We are currently in an interesting situation with regard to interest rate caps on consumer loans in Australia. Around 18 months ago, responsibility for overseeing consumer credit was moved from State Governments to the Federal Government. Over the period since then industry participants have been th...
Readmore »I was asked by the Chairman of a very large listed company a very straightforward question, “What is a good risk manager and what do they do?”. Here’s what I thought he wanted to hear....
Readmore »We recently met with the owners of a business that had been making losses for a number of years. They had been holding on for a couple of years hoping to ride out the storm, not wanting to admit the business was in trouble. I think many business owners can empathise with this situation at the moment...
Readmore »We have recently been approached to comment on the costs, benefits and risks of taking on additional debt or equity. Before going on to examine the specific questions we were asked, we need to quickly examine the difference between debt and equity....
Readmore »In Simon Franklin’s article back in June 2010 he examines the Key Person risk issue which of course is a major consideration, especially for investors. At Dequity Partners we are very keen to ensure that all our clients have adequate risk management strategies, management plans and mitigation p...
Readmore »Fear of risk, like fear of spiders is mostly irrational and based on lack of understanding. Sure, if you poke the wrong type of spider and annoy it enough it may bite you and a certain few species will actually hurt you. However, most of our hairy eight-legged friends will actually shy away and l...
Readmore »Synergy - What is it and how does it work? A number of people have asked me about synergy (which is described in most business strategy books as making 2 + 2 = 5) and what it means from a corporate perspective. Stuart Hackett, former CEO of GIO Building Society has extensive experience when it com...
Readmore »It has recently been announced that Santos (a major Australian oil services company) is soon to raise over $500 million (denominated in Euro) from European investors by means of a financial instrument that is effectively a bond (in that it pays regular interest payments), but has been classified a...
Readmore »Corporations have been advised a hundred times before that key persons to the success of our businesses must be protected. From the tragedy of the Busby Babes, to the announcement that we lost six of Australia's top mining executives, all from one company, we are still ignoring that advice. Why?...
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