Mystery of All Black’s son on teamsheet

Peter Nicholson Margin Call Cartoon 15-04-2015 Version: (Original) COPYRIGHT: The Australian's artists each have different copyright agreements in place regarding re-use of their work in other publications. Please seek advice from the artists themselves or the Managing Editor of The Australian regarding re-use.

You don’t often find the son of an All Black changing his name but Mark Bryers, son of 1949 All Black Ronald Bryers, has had more reason than most to alter it.

Mark, born in 1957 in New Zealand, is an undischarged bankrupt, lives in Sydney and calls himself Mark Ryan these days because, as he has put it, he doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself.

He is a lawyer by trade and was the major player in the Blue Chip group in New Zealand that collapsed in 2011 owing investors $NZ84 million, and with debts of $NZ230m.

His bankruptcy prevents him from being a shareholder, manager or officer of any business in NZ and Australia, which sits at odds with what appears to be happening at Sydney-based firm Talos Partners Accounting Group, which so far has bought six accounting practices in NSW, the ACT, Queensland and WA, with a stated intention to building an accounting and financial planning network.

We’re all for trans-Tasman investment in these dollar-parity times, but only if it plays by local rules.

One Stephen Lacy is listed as the sole director and shareholder of Talos, but a mystery hand has sent us the minutes of a recent meeting of Talos Advisory Group directors and associates and they were signed off by “Mark Ryan, chairman’’. Strange, particularly when Bryers/Ryan was listed at the top of the document as a consultant observer.

A call to Lacy asking whether Bryers/Ryan was a shareholder or manager of Talos elicited the response: “I won’t be making any comment on that, thank you.’’

Outsider’s outlook

Could this be an ominous sign for Suncorp shareholders chasing yield? One of the favourite books of motorbike-riding incoming chief Michael Cameron is The Outsiders. Released by Harvard University Press, the book focuses on “unconventional CEOs and their radically rational blueprint for success”. One area that could have some dividend-loving investors sweating is the discussion around capital allocation. The book narrows in on a number of case studies including the contrarian practice of US-conglomerate Tekedyne under its reclusive founder, Henry Singleton, in the 1960s.

“In addition to eschewing dividends, Singleton ran a notoriously decentralised operation, avoided interacting with Wall Street analysts ... and repurchased his shares as no one else ever has before or since”. Special dividend, anyone?

Hail the storm

As we thought, that hailstorm in Brisbane last November might have been dire news for insurers, but it set the champagne corks popping at the car dealers.

AP Eagers, the listed auto retail group, yesterday issued a profit upgrade for the first half of 2015, predicting underlying profit of $54m-$58m, versus $46m for the same time last year.

“The severe hailstorm event in November 2014 has generated significant activity in the first quarter of 2015,’’ it said.

That tallies with the $1 billion damages bill for insurers, which pointedly did not include a further $50m in estimated damages done to Brisbane City Council and state government buildings. The insurers faced a massive payout to car and property owners, exacerbated by the fact that the storm came in peak hour and automotive escape was impossible.

The Eagers people did concede that “this activity is likely to have pulled forward some future demand’’. It also threw in that the NSW business was going very nicely thanks to “improved economic conditions’’ — which sounds a more reliable long-term measure.

Shares in AP Eagers took off like a homesick angel, running up $1.12 to $9 in early trading, before the one-off nature of the benefit hit the market like a hailstone. They still closed up 54c at $8.42.

Food for thought

Stand by for a tsunami of cashed-up agribusiness buyers arriving not only from China but the US and Europe, say Sydney-based corporate undertakers-turned-advisers PPB.

They say that a lot of the big players came to Australia a year ago to look at assets but decided a) the Aussie dollar was too high and b) we didn’t have a lot of free trade agreements on our side.

Cut to scene two, where both are set fair for buyers. And now you can throw in that a lot of the big global players have suddenly found their trade links with Russia chopped off by sanctions. The prospect of using Australia as a jumping-off point into Asia, plus a target destination for food products, has apparently got a lot of otherwise cautious midwest types positively cross-eyed with anticipation. Watch this space.