re the departure of Gunns chairman, John Gay: don't allow...

re the departure of Gunns chairman, John Gay: don't allow yourself to be deluded. Business-wise, nothing much has really changed for GNS. The exchange rate is only slightly better, and wood sales are still only slowly recovering from GFC. MIS revenue has gone, probably forever. The new profit announcement has nothing to do with Gay's presence or non-presence. Cash flow is still lousy - why else was $20M of hardware sale proceeds needed for working capital.

The share market might mark GNS up just on the management change alone. That's a bit silly IMHO. Remember, Gay understood the forestry and forest products business, and was a passionate Tasmania supporter. I'd worry much more about both a ring-in managed fund puppet board and an executive mangement who think they can appease the voracious appetite of the greens and the Geoffrey Cousins's of the world. Perpetual lived in cookoo land and its pleasing to seem them bail out at an enormous loss. Was anyone in charge of that investment team at PPT. Someone should kick their collective bums.

GNS is a business that will be absolutely screwed by appeasement. Don't trust anyone who says 'peace in our time', a la Neville Chamberlain. That will spell the end of all shareholder value.