A Jungle Story

A Jungle Story.
A tribe of lions live in the Botswana jungle. It is meal time and the tribe is hungry so they send out 2 lionesses (banks and lenders) to hunt for food. The lionesses come across a sick zebra (DML) and quickly bring it to the ground. The zebra has a few nerve twitches but for all intents it is as good as dead. The lionesses then stand back as 2 male lions (Stefan Dopking and Michael Ryan from FTI Consulting) come across and start feasting on the carcass.

The male lions are very hungry and eat a considerable amount of meat from the carcass before retiring for a rest. The lionesses and the young lion cubs then return to the carcass and eat every bit of meat left on the bones of the dead zebra before going into the shade to also have a rest.

The jackals and vultures (shareholders and unsecured debtors) come to the carcass hoping to find a few small morsels of food but there is nothing left for them.

Unfortunately banks and administrators are still “Kings of the Jungle”.

Footnote – I don’t know why they call these guys “Voluntary Administrators”. If you ever get the opportunity to see their fee schedule, you will see that so called partners of the firm are charged out at between $450 and $600/hour and the receptionist who does the photocopying of documents is charged out at approx. $135/hour. It will not take long to build up a horrendous bill.
Their charges are very similar to solicitors’ and they don’t miss any opportunity to grab a dollar. Of course there will also be a mountain of legal fees for various “junk” legal opinions.