Lord On Manoeuvres In Difficult Terrain
The Age
Wednesday April 2, 2003
Geoffrey Frederick Lord is poised to extend his influence over another listed company, this time the struggling stockbroking and finance broking outfit Terrain Australia group.
A long, long time ago Lord - as followers of the old Elders IXL empire would recall - was one of John Elliott's lieutenants.
History shows that some old Elders' personnel take one path and others take another.
In Lord's case, he has been ever-so-quietly building up a string of private businesses and, as well, he has a clutch of equity positions in listed companies, often accompanied by directorships.
His private investments include interests in clothing, transport, finance and fitness equipment, with several thousand employees on the books.
``We've got our head down and working hard; we've got a lot on," Lord said yesterday.
``I'm on my own. I don't have the mega-power that a large public company gives you, so we have to start with small activities and try and build them," he observed.
``We're not pretentious; we're just trying to keep our heads down and do some work. That's what you've got to do; step by step. We're just trying to build something over time."
Lord has stakes in about seven public companies where his privately-held Belgravia is a major shareholder.
``All of them have grown from tiny babies to at least acorns; none of them are oak trees," he said.
``Our strategy has been to go into companies when they're valued at under $10 million, and the bulk of the companies we're involved in are now in the $50 million to $100 million range.
``We're quite keen to build a couple of them into something a bit larger.
``Institute of Drug Technology is one, Triako Resources is another, and UXC, the information technology group that is doing very well, is another."
Those companies are considerably larger than the aforementioned Terrain Australia, which the other day effectively became a much larger investment for Lord when he converted a swag of convertible paper.
At the time Terrain was valued by the market at less than $5 million.
Terrain lost nearly $9 million in the December half.
In fact losing money is not a new experience for the group: its accumulated losses at balance date stood at $12 million.
Against the background of Lord's interests emerging as the biggest shareholder, with 23 per cent of the capital, Terrain is now going - cap in hand - to shareholders with a non-renounceable issue.
Get a load of it. The scrip has fallen from 28 to 9 in seven or so months and shareholders are now being asked to put their hands in their pockets.
It is a 2-for-5 issue at 13, raising $2.66 million. Lord's interests will take up their full entitlement.
``We will underwrite it and take up our entitlement and at the end of doing that exercise we will sit down with the company and discuss with them our views about the future strategy," said Lord, who is already represented on the board by one Richard Newton of Lanes Motors fame.
Lord became an alternate director the other day.
``We're not comfortable with where they've been; we'd like to feel more comfortable with where they're going," Lord says of Terrain.
``I'm not in a position yet to know where Terrain will finish because we need to have those discussions, but obviously we've got some views of our own and we'll express those.
``So, it will be interesting to watch and see where it goes, I suppose."
Fellow Terrain shareholders, whose entry price is far higher than Lord's, no doubt agree.
Directors waived and wave goodbye
Yet another page in the history of Australian mining was written yesterday when the remaining three directors of Pasminco called it quits.
Mark Rayner, Geoffrey Allen and Andrew Guy resigned from the world's biggest zinc producer. The company that was once valued at $3 billion has collapsed into the arms of company doctors, in the form of deep-sea explorer John Menzies Spark and Peter McCluskey, who have made a small fortune out of the job.
Spark and Co asked the three directors to remain in office to facilitate the administration.
An official statement accompanied their resignation and it solemnly stated:
``Through that period the directors have worked co-operatively with the administrators and at their own initiative waived any entitlement to receive fees or other compensation from the company from the time it entered administration."
Gee, what an effort. Let's hear it for 'em.
Plod moves on Nigerian manor
The Nigerian scam just won't go away.
But this time it is not the tedious repetition of a letter from some foreign fraudster to the effect of ``I have come across $30 million and I want to give you a big whack of it".
Instead, it is a missive from the corporate plod that throws some light on where the Nigerians might have got some money from.
ASIC has got an enforceable undertaking permanently excluding from the financial services game one Robert Andrew Street of Mitcham.
ASIC said an investigation had revealed that Street had obtained more than $700,000 from his clients.
``ASIC suspects Mr Street sent some of those funds overseas to individuals or entities connected with a Nigerian letter scam," ASIC said, and added: ``The money has not been recovered."
ASIC said that Street could apply to have the terms of the undertaking varied or revoked should there be a change in the circumstances that led to him agreeing to be excluded from the industry.
The investigation is continuing.
© 2003 The Age
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