Bong in big trouble

[Wingnut]

Billabong shares up 48.6% this morning?

[steve shearer]

No discrimination in the great outdoors.

he seemed like a nice fellow and we got to chatting.

[dUg]

Correct me if I'm wrong but in informal discussions whilst smoking joints with a high level Gold Coast stockbroker during Dec he told me that it was London to a brick Bong were being circled by private equity looking for a cheap and easy meal by short selling bong stock.

Selling off half of Nixon has now effectively turned defence into attack as they deal with the debt problem hanging on their neck.

True or false?

Well spotted Mr. Shearer.

And then there's this:

http://www.news.com.au/business/breakin ... 6273561313

SURFWEAR giant Billabong will close between 100 and 150 stores in a massive restructure, with 400 jobs set to go worldwide.

The retailer said 80 positions in Australia would be axed as it reported a first-half net profit drop of 72 per cent, down to $16 million.

More to come

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/breakin ... z1man3CWIf

[alakaboo]

I find it hard to believe you'd share a joint with a stockbroker

No discrimination in the great outdoors.
He seemed like a nice fellow and we got to chatting.

Stockbrokers and dentists have the best dope. Think it's the stress.

[crabmeat thompson]

ˆˆ The chartered accountants institute wants a word with you

[alakaboo]

We're talking about people you might reasonably expect to see outside.

[crabmeat thompson]

Ah gotcha ...


*grabs coat, exits*

[Nick Carroll]

It is a bunch of Financier Cobblers.

Billabong has briefly been caught with its pants down and is being undervalued by the raiders. You'd be a very silly shareholder to be sucked in by their malarkey.

If the private equity crews get hold of it, they will pretty much destroy the business, so I would bet the big shareholders (not just Gordon) will laugh them off, thinking quite reasonably that in the long term, an offer of $3 or thereabouts is pretty low ball shit.

But BBG had better make every post a winner from now on.

[Hollowed out]

Nick, so Gordon will just laugh them off eh...sounds like wishful thinking NC because Greasy has not got control and has not had it for agess, otherwise they would not be in this position.
Bankers and VC's have Bongs balls in a glass case and will break it in case of emergency...it is an emergency and those gonads are exposed big time and just swingin in the breeze.
Must be some fairy dust getting in the eyes of the beneficiaries of the Bong history survival crew for anyone to not see this is as serious as it gets in reality

[Nick Carroll]

well I don't have any fish to fry here, not even any shares nor any half-formed envy or resentment etc either

just saying, why would you take $3 for something that was worth $8 eleven months ago just 'cause some private equity group is trying to frighten you.

If they succeed they will fcuk up the entire business, I would suggest that BBG's major investors aren't that far gone ...yet.

It's another chapter in Jarratt's book really isn't it. "Only a surfer knows the feeling", Bong doesn't even use that motto any more, now it's "Life's better in boardshorts". Fascinating switch in marketing - the first an exclusive term claiming surfing's special status that at the time every surfer understood, the second an inclusive term suggesting You Too Can Be A Surfer, uncomfortably close to GSI's motto ("Life is better when you surf").

In a way that might be an even deeper problem hey.

[Hollowed out]

not suggesting ya had a mullet in the pan, nick, sorry if it read that way.
point was that IMHO control of bongs future has shifted big time and your observation of their motto change speaks volumes, Greasy, Naude, Derek et al will "know the feeling" of loosing control to institutional investors and bankers calling for cash and the the boys make nice boardies from old bottles but they haven't worked out how to make $100 bills instantly when the creditors came knocking. They don't surf and don't know the feeling...but they know the feeling of counting the $$$from getting the whole population to don the boardies for a better life! Greed worked for GSI and maybe the bankers stole their mantra.
TPG and the like know exactly that and selling a slice of the watch gig does not even get Bong enough cash to clear the current debt. Shutting 150 stores and sacking the staff will cost even more cash (severance pay, lease pay outs etc) and leave them with a shit load of stock that they will have to destroy or fire sell/dump on the net.
What about the industry fallout for all the staff cuts and surf shop owners who got into bed with bong to grow their stores, what do they do...door to door flogging Nixon watches they get given as compensation, or hope the stock they got given for same reason does not tank because bong have already said dividends are at the bottom of the garden with the ones in pink.
Ya only got to look at the aussie dollar, Europe crisis, japan mess, rain, rain, and more rain, the closing of 300 of bongs biggest customers stores in USA (Pac Sun??) and know that ya can buy any surf gear ya want including wetties better than Bongs for 1/3 their price delivered to ya door....the mountain just keeps getting higher me thinks....but hey what do i know?

[kreepykrawly]

I'm not really sure whats this subject's about but all i can say is that i really dont trust fat surfers.
I think its within everybody's right to be able to surf without being looked at like a lamb chop.

[Beanpole]

If you look at the Alt type vibe around these days with guys wearing plain t shirts in the surf and all it may just be that saturation point has finally been reached where every joe blow from Osaka to Stokholm has a big three t shirt and boardies. I even saw a few at some of those Greek Protest Rallies on TV.

Mambo reached a somewhat similar point quicker. Every BBQ had a fat middle aged uncle or two with a dog fart t shirt or ridiculous loud shirt so they were no longer subversive. The comments often expressed on here re: wouldn't be caught dead in one..may reflect this.

[Hollowed out]

well round two now begins by the big USA vultures making their move to take Bong...see latest here.
http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/pr ... =bbg&f=pdf
If they get hold of it it will change the industry landscape as they will only want it to cut costs and strip it bare by offloading various brands and destroying whatever culture that still exists, same as Macquarie doing the slash and burn with FCS and Gorilla grip

[offshore1]

surfing is different to fashion marketing.
I was in Leon , Nicaragua the other day (Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere after Haiti, abject war-ravaged poverty)

nobody surfed for miles and miles and miles and miles of empty points and beachies Yet I saw all kinds of "surf" apparel in Leon's mercado central.
The best was a t shirt that stated boldly:

Aeroposte
New York
Surfer
#1


says it all really.

[Nick Carroll]

If you look at the Alt type vibe around these days with guys wearing plain t shirts in the surf and all it may just be that saturation point has finally been reached where every joe blow from Osaka to Stokholm has a big three t shirt and boardies. I even saw a few at some of those Greek Protest Rallies on TV.

Mambo reached a somewhat similar point quicker. Every BBQ had a fat middle aged uncle or two with a dog fart t shirt or ridiculous loud shirt so they were no longer subversive. The comments often expressed on here re: wouldn't be caught dead in one..may reflect this.

Yeah it's funny hey, seems like the only guys who can wear surf co clothing with any panache these days are the guys who're being paid to do it.

[purple pyramids]

crystal cylinders and golden breed?

Well then it's gone full circle then. What now?

[Trev]

crystal cylinders and golden breed?

Well then it's gone full circle then. What now?

"Hang Ten"