Hamill negotiated brilliantly regarding the new fee structure with BNB. BNB for all intents and purposes is a lame duck. It is in liquidation mode, basically being wound down with the banks in firm control. Maybe if BNB had formally been put into administration (rather than informally) and suspended indefinitely, BBI and other satellites would have been better off from a market sentiment point of view? I don't know. I know it does not really matter to BBI long term what happens to BNB. They are an 8% shareholder who get fees (very much reduced) for managing BBI's assets. That's about it. Medium term I see BBI possibly buying back the management rights at a fair and reasonable price and then employing the BNB staff directly so they become employees of BBI. There would be some cost savings there. The chargeable rate for their time would be nowhere near what BNB still charge (although much less than the outrageous rate, we assume,charged by BNB prior to Hamill sitting down with them).
I really don't see Powerco settlement being an issue, but yes, it does warrant some risk factor, albeit small. The banks may indeed be very tough, but BBI have never missed an interest payment, have more than adequate interest cover, and the banks to date have not been overly concerned with BBI's debt levels (despite what the press have written) so I would hope that they would be understanding if there was a small shortfall for one month until Powerco settles.
As all these boxes get ticked off, the risk diminishes and so the market value should rise.
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