shorters be warned, page-90

21/10/11
"Watch Twiggy pull yet another rabbit out of his hat & announce US funding to allow for production expansion"

Right on..

An interesting sequence of events today. At 4:09 am today, a newswire story went up somewhat sarcastically questioning how Fortescue was going to raise necessary capital. At 8:22am the bond issue was announced.

What most journalists have never woken up to is that Fortescue is different to most mining companies. It has Andrew Forrest. Way back in the two cent days, I have clear memory of AF saying that he was right against issues and diluting of existing shareholder base. That does not mean it can't happen but it will never be his first option.

The other aspect that journos miss is that AF has a singular ability to make things happen, to do it now, and to ignore critics. In the beginning, he got things moving at breakneck speed, totally ignoring the especially Fairfax press sarcasm and outright rudeness. He and his shareholders certainly have the last laugh.

He now seems to have infected his staff with the same can-do attitude. Its been an interesting journey, and a classic lesson.