MarcusWelbyMD If Centro is brought down there will be many...

MarcusWelbyMD


If Centro is brought down there will be many questions that will need answering, i can assure you of that. Too many players and too many hidden agendas? ASIC will have a feast?

At the end of the day Centro is a functioning business with the majority of its centres in affluent, high population growth areas in the non-disctretionary retail business. It is meeting its payments! It is a defensive play!

You said:

"What bothers me is why is Merrill Lynch writing 'em off?"

You should also ask yourself, why is Merrill Lynch recommending its clients buy Westfield?

Are they as heavily involved in the non-discretionary retail business? No they are not! they are not what i would consider a defensive play in times of a downturn but Centro is.

So what's going on?

No idea! but something is not right.

Who will win in the end?

Don't know! But the fact that Sir Rod from JP Morgan came in to bat for Centro lifted my spirits, i can tell you that.

I was also EXTREMELY pleased to read this w/end that Sir Rod has been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing a future wealth fund to the tune of $20 Billion.

that buys you a lot of clout with banks and anyone else, i should imagine.

Merrill Lynch analyst John Kim has advised clients to buy Westfield stock after it announced plans to co-develop a $1.64 billion shopping ...

26 Jan 2008 ... "We continue to view Westfield as one of our top picks and recommend that investors buy on recent weakness," the Merrill Lynch analysts said ...

IMF have claimed that they filed documents on Friday but the alphabetical list of current appeals is only current to the 7 may. You know what i will be doing on Monday...looking for an update to check the claimed date.

http://www.fedcourt.gov.au/ctlists/ctlists_appeals.html

What really spooked centro shareholders on Friday?

well, imho the fact that commonsense nearly failed to win the day....perhaps ego's started to get in the way? i don't know! But it added another layer of uncertainty, which the market hates, as most of us thought that commonsense would easily prevail. It took an eleventh hour intervention from Sir Rod to restore some sanity.
crazy, but there it is, imho.
Centro really needs to come out fighting now. the CEO has started with his interview late Friday but we need to see the other key players also throwing a few well directed punches.

Only my views which i'm sure will have no bearing on anything.....Oh well, such is life.