Speak No Evil

The majority of Australian firms are staying mum on the amount of options they offer their executives as Howard continues to stonewall corporate law reform.

Executive Option Smokescreen

Nearly two-thirds of the nation's biggest listed companies have failed to supply shareholders with explanations of how directors' options will be treated in their annual reports. As debate over off-balance options continues, the Australian Shareholders' Association dispatched a string of questions related to options and other issues of corporate governance to more than 140 corporations in May. Only 51 bothered to reply. Stan Mather, a director of the ASA, says the reluctance of the overwhelming majority of companies to answer the important investor survey was a "sad comment on the attitude of some companies to their shareholders". Among the companies that did not send a reply to the ASA were: AMP, Amrad Corp, The Australian Gas Light Company, Bank of Queensland, BHP Billiton, ERG, Futuris, Macquarie Infrastructure Group, Newcrest Mining, News Corporation, Village Roadshow and Woolworths. (Source: SMH)

PM puts off corporate changes

The Howard Government is doing its bit for corporate excess as well, this week ruling out changes to improve corporate accountability. Prime Minister John Howard says he will not be rushed into strengthening corporate laws, despite the high-profile collapses of HIH and One.Tel which cost investors billions of dollars. Unlike the Cole Commission, the government will wait until it had the findings of the Royal Commission into the HIH collapse, due to be handed down late next February. Howard says the government would also announce its long-awaited response to the Ramsay report into auditor independence within the next two weeks. Professor Ian Ramsay lodged his report with the Government last October, setting out ways to improve audit standards after the HIH collapse. (Various sources)

Labor To Increase Jail Terms For Cheats

On the other ideas of politics, the ALP has vowed that company executives would face jail terms of up to 10 years for serious breaches of the Corporations Law. Unveiling a business reform package, Opposition Leader Simon Crean also outlined plans to "build trust in the market" by forcing auditors to adhere to new rules. This would include a requirement to reveal cases of "aggressive accounting" by companies, and disclose how the books would look if an alternative treatment were used.

(Source: ABC Online)

HIH Witnesses Get Public Funds

High profile HIH Royal Commission witnesses Rodney Adler and Ray Williams could be getting government assistance to help with their legal bills. While Attorney-General Daryl Williams will not confirm whether they were receiving public funding, he says a long-standing scheme of financial assistance for legal costs before royal commissions applied to both the HIH Royal Commission and the Cole Royal Commission into the building industry. He says the assistance scheme is not means tested. Revelations of the HIH high life continued this week including admissions that Rodney Adler was paid $40,000 a month as a consultant; while the Williams family was continuing to buy-up on property after the company's collapse. (Various Sources)

NAB In Super Probe

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission plans prolonging an investigation into National Australia Bank's management of superannuation funds worth billions of dollars. The bank's fund management division, MLC, has unveiled a compensation package for around 270,000 investors after last year's closure and transfer of certain pension funds saw them pay extra costs. ASIC executive director Ian Johnston has welcomed news of the $60 million compensation deal but says concerns remain about the handling of funds at the time. (Source: ABC Online)

Corrigan Adopts Union Tactics

Chris Corrigan, demon of the dockside dispute and half-owner of Sir Richard's discount airline Virgin Blue, is casting himself as the underdog in a spat with Macquarie Bank, the major shareholder in Sydney Airport Corp.

And this week, Corrigan made it personal. On Wednesday, Virgin Blue booked big red newspaper advertisements, headlined "Macquarie wants to increase your flight costs. What a bunch of bankers". It went on to urge readers to write or call Macquarie's mild-mannered chief executive Allan Moss - listing his email and the bank's Sydney switchboard number. They ads accused the bank - dubbed "the millionaire factory" for the number of seven-figure salary executives it regularly produces - of welching on a deal and abusing its position to gouge monopoly rents from Virgin. (Source: SMH)

Peacock Buys Into Child Care

Former federal Liberal Party leader Andrew is making a foray into the lucrative child-care industry, backing a $30 million sharemarket listing of Child Care Centres Australia. It is believed Melbourne broking firm Tolhurst Noall will underwrite the float, expected to list at the end of September. CCCA would become the second listed child-care company, following the arrival last year of Brisbane-based ABC Learning Centres. Peacock, who last month was appointed president of Boeing Australia, is already listed as a non-executive director of CCCA in filings with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. (Source: SMH)

Rosella Food Brand Comes Home

The Rosella parrot is returning to Australian shores - a local food distributor bought the brand from Unilever yesterday. Stuart Alexander, which markets and distributes overseas brands such as Mentos, Guylian, Tabasco and Werthers, bought the brand from the Anglo-Dutch food company. The price was not disclosed. The Rosella Preserving Co was founded in 1899 and bought by Unifoods in 1963. (Source: SMH)

Farm Pride Soft On Eggs

One of Australia's best-known egg producers may lay its last egg later this year. Despite saying it would post a modest profit for the 2002 fiscal year, Farm Pride, whose association with the egg industry dates back to the late 1930s, revealed it might sell all or part of its egg business. It started to move out of the lower-margin commodity market and into higher-margin, value-added markets in May when it bought Golden Days Natural Products' snack range from H.J. Heinz. A move by Farm Pride to merge with rival egg producer Pace was halted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in July. But the Victorian-based producer said the only way to materially improve profitability in its egg business was by a merger or acquisition with other egg industry players.(Source: SMH)

Golden Handshake for Grubman

Salomon Smith Barney telecommunications analyst Jack Grubman, who is under investigation by Congress and government agencies for potential conflicts of interest, has resigned - but he's hardly on the skids. Grubman, one of the most prominent analysts in the United States, will receive $A59.4 million in severance, including forgiveness of a $US19 million loan. Mr Grubman, 48, resigned after being under scrutiny for his recommendations on WorldCom and other companies whose share prices collapsed and who were clients of Salomon Smith Barney. Now US regulators are investigating whether he "played both sides of the fence", as banker and analyst - winning investment-banking fees with favourable stock recommendations. (Source: Bloomberg)