Mariner won't sink in financial storm: Ireland Katherine Jimenez | May 18, 2009 Article from: The Australian IF Bill Ireland is an embattled man, he is not showing it.
He rode the violent roller-coaster of the 1987 stock market crash and survived.
His mettle is being tested again as the global financial storm threatens his struggling investment house Mariner Financial.
The group has been forced to sell assets aggressively to pay down debt in the past year and in March posted a half-yearly loss of $45 million. Staff numbers have also been cut from 70 to just 10.
Mr Ireland, the founder and executive chairman of Mariner, admits that a few dark moments have passed him by, but says: "Mariner Financial will survive as a company.
"We'll get through this exercise.
"We don't have any bank debt, or very minimal bank debt.
"Our overheads are less than our income stream...
"Our go forward is all based on looking at opportunities.
"We'll be small but we will have a platform for growth in the future."
Mariner's problems grew last Tuesday when two independent directors, former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and David Heaney, stepped down from the Mariner board, reigniting unease about the future of the investment house.
Within 48 hours of that announcement came news that its tourism ventures Mariner Leisure Management and Mariner Coastal Operations had been placed in receivership.
At the time, Mr Ireland said that both were separate from Mariner Financial.
At the peak of his corporate career, Mr Ireland was considered untouchable.
He launched Challenger Financial Services on the Australian Stock Exchange on October 9, 1987 -- just 10 days before the stock market crash -- and survived.
Challenger later formed part of a $1 billion merger with James Packer's Investment arm CPH -- creating one of the biggest investment houses in Australia.
The dream run came to an end in 2003 when he was dumped from the top job at Challenger. Again, the former stockbroker bounced back and launched Mariner Financial.
Mr Ireland acknowledges that while some of the problems shadowing Mariner Financial today were outside management's control, there were many things that weren't.
"In reality, there are things that I would have preferred not to have done and investments that we would have preferred not to have made," he says.
"At the time, when you make them, you do them for different reasons, probably not really understanding the risks.
"In the event of a major financial meltdown, or the drying up of liquidity in the market ... which is taking place, all of that is out of your control and it's very difficult to predict.
"It's a once in 100 year event.
"As far as assessing the go forward risk, that was probably one you didn't consider greatly."
Mr Ireland sees opportunities for Mariner in forming syndicates from well off individuals and "putting propositions and assets together, which is where Challenger was in 1990".
Despite the gloom across the global financial markets, Mr Ireland believes there are some "elements of recovery in sight".
"The recent uplift in the market is probably justified to some extent," he said. "Where I think it goes from here is quite critical. If the market was to pressure it's previous lows ... that would be a real concern for the long-term.
"There's been some confidence emerge in the last two weeks ... you wouldn't want to see that shattered again by some monumental event."
Mr Ireland said he thought "a re-shaping of the property trust industry has to take place".
"There are a lot of good assets in there but ... fundamentally the investor market has lost confidence in it," he said.
MFI Price at posting:
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