There are some winners out of all this - the accountants.
It is clear from a number of perspectives that the receivers and liquidators are laughing at the "complexity" of this windup - at the expense of creditors.
These "experts", a term used to justify their hourly rates, simply do not have any idea what they are doing. Remembering, the bank appointmed McGrath Nicol have been working on this project for at least 6 months before the collapse - ie since early 2009.
Ferriers on the other hand have taken on a variety of roles since May 2009.
What have they achieved to date? asset sales? who knows?. As an example, I asked Mcgrath Nicol (in writing via email) several months ago about how the sale of the cattle properties was progressing. By this, I clarified of the 3 big ones, how many have been sold?
I sent this to the standard email address of the bunny that answers all enquiries. Hourly rate circa $200ph. They didnt know. But forwarded it to a more senior and more expensive rabbit who also was clearly confused by the complexity of my question and had to ask their manager. This guy, now we are getting to $350ph also was unable to answer my question but kindly forwarded my enquiry to a partner. 3 weeks after my request, the partner responded to my creditor enquiry with a couple of garbled paragraphs which were inconclusive as to whether all 3 properties had been sold or not. His hourly rate is north of $500ph.
A tiny yet important example of the administrative incompetency of this organisation. I note though - who could blame them. There are clearly enough assets around to ensure they get paid, regardless of the size of their bill.
Moreover - who is ever EVER going to question them?. Both McGrath Nicol and Ferriers might contest that their fees are approved at meetings of various schemes and entities which appears true. But, no person or organisation reviews the total cost of their service (insert experiment).
It is an experiment as these groups have never done anything like this before it is clear. I for one (with an accounting background) would like to see what time, if any, has been written off on this project by both companies. For those not familiar, accountants charge an hourly rate broken up into 6 minute intervals. Most people at a minimum go to the bathroom, take a private phone call, do some research on a topic that they should know but double check etc that generally does not get billed to the client.
Given the compexity, the variety of issues, the geographic locations, the admin and the stuff that these "professionals" simply dont know - there should be hundreds of hours of billings that are not charged to the company (and therefore reduce the pool of money available to creditors).
I gurantee they have charged the lot as this is a nice big fat account with no accountability.
Further - why hurry? of course it is complex but when you are on $500+ bucks an hour which goes straight to your bonus pool and profit share why rush it?
All in all I had thought the liquidation process was very process driven. The corps act spells out what you have to do and when. The reality is that it is a free for all.
Finally, I would love to mention the process Mcgrath Nicol undertook to appoint Gunns as RE and how they went about it here but I suspect that it will get buried away for a few years - until Gunns collapses - which it will. Then MN you will have you day of accountability. To which you will no doubt reply "we are mermely puppets for the banks and they told us to appoint Gunns"
We'll see.
I am drunk and my posts are not my views.
GTP Price at posting:
12.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
