Crikey! How about a Claytons redundo?

Peter Nicholson

Strange goings on at media minimogul Eric Beecher’s Private Media, the publisher of the Crikey website.

Margin Call hears Beecher’s executive assistant has been made redundant from her role with the company — and yet, in an odd twist, she still works for Beecher.

Until recently Beecher’s EA was also Private Media’s office manager, putting her close to the epicentre of power at the organisation, but in recent months the company moved her to a gig in subscriptions. While Private Media has made her redundant, she is still Beecher’s EA, which must be a bit awkward. She declined to comment and Private Media chief executive Jason Kibsgaard didn’t return our call.

The lion of ANZ

HSBC’s new quasi-official history, The Lion Wakes, doesn’t just give an insight into Mike Smith’s dashing style at the head of the bank’s Argentinian operation during the country’s debt crisis in the early 2000s (Margin Call, Tuesday).

It also gives a close-up view of the management style employed by the man now running big four bank ANZ.

In November 2004, when he was head of Asia for HSBC, Smith wrote a shape-up-or-ship-out memo to the then-boss of Australia, Stuart Davis.

“It has been agreed with the group chairman and group CEO that you pursue the game plan outlined and be given six months (end June 2005) to produce a tangible game plan,” Smith said. “Failure to deliver will necessitate a change in business plan for Australia and new management.”

Ouch. But Davis must have delivered, because he lasted another five years before being shipped off to run HSBC India.

Woolies dominoes

This is how it goes with dominoes: you knock one down and pretty soon the whole lot are falling.

So who knows what consequences could flow from the angst surrounding the domino giveaway currently captivating shoppers down at Grant O’Brien’s Woolworths.

There is titillating trolley talk that top-tier tiles are wilfully withheld by Woolies workers, leading to a spiralling shortage.

Darker still, individual tiles are for sale through online marketplaces, including eBay and that home of the broken guitar and slave wanted ad, Gumtree. But Woolies insists there is no conspiracy to create artificial scarcity.

“Woolworths printed an equal number of each domino so it should be possible to collect the whole set,” a spokesman said, adjusting his tinfoil hat.

“We are aware that sets do from time to time become available on online auction sites. We don’t encourage people to buy or sell the dominoes but rather use swap sites to collect those dominoes they are missing.”

Potash or cash

Can Madame Cheung save Kazakhstan Potash Corporation? The company is under fire from former Fortescue chairman Gordon Toll, who says it has welshed on a deal to buy a potash field, and appears to be fast running out of cash.

In the past Hong Kong-based chairman Cheung has shown plenty of ability to bring money in the door.

The only problem is that passing the hat around KPC’s overseas investors, many of whom are believed to be mainland Chinese, is a bit difficult given the company’s subterranean share price.

Back in 2011, when it was known as Fortis Mining, KPC shares fetched close to $2.50.

Yesterday, they closed at 9.8c — up from a couple of weeks ago, when they hit a nadir of 7c.

Who’d want to throw more money in now?

At the end of the December quarter, KPC had cash of about $1.82m and estimated that it would spend cash of almost $3m in the following three months.

Queried about this alarming situation by the ASX, executive director Marco Marcou primly said KPC directors were “well aware of the company’s cash position”.

“The directors are effectively seeking potential investors and are in the course of negotiating various capital raising opportunities,” he said.

Well, time’s nearly up and there’s no sign so far of a cash-laden angel descending from heaven (or by train from Shenzhen to Kowloon).

In the meantime, Madame Cheung has kindly agreed to fund the company.

The situation can’t be entirely dire: just last month KPC advertised for a receptionist for its Honkers office, billing itself as “a growing group”. And job ads never lie.

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