re: looking even sillier further probing into background of...

re: looking even sillier further probing into background of Yarraman shows failures left right and centre. Blom is a twice bankrupt, barred from directorship who they say has no connection with Y, but they are paying him 110k pa as a consultant.
Y has no income, no crush for 2007, difficulty with 5 mil debt, yet wants to take ETW to the World..............lets just hope that ETW can find a better suitor than this;

"YARRAMAN Winery has played down any connection between its merger proposal for Evans & Tate and a failed bid by its former owner to turn the company into a major player in the global wine sector.

Three of the company's promoters were in Sydney yesterday to spruik the deal, saying the merged Yarraman and Evans & Tate group would become a wine "global powerhouse".

"One of the things that Yarraman does bring to this transaction is a very experienced global industry management team," said Yarraman director Bill Middleton. "And that can take advantage of the assets and the reputation that Evans & Tate already has in place.

"And it can take Evans & Tate as part of this business to a different level to where it is today."

He said his company was assessing the possible acquisition of an Argentine winery.

Despite Yarraman proposing to let Evans & Tate chief Martin Johnson head the merged group, to be known as New World Wines, Mr Middleton held up Yarraman consultant and director Warrick Duthy's experience with wine group Allied Domecq, highlighting the expertise of his management team. Mr Duthy and Yarraman chief executive Wayne Rockall let Mr Middleton do most of the talking.

Asked how Yarraman would raise $72 million in debt and $38 million in new shares needed to fund the transaction and pay off Evans & Tate's $90 million bank debt, Mr Middleton would not specify the source of the funds.

"We're doing all of our funding from our US sources," he said. "Until such time as we have the recommendation of the (Evans & Tate) board and we are able to disclose it to them, we obviously can't disclose it to anybody else. But they are credible, reputable, major institutions."

He also declined to specify which deals had been brokered in the past by his little-known New York-based "investment bank", Corporate Capital Group.

He would say only that Corporate Capital had helped Australian and New Zealand companies look for acquisitions over the past two decades.

Mr Middleton's most high-profile business venture in recent years was a failed attempt to establish a professional rugby union competition in the US.

Yarraman last year faced problems paying off a $5 million loan at 10 per cent interest, but Mr Middleton said the fresh loan would be on better terms.

He also said any connection made between Yarraman and its previous incarnation as the failed Barrington Wine Co were "mischievous".

He said he had worked in the 1980s and early 1990s on Wall Street with the promoter of the failed Barrington venture, Sydney entrepreneur Gary Blom.

Mr Blom was disqualified from managing companies for three years, following the collapse of Barrington and his failed Cinema Plus group.

Mr Middleton said he and Mr Blom had set up an unrelated company two months ago.

But he said his involvement with Mr Blom had no link to Yarraman, even though Mr Blom was a shareholder to whom the company was paying $110,000 a year as a consultant.