FNT fiasco, page-11

Hi Laurra,

Your post is deserving of a reply which, tomorrow (time permitting), I will attend to.

In the meantime, being a psychiatrist by trade and studying the announcements, I would ask that you check out the former ASX sttaements of Telemedia Networks (TMN), a company which was providing equipment solutions to international operators such as Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KDDI, etc.

In the 2 months preceding TMN's suspension from trading on 17 May 2001, it:
1)
announced the award of multiple new contracts;
2)
announced its intended move to the USA and a Nasdaq listing; and
3)
appointed several prominent people to its Board of Directors (including the COO of Sun Microsystems in the USA).

TMN experienced a cash crunch, many of its accounts went bad, the company failed, and yet it owed <$13m to creditors. At the time of failing, it also had stated revenues of >$30m and was profitable at an operational level.

If you analyse the statements there, then contrast them to another former high-flyer, Telco Australia, you will see why ATC is a company which may well promise much, and may indeed eventually deliver on that promise, but is inconsistent and haphazard in its engagement with the marketplace, and in its commitment to continuous, open and accurate disclosure of its business affairs.

Last year, HC forumites will recall that I challenged another company, UEC, regarding its profitability (or lack thereof), its porous revenue base, and its commitment to continuous disclosure. What followed there was /has been an outcome very close to what I analysed at the time, together with an ASIC investigation, and recent changes at the top (primarily, at Board level).

ATC must indeed do much more than what it is currently doing to demonstrate both the veracity of its credentials, the accuracy of its statements, and the honesty /openness of its forecasts /projections.