I wouldn’t call it self interest as much as ego. It seemed to me...

I wouldn’t call it self interest as much as ego. It seemed to me (but I was in favour of the deal), that most of his opposition was based on not wanting to lose control of “his” business, rather than what was best for shareholders. Having succeeded in putting a stop to it, he now has to demonstrate that the entire entity is worth having and so far performance is pretty lack lustre.

I don’t believe there is any share manipulation going on (or no more than is normal on the ASX), the macro environment for non bank lenders is not great. A good set of figures would see the price go up, but we haven’t had that yet and there is a wall of worry over bad debts rising etc. Banks have seen profits slip due to increased competition and I would think non bank lenders would be in the same position.