people shouldn't forget bnb saga

No gain, so Babcock shares the pain Scott Rochfort
March 10, 2011
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Maybe he really is just a sentimental old so-and-so. Why else would big Jim Babcock, the brains behind failed financial engineer Babcock & Brown, still own shares in Alinta Energy?

It seems Jimbo is the proud owner of close to a million units in the beleaguered power company that has been listing dangerously to starboard for more than two years.

Not for long. Alinta shareholders have to decide by Tuesday if they would prefer a kneecapping by Texas Pacific Group, with a 10? a unit takeover bid, or simply be knocked unconscious by the same mob and watch them run off with the lot. What a choice!

Advertisement: Story continues below At current prices, Jimbo's stake is worth a mere $90,000 which, for a man of his means, is hardly worth worrying about. Perhaps he simply forgot he owned them.

His eponymous firm has the dubious honour of being the largest corporate collapse in Australian history, notching up an impressive $5.2 billion loss on its final outing.

Luckily, Jimbo managed to escape the worst of the conflagration. He sold almost all his shares - many of them distributed to less-than-fortunate fellow B&B employees - at hugely inflated prices well before the parent company tanked.

He then headed stateside to build a plush $15 million mansion in San Francisco.

And the final tipping point for the Babcock mother ship? That overpriced, debt-funded takeover of Alinta in 2007, of course.