Ann: Fletcher Building Announces Sale of Tradelink, page-5

But what choice did they have?

Sure, having to forcibly monetise assets in the midst of a major business downturn, reflects woeful strategic oversight.

But in a way, the current crop of FBU managers are merely the bunnies left facing the music while holding the bag; the damage was done by the previous generations of executives who spent money like drunken sailors, buying a number of dubious quality businesses (Formica, anyone?) for premium prices.

As for selling Tradelink for below book value, you obviously don't know half of it. The current book value for Tradelink is the written-down value after a series of impairments that have been booked in prior years.

For context, I recall them paying close to $1bn for Crane Group (of which the bulk of the business at the time was Tradelink). And now they are hoping to salvage around $140m (after all the fees and capital leakages).

I really expected them to be able to nett out a tad more for Tradelink, because $140m isn't going to make much of a dent in the debt.

The struggle is real.

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