Adam I believe the most powerful argument supporting the 'share...

Adam

I believe the most powerful argument supporting the 'share slippage' is why are shares been issued via DRP  ($3.3m in the last 12 months) when the company has a large cash balance? I would like to hear an explanation about this from Monadelphous. If a company can't reinvest its earnings at a reasonable rate of return (I like to see 15% + return on incremental equity for most businesses) then the profits should be distributed to shareholders. I would rather have the funds sitting in my bank account (less risk) than lying idle in the company's bank account.

I have no idea if MND will make a acquisition, and from experience I hope they don't. I mentioned it was my hunch that they may be investigating possible targets, based on their commentary. Additionally, they have been active acquiring Water Infrastructure a couple of years ago and have commenced the Mascaro partnership in the US in recent times - admittedly both fairly modest investments.

I learnt from my ABC Learning experience to be vigilant when meretricious acquisitions are high on the agenda (luckily sold SGH when they entered the UK). Agree that organic growth is far preferable and less risky, however there are companies who demonstrate that shareholder wealth can be created by astute acquisitions - if the new business complements their current offering, and if using debt temporarily (HSN is a great example). I realise there are far more accounts of  shareholder wealth being destroyed as opposed to being enhanced. IMO small companies are more likely to have success with an acquisition strategy as they acquire smaller, often non-listed targets at lower valuations, and exploit the private-to-public P/E arbitrage.

Overall though very much agree with your sentiments about the stewardship of our money. While logic might imply that managers with large shareholdings act like owners, sadly more often than not management present paternalistic and domineering behaviour that whittles away at the value of our company.