Child’s play could be payday for Kroger

LIBERAL Party powerbroker Michael Kroger could be a lot richer at 11am today when the kid-minding venture he’s behind, Think Childcare and Education, finally makes its stockmarket debut.

The float was delayed because ASIC demanded the prospectus be beefed up with more information about related party transactions and was further put off when the ASX said it too wanted some more background about the company.

In a complex deal, Think mashes together 15 childcare centres owned by managing director Matthew Edwards with the same number controlled by Kroger and his associates.

Whatever regulators think of the IPO, investors love it. About $22 million was raised by bookrunners Morgans and Patersons, but Margin Call hears there was about $100m attempting to get in on the deal.

If that translates to a healthy stag, Kroger’s $2.5m worth of shares could be worth a lot more.

And even if there isn’t, he and his associates are to be paid $10m for the centres. Of course, Eddie Groves’ ABC Learning was once a stock market darling too.

Man overBaird

NSW Premier Mike Baird is on board with one of the biggest Chinese business delegations ever to visit Australia.

He’ll be at a cocktail reception for 27 high-powered delegates, collectively worth billions of dollars, from the China Entrepreneurs Club on board luxury yacht MV Epicure as it chugs around Sydney Harbour on December 2.

The CEC delegates, who include Ma Weihua, the former boss of southern China’s biggest bank, China Merchants Bank, former vice-minister for trade Long Yongtu and the vice-chairman of CITIC Securities, Communist Party princeling Liu Lefei, will also attend a forum at the Four Seasons Hotel. Promoters say the cruise will give 100 ticket buyers “an unparalleled opportunity to network with China’s highest profile business leaders.’’

And Mike Baird.

Alibaba up in arms

IT’S not just Alibaba’s exotic corporate structure and a $US1 billion ($1.14bn) loan to executive Simon Xie that had US regulators worried in the run-up to the Chinese e-commerce outfit’s $US25bn float in August.

Also raising eyebrows was the use of Alibaba’s online bazaars to sell “products that may have weapons or military applications”, including one listing its uses as including “uranium centrifuge, nuclear weapons”. SEC staff raised concerns such knick-knacks might end up being sold to customers in Iran, Syria, Sudan or Cuba, which are subject to sanctions.

In reply, Alibaba’s Hong Kong lawyers, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, said the company was “committed” to complying with US sanctions laws and “has banned or restricted the listing of dangerous and/or illegal products”, including uranium.

It said members who posted prohibited products were given demerit points that can lead to their accounts being closed. How many nukes does it take?

Packer’s bunny hop

SHOWING he’s a slave to the billionaire tradition of owning sports teams, casino tsar James Packer lived up to the stereotype yesterday by buying into the NRL’s South Sydney, alongside Russell Crowe. So with all the action in Sydney, was that really Packer spotted outside Crown’s Melbourne outpost early on Wednesday evening, chatting with an unidentified Asian gent?

Margin Call’s man by the baccarat table didn’t sight Crown CEO Rowen Craigie, who Crowe called a “pelican” following the Rabbitohs’ premiership win this month.

ABS seed funding

MORE on the saga of the Bureau of Statistics’ quest for new indoor plants (Margin Call, October 21). The latest is the ABS won’t let prospective tenderers have a gander at the offices they’re supposed to fill with verdant yet inexpensive plant life. Instead, horticulturalists are supposed to break out the calculators and figure out how many rubber plants will be required based on the office floor space.

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