Swap running the board eh? .....In a surprising announcement...

Swap running the board eh? .....

In a surprising announcement from Centro today, Chairperson Swap announced a 63c special dividend payable to all CNP shareholders and a 32c special dividend payable to all CER shareholders.

"The underlying business is running well, we have strong cashflows, great assets and an excellent management team" Swap commented, "this is our way of thanking all of the shareholders who have remained with us through the recent turbulent period". CNP shares closed up $5.20 at $5.49.

Centro's bankers were unavailable for comment and did not return calls.

... actually, I'm not sure I am the right person for the job.

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On a serious note though, I have been very critical of Mr Healey in the past and called for his resignation on a number of occasions. He has to take part responsibility for some of the issues now facing the company and we haven't heard boo from him since the beginning of the year. This is a welcome resignation IMO and has saved shareholders the trouble of firing him at the AGM.

To be fair though, on the flip side he has been with the company a number of years and oversaw significant change and growth during the period. He should be thanked for what he did achieve up mid 2007.

I agree with Buffett that he will probably be the first in a number of board-level departures pre-AGM but I am unsure as to who the others will be. I also agree that finding directors for Centro will continue to be difficult in the short-term but should become easier as the healing progresses.

It does feel like the winds of change are starting to blow through the organisation though.

If we do get a shareholder letter in the next couple of weeks, I hope it will be very comprehensive and provide answers to the long list of questions still outstanding.

I suspect that Centro will want to start any major corporate restructure from 1st July to align with the accounting periods although quite what form this will take is difficult to tell. Announcing the appointment today of Ross Johnston to the role of "Head of strategy implementation" should give us some clue that this is a major piece of work which warrants the exclusive focus of a senior exec.