Aras,I am in agreement that the sale of assets early would have...

Aras,

I am in agreement that the sale of assets early would have been a good strategy. That's the wonder of hindsight.

I seem to remember reading that Macquarie made an offer to Andrew Scott to buy the whole company for $1 per share (~$840m) in late Dec 07. The fact that they said no and that the company did not at that point embark on an asset sale program suggests a combination of a) they believed they were in a better position than they actually were maybe through arrogance, over-confidence or denial b) they had no idea of what lay ahead during 2008 c) they were clearly unaware of the interrelated risks which existed in the Centro structure in a downturn. After so many years of success, I think the management believed that it would never end.

The distinction between CNP and CER does at times get blurred in discussion. CER is taking steps to decouple but it is going to take time. I'd suggest we will see some director movements in the short term as promised at the AGM. We will also see separate chairpersons across each company. I also hope they rebadge CER to something non-Centro, something that will have a huge impact on sentiment over time.