This one is worth the complete read.Part-posted out of fear of...

This one is worth the complete read.
Part-posted out of fear of being accused of spamming(???).
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Why we should privatise ASIC

Date July 8, 2013 - 4:10PM John Addis

Comment; Check out this beautiful set of numbers.

In the five years since 2007 this business has seen revenue increase 28 per cent from $519m to $664m. Sales are all-but locked in, index linked and inflation proof. If Australia hits a recession, this business will barely notice.

But the real juice is in the margins. Operating expenses last financial year were $384m, $2m less than in 2010. But revenue was up 7 per cent from $622m to $664m, delivering an operating margin of 42 per cent. That’s right up there with Apple and Google. Wow.

Shares in corporate plod ASIC aren’t publicly traded but surely with numbers like these the Government should be thinking about a float?
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ASX, the other regulator, is already listed and has been a lovely earner. Why not float ASIC, get rid of all that nasty media coverage about incompetence and favouritism and pocket a few billion along the way?

On an earnings multiple of, say, 14, ASIC could be worth about $4bn. Investors would eat up the annuity-style revenues and monopoly market position. It’s such a no-brainer I can’t believe it hasn’t been raised before.

Media commentators are getting uptight about ASIC’s failings but they’re missing the real point.

It doesn’t really matter whether ASIC takes 16 months to follow up on reports of dodgy financial planners at Commonwealth Bank, or that low doc loan victims reporting fraud are told to ‘get a lawyer’.

Nor does it matter if senior ASIC staff give special treatment to a former colleague, or that in the collapse of Westpoint, Storm and all the other financial misdemeanours since the GFC no one has gone to jail.

ASIC isn’t about that. It’s about money, and lots of it.
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/intelligent-investor/why-we-should-privatise-asic-20130708-2plw0.html#ixzz2YSrpAZrh
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