excess of $1 billion under management, and a history of investing in manufacturing and building...
View ArticleClik here to view.
High-speed trading: Is it time to apply the brakes?
How fast is high-frequency stock trading? In the time it takes to read this sentence, tens of thousands of high-speed, computer-automated transactions can occur. Winning traders edge out rivals by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No longer a brand apart: Apple’s share price slump
The stock market was hoping for great things from Apple’s earnings announcement for the December quarter. Most of all, they were hoping for something that would turn around a four-month slide in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Pricing Prophet: Are other industries doing it better?
Were you inundated with New Year’s resolution suggestions this year? Have you already broken the ones you made a month ago? Did you make a pricing resolution? If not, let me suggest one for the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oligopoly of the Big Four a raw deal for taxpayers: Bouris
This election year I would like to see banking competition finally addressed. Lending is too heavily concentrated in the hands of the four majors, which are “too big to fail”, with profits and pay...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Cochlear is wooing shareholders back to the fold
Today, the ear implant company and Australian success story, Cochlear, had some hearty half-year financials to warm the hearts of investors. Unit sales were up 27% to record levels, and its...
View Article
