around the traps ... with the ferret

Around the Traps ... with THE FERRET
08:10, Wednesday, 25 May 2005

Sydney - Wednesday - May 25: (RWE Australian Business News) -
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The mining boom appears to have been a boon for Brisbane-based
diversified industrial company CAMPBELL BROS (CPB), which has just
announced a net profit rise of 41 per cent for the year.

Of the company's three divisions the biggest contribution came
from the laboratory services division, in particular the ALS Chemex
mineral assaying business.

The laboratory segment contribution rose 65.6 per cent while
industrial fell 10.8 per cent and consumer rose 27.4 per cent.

Campbell will pay a final fully franked dividend of 24c, making
42c for the year, up from 33c.

Campbell rose 55c to $9.60 after the profit rise.

It hit a record $10.05 on March 14.

With EPS at 54c the latest price represents a p/e of almost 18,
which is getting high.

*****

The sellers slammed into CREATABLE MEDIA (CLB) again yesterday.

The shares opened at 3.8c and plunged like a stone to a new low
of 3c before stepping back slightly from the brink and closing 0.9c
down at 3.1c.

Turnover at 705,000 was the highest since November when the
stock, which had been floated two months earlier at 20c, was still a
contender at 21c.

In the last news from the company - the quarterly report on
April 28, when the shares were 7c - the newly appointed chairman, Carl
Olsen, was upbeat.

He said Creatable was working hard to unleash (unleash?)
further growth opportunities in Australia/NZ and the US.

"The company's innovative tabletop advertising medium has been
well received by some of the world's leading shopping mall operators as
well as a growing number of key advertising clients," he said.

"The roll-out, both locally and overseas, is proceeding at a
rate which is exceeding our expectations."

CEO Scott Walters said "we are well-placed to build our
position in growing markets".

So why have the already battered shares more than halved since
then?

*****

CBA shares rose 99c on Monday, or almost $1.3 billion in market
value, making three rises in a row worth more than $2, or $2.6 billion.

And they reckoned it was all due to speculation the bank's CEO,
David Murray, was leaving to head TELSTRA (TLS).

Nah, couldn't have been.

Telstra should have been the one going up.

However, the paper yesterday reported that Mr Murray was
adamant he was staying with the bank and the shares yesterday fell 65c
to $37.16 and went as low as $36.98.

Please don't tell us that more than $500 million worth of
shares were traded in the past three days on leadership speculation.

*****

While we're on the subject, here's a bit more on bank bashing
in the wake of the fees shock horror.

On the internet Crikey wrote that the bank cartel's profits
have been the biggest driver in the growth of company tax receipts over
the past decade.

"In other words, the government has turned a blind eye to a
cartel and then shared in 30 per cent of their ill-gotten gains," the
website said.

"This has boosted the budget bottom line by about $3 billion a
year as Australians have handed over almost $10 billion a year in extra
profits to the bank cartel since John Howard became prime minister."

Let's see, as we said the other day, the banks' prosperity had
been good for their hundreds of thousands of direct shareholders and
good for the millions of indirect shareholders through super funds.

And now it's shown to be good for taxpayers as well.
Where's the problem?

*****

It's a mining investor's nightmare ... selling out just before
a windfall.

TETHYAN COPPER (TYC) slipped 1.5c to 48.5c in desultory trading
yesterday only to become the subject of a takeover bid by a consortium
led by Kong-based merchant banker Crosby Capital of 64c a share.

This is below the March high of 69c but the stock has weakened
despite announcememnts of upgrades to its copper resource in Pakistan.

In an open briefing with Corporatefile on April 18 MD David
Moore said the resource upgrade was a "fantastic outcome for us and was
completely unexpected".

"It certainly illustrates the quality of the H4 ore body - the
more we drill it the better it gets," he said.

"When we listed Tethyan the H4 Project was a 93 million tonne
resource with 43 drill holes and it is now a 167 million tonne resource
with 193 drill holes.

"So the contained metal has nearly doubled since the start of
the Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS).

"The resource is now very well drilled out and it's a well
established ore body."

Just the time for an opportunistic takeover move.

(Comments and complaints to [email protected] - no requests
for advice please.)

ENDS

Copyright © 2005 RWE Australian Business News. All rights reserved.