eld debt looking forward, page-19

W534220, Ruralco spends about 20% of their net earnings on maintenance capex. So while the capex needs of this business are modest, they are real. Elders, to contrast, is drowning in capex for a business that bleeds cash, so they cannot make focused capex investments into their primary business.

The parallel point to this is management focus. Management at Elders cannot spend all of their time focusing on the rural services business. Instead they spend all of their time on the forestry business, dealing with threats and requirements from bankers, and angry shareholders. You cannot manage your core business if you cannot spend time on it.

Management understands perfectly what it needs to do, and it has stated clearly it needs one year to do it. I understand perfectly that your patience is at its end. I will give them the one year, and I think I will get a 60% ROI for doing that.