Bong in big trouble

[daryl]

Who is advocating.

[kayu]

....hopefully no one Daryl....

[Moore]

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm just wondering - if Billabong goes down, is it just the brand or the whole group (Element, Xcel etc..) ??

[Nick Carroll]

Public companies never really "go down", they just get sold and broken up for spare parts.

The brands you've named would be in the spare parts category.

[kayu]

.....mergers and acquisitions...the blood-sport of the corporate tigers.......I thought Billabong was "acquired" by Myers a little while back ?

[Davros]

Yeah there was talk of the US private equity fund TPG who bought Myers taking over Billabong, with Myer they cut the guts out of it (i.e. people - Australian jobs) and then sold it on. They however have been presented a Tax bill by ATO of approx 700m on the sale, they refuse to pay.

Old tax law states you didnt have to pay the capital gain on sale in Australia but in the country of residence, that doesnt really matter when your company is lodged in a tax haven in the Canary Islands like TPG so it was a great business model for these guys, the ATO changed the ruling to grab the tax around the same time as the Myer deal was transacting (ed) so Bong like a few more companies may have to turn the companies around by incorporating decent management principles and god forbid trading out of the trouble the got themsleves into.

Purely commercially as a shareholder of any firm you'd probably welcome private equity pirating for short term oppurtunistic gain, but long term it builds little, its the classic "greed is god" business, think Geko addressing shareholders at Teldar Paper in movie Wall Street. By the way the way most private equity deal makers retire on 100's of millions uaully in there 40's and start up charties in hope they go to heaven for destroying the little people and the knock on social and economic impact.

[kayu]

.......

[Beanpole]

Probably Xanax for the board.

[moondoggie]

Well TPG will they have to increase the bid???

I say yay

[petulance]

Goofy foot-ism?

From the article

"When Billabong stock hit $18 a few years back, he was a genius, a visionary who could do no wrong, even if he was a goofy foot."

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-kniv ... 23zip.html

[Beanpole]

A nice tough that in the business section

[Nick Carroll]

Verrender's a surfer.

[petulance]

^^^

You are right. He wrote an article about Sumbawa earlier in the year.

http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/vi ... O3EU7RUKRH

[Hollowed out]

short board or mal, northside southside?

[gibber]

^^^

You are right. He wrote an article about Sumbawa earlier in the year.

http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/vi ... O3EU7RUKRH

Its getting quite intolerable there these days.
I did this stretch last year in march and april and yes the places are getting more and more packed with European travellers and the mining fever that has hit both lombok and sumbawa is much like that here in aus, albeit at a more grass roots, cottage industry type of way (especially in lombok). an ounce of gold gets a local digger about 25,000 rupiah. Four people died while we were in kuta, four that I heard about anyway.

[gibber]

oh and that airport has been under construction for ages.
Can't see it being finished any time soon, although the roads are in better shape than they have ever been.
Hope i'm right, hate to see that airport get finished and hordes flying straight in to the south coast instead of Mataram and heading to the west coast at sengigi and the gili's

[ledtool]

Still in talks with TPG and shutting another 82 stores.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-27/b ... n=business

[Hollowed out]

well this will save them, Laura bringing in her Target buddies from the ASB page

BILLABONG APPOINTS COLIN HAGGERTY TO GLOBAL RETAIL OPERATIONS MANAGER 26.08.12
ASB Magazine: Billabong is set to announce an all-important revitalisation strategy later today. It’s the first decisive announcement by CEO Launa Inman and follows a self-described ‘baptism of fire’ since her appointment in May, replacing former CEO Derek O’Neill. Central to the strategy is expected to be the overhaul of its retail operations and to this end the company has appointed former Target colleague Colin Haggerty as its Global Retail Operations Manager. Most recently Haggerty was Board Director (Store Operations, Omni-Channel & Format Development) at Target Australia where he served for almost three years, and prior to that served as Business Development Director at Wal-Mart, Chief Operating Officer at Danish Home Furnishings giant ILVA and Retail Executive at Marks and Spencer where he oversaw the 'Store of the Future' format development that became blueprint for new M&S revamp programme. Colin Haggerty is a graduate of the prestigious Cranfield School of Management, with a network of professionals, many of whom are leading figures in the business world. Billabong’s revitalisation strategy is expected to be unveiled via a web conference today. For full coverage log onto www.asbmag.com