re: Unscrupulous posters.Cheers Desmond
Cheers, Desmond---yes it is helpful to keep uptodate with the gold price--regrds--Steve. ---------------------------------------------------- I know you didn't want a long reply on Lend Lease Roberter---but I just found this article--BRW---regards. Steve. ---------------------------------------------------- http://www.brw.com.au/stories/20020530/15061.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Strategy: A giant in limbo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- By Turi Condon ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The global property giant Lend Lease is in limbo. The announcement that its chief executive David Higgins will depart when a replacement is found has destabilised the company and is expected to lead to continued weakness in its share price, which has fallen from $23 in November 2000 to $10.57 on May 27. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JILL KER CONWAY AND DAVID HIGGINS: He is going and analysts say she may be next Image: Tamara Voninski ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Before Lend Lease announced, on May 20, that Higgins was leaving, there had been rumors that he was losing the support of the board and that chairman Jill Ker Conway was one of his few advocates. Most board members were unhappy about the execution of Lend Lease's strategy and its slow earnings growth. That unease led to the decision to replace Higgins two years before his contract expires. Now some analysts think Ker Conway's position is under threat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ker Conway became chairman just as Lend Lease announced a second round of big writedowns in November 2000. The share price has since halved. Ker Conway says the board is '100% behind me' and that it also supports the Higgins-led strategy to transform Lend Lease from a local developer and financial services company into a global real estate operation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Of the 11 members of the board, Diane Grady has decided to resign in July and the Singapore-based Yong Hai Chua will not seek re-election when his term expires later this year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The instability created by Higgins' departure and the concerns about Lend Lease's earnings are expected to depress its share price even further. The shares are now trading below the break-up value of the company. But the complexity of the business - part fund manager, part builder - limits the range of potential acquirers. Analysts have speculated that Lend Lease and its big listed property trust, General Property Trust (GPT), which it manages, might be combined into one company by means of a stapled security. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ker Conway says there are no plans to break up Lend Lease. The company is in a good position for the future, she says, and is focusing on reducing costs and 'recruiting and developing a broad spectrum of talent'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- When Higgins' early departure was announced, Lend Lease re-stated its 2001-02 profit target of $210 million, compared with $151.4 million in 2000-01. It also said that 2002-03 earnings would be at the lower end of analysts' forecasts of between $225 million and $250 million. In 2002-03, Lend Lease will no longer have the profits it has regularly booked from a former stake in Westpac and will have to achieve substantial core earnings growth to reach $225 million. (The company included a $28.2 million profit from its Westpac stake in its $126.4 million net profit for the six months to December 31, 2001.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2002-03 profit outlook prompted a 77 cents fall in Lend Lease's share price, to $10.80, on May 20. Lend Lease's market capitalisation at that price was $4.7 billion, lower than GPT's ($5.2 billion) and half what it was before Lend Lease sold the MLC financial services division to National Australia Bank for $4.6 billion in April 2000. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Industry sources say morale at Lend Lease's Australia Square offices in Sydney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- is low. Staff are worried about the leadership vacuum created by Higgins being relegated to the role of a lame duck chief executive. The search for a new chief executive will take time. Ker Conway says a global recruitment agency will be appointed. Previously, Lend Lease has used the executive recruitment group Spencer Stuart. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A small number of Lend Lease staff were retrenched in February after the company released its December half-year results. Many others have left of their own accord, and some analysts say the talent drain will become a big problem for the company. In the past month or so, three Lend Lease executives have been hired by Stockland Trust Group; others have moved to a variety of property companies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The loss of talented staff is not a new problem at Lend Lease. In 1995, chief executive John Morschel left after a boardroom coup led to Higgins being installed as his replacement. At the time, a layer of upper management left. Now, the salary packages of many Lend Lease executives have plummeted in line with the share price fall (14% of the company is held by staff). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsettling times ----------------------------------------------------------------------The woes of Lend Lease: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Its share price has fallen from $23 to $10.57 in the past year and a half, as investors worry about declining earnings and the wisdom of its strategy to become a global real estate business. The gap between the May 20 announcement of the departure of David Higgins and when he leaves later in the year will create a leadership vacuum that will unsettle staff and investors. Chairman Jill Ker Conway says there are no plans to break up the company, and that the board fully supports the globalisation strategy. Analysts say Ker Conway's position is under threat. ------------------------------------------------------
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