oz ready to mine its future , page-27

Cuppla thoughts HT.

I am definitely thinking that a divi is on the cards. My main reason is that when Cusack spoke about it at the AGM he gave a very broad hint with a twinkle in his eye. I was up close. I remember him saying that it was the board's intention of paying out a proportion of profits as soon as possible. I read that as 2010.

He said something very similar and had they same twinkle in his eye preparatory to paying the first divi. On the basis of his hint on that occasion I stuck my neck out on a couple of forums and said I was confident of a divi being paid, and get my head blown off for my trouble. But it happened.

Some posters have failed to take into account that a goodly proportion of OZL shareholders are offshore and tax imputation is of no benefit to them. By postponing dividends the board would be guilty of deciding on the interests of all (including the major instos) on the interests of the Australian mums and dads. As a rule, this is something larger Australian companies do not do. When this choice has to be made they are much more likely to pay unfranked or partly franked divis. The runs are on the board on this.

There is also another alternative which sidesteps the tax loss problem, a capital return, very popular a couple of years back.