With the Rex airline hoping to launch flights between capital cities next year, idle plane spotters have been pondering what becomes of the “R” in Regional Express.
The natural step would be for the regional carrier to adopt a brand that adds something like City or Capital Express for its new winged division.
Seems easy, but that would make the abbreviation change to a synergistic Cex, which when saying it out loud, would be pronounced “sex”.
Apparently Rex’s team of brand consultants toyed with the notion, but thought the board headed by founding shareholder Lim Kim Hai and deputy chairman John Sharp, would be disinclined.
Maybe CX would do the trick?
Not that there’s ever been too much insinuendo made of their competitor’s name, Virgin.
Rex stunned the industry in June announcing it intended flying in the so-called golden boomerang corridor between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane next year. It is aiming to have five to 10 jets from March 1. To say Qantas boss Alan Joyce wasn’t too keen on the idea would be an understatement.
Speaking at the CAPA Centre for Aviation summit last week, Joyce said Rex’s planned expansion in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis “did not feel right” to him.
“We’ve got three airlines in the market at the moment — Qantas that’s having to lay off 6000-8500 people, that’s borrowing against aircraft, that’s raising equity to get through this; we’ve had Virgin go into administration and we have Rex get the biggest assistance from the government and saying they may take loans on aircraft to get more aircraft.
“That doesn’t feel right, doesn’t seem right. They should not be using government subsidies to actually fund the growth.”
Rex denied the claim.
It’s bath time
The 125-year-old Melbourne bathroom company Rogerseller has been bought by the 114-year-old Sydney firm Winning Appliances.
The businesses happen to be next-door neighbours on Dank Street, Waterloo, as well as close neighbours at both their Melbourne and Brisbane locations.
It is a sale by a family-owned company to another. There’s been three generations at Rogerseller, and four generations at Winnings, where the 36-year-old John Winning has been boss of the burgeoning kitchen supplier for the past nine years.
Rogerseller was founded by John J Rogers in Melbourne in 1895, before becoming Rogers, Seller & Myhill in 1920. It was a great uncle of their current managing director James Edmonds who secured their stake in the company.
The last director with the Seller surname quit the board in 1983.
Austrade head hunt
The government is looking externally for the next head of Austrade, following Stephanie Fahey’s departure in July.
Austrade has had some 120 applicants within the first week of its LinkedIn posting, which advises it is seeking a “visionary leader” to help deliver growth to Australia’s trade and investment outcomes. The agency also has eight offices in China, which is proving to be a diplomatic challenge at the moment.
The acting chief executive is Tim Beresford, the former chief operating officer and deputy vice chancellor of Macquarie University.
Beresford stepped in, having been Austrade’s deputy chief executive of global client services, when Fahey stepped down after 3½ years of leading staff across a network of 83 offices in 49 markets globally.
Fahey, who spent seven years as Monash University’s deputy vice chancellor of global engagement, has just joined the board of the Australian Design Council in a part-time role.
Applications close on September 14, with Egon Zehnder handling the hunt.
Micronation for sale
With secessionist inclinations on the rise, the listing of the ready-made Hutt River Province has possibly been perfectly timed.
The 6100ha grain and sheep property in Western Australia’s Midwest that is owned by the Casley family was proclaimed an independent principality 50 years ago, when the late Prince Leonard announced he was seceding from Australia.
It followed a dispute over wheat production quotas.
Prince Leonard evoked a provision in the Magna Carta, claiming he was acting under the international legal principle to form a “self-preservation government”.
He declared himself prince and the 75sq km property an independent state, which he ruled until he abdicated in 2017 in favour of his son Graeme, also a prince, who has instructed Elders agent Kris Teakle to find a buyer.
The tiny micronation in the WA countryside became a tourist destination for visitors from all over the world until the pandemic travel restrictions.
Apparently its regal stamp and coin sales have been hit something dreadful.
Forbidden delight
Forbidden Foods soared on its listing on the ASX on Monday last week. Shares doubled to 40c in early trade. It went even higher, to 45c, last Tuesday.
But now into its second week, the plant-based food company’s shares are trading at 27c, still up from the 20c issue price as part of the $6m IPO raise.
Monday’s trading saw it take a 7 per cent hit, then 8 per cent on Tuesday.
Forbidden Foods co-founders Marcus Brown and Jarrod Milani retain 12.45 per cent of the company, which now has a $22m market cap.
Its three brands are Forbidden, Sensory Mill and Funch.
The biggest institutional shareholder is Credit Suisse, which took 3.3 per cent.
The private investors in the company, which specialises in innovative health foods such as its flagship Black Rice product, which was launched eight years ago, are mostly from Melbourne.
None more interesting than Rory Luff and Benjamin Kay, two senior executives at boutique corporate advisory BW Equities.
Luff and Kay own 2.2 per cent of the company through the investment vehicle, TR Nominees.
The private Myer retailing family trust has a 1.1 per cent stake.
Agriculture veterans Harry Youngman and Nigel Sharp bought shares through a number of their companies, totalling around 7 per cent.
Staying in agriculture circles, Chris Langdon, chief executive of his 168-year-old family firm, took 2 per cent.
Mopoke on rise
The cute little Mopoke has been requisitioned as a weapon of war.
The small frogmouth’s name is now the newest drone product being offered by Sydney-based military defence equipment supplier Electro Optic Systems Holdings.
The counter-drone has the capabilities to acquire, track and defeat swarming unattended aerial system (UAS) threats, according to its ASX advisory to shareholders on Tuesday. It can come with a laser that can destroy UAS of any size and at any range.
Mopoke, sometimes known as the boobook, is found throughout Australia, and is renowned for its acrobatic skills in catching its prey.
It seems both mopokes can attack their prey mid-air.
Chairman Fred Bart and chief executive Ben Greene, who has headed the company for three decades, saw their announcement trigger a 44c rise in its share price, although it closed at $5.30, up 11c.
The much-loved bird is written about in Australian poetry, most notably by B.R. Dionysius in his poem, Boobook Owl, and also The Mopoke by Rex Ingamell s.
EOS specialises in technology for weapons systems. The unmanned Mopoke tactical counter aircraft system was revealed on military intelligence website Janes in late August. EOS is among the companies set to benefit from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recently announced $270bn capability upgrade for the Australian Defence Force, under the new 2020 Force Structure Plan.
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