dear mr huntley, page-63

15% dodgy management factor??! In my experience, I've found that buying into a company where the management is crooked is one of the easiest ways to lose your hard-earned cashola.

Many many years ago back in 1991, my dad did some work for Village Roadshow and he described their senior management team as a "bunch of crooks", and guess what? Surprise surprise, Village was one of the worst large cap performers since then (not counting Austrim Nylex, run by Alan Jackson, who was also a thug).

I've personally worked at AWB, and although I never believed that the management there were crooks per se (most of them were actually quite nice guys); they were all so thoroughly retarded that I knew that any QC worth his salt would make the whole lot of them look as guilty as sin in front of the royal commission and the whole world. My theory became a reality, and it now looks like they are going to lose the single desk as a result.

I'd typically apply a 50%+ discount to dodgy/incompetent management.

If a Leigh Clifford/Chip Goodyear type of player came along and took over the reigns at Compass, I'd be happy to buy back in at a much higher price; but for now, I'm happy that I have realised a multibagger out of CMR, and I'm going to watch the rest of this drama unfold from the sidelines.

It is in the very nature of free-market capitalism that the savvy will scr€w the stupid and the crooked will fleece the naive. In this case I can see that GT et al are either crooked (in which case they will fleece the shareholders), stupid (in which case they will be done over by HNC, their contractors etc.) or both (in which case, I wouldn't buy CMR shares at any price north of 50c).

Oly, I appreciate your opinions on HC, however, I think that you have encouraged shareholders to give GT far too much latitude in the past. If he's got half a brain, he'd realise that he's on a good wicket, so if the shareholders were to 'read him the riot act', I think that we'd see a much better run company.

With his credibility now in tatters, there is very little chance that he would be able to jump ship, so why give him such a generous remuneration package?