Should Richard Resign?, page-32

Hi Ryzie,

Interesting title to the thread 'should he resign'. From an investment community's perspective and taking in consideration for what is best for 'investors'.

He should 'resign' once they can they secure the appointment of a qualified experienced CEO in the industry to guide Brandon. For the purposes of business continuity he should remain until that event happens.

But he shouldn't be resigning for all the reasons stated by a lot of the posters.

(1) For example, his colorful past. Twiggy Andrew Forrest himself copped media slack back in the days of FMG's infancy from the Anaconda Nickel debacle and also for releasing false and misleading statements regarding Chinese Iron Ore contracts at FMG but was eventually acquitted of charges on appeal to the High Court. He made himself and a lot of Fortescue backers rich still to these days. He also hanged with people with 'colourful' pasts much devious than extorting a random guy at a public facility for cash. Twiggy is now one of Australia's biggest philanthropists and the media has stopped publishing negative articles about him.

(2)Factoring receivables or invoice discounting is a legitimate method for a SME business to conduct cash flow management however, whether their disclosure is up to scratch is moot point and whether it was 'concealed' to deliberately mislead investors is another question. Maybe some should have asked at the AGM, or people with their biases don't ask the hard questions when things are rosy.

In the end the 'fairfax assault' with endless hyperlinking and click baiting of old articles which originally were pretty intriguing became much like a tabloid style reporting later on. I think the intrusion to the OZ harvest fundraiser was uncalled for. It started as an interesting find but time to move on instead of rehashing old articles.

But he should step down because:

(1) For the sake of letting Brandon's vision to succeed as best as possible he shouldn't let his own past detract from his Son's future. The mistakes of the past coming back to haunt you, but deep down inside, he should 'Let it Go' and probably just take up an advisory role since he is still a substantial shareholder.

(2) By stepping down, BIG probably will have a better chance with capital markets in the future as RE's reputation has been dragged through the mud, rightly or wrongly.

But ultimately, performance dictates where the future with BIG is.