the same old story

AIO has gone from over $9 to below $1.

But the commissions and payouts take no notice of this.

WE ARE LUCKY THEY DID NOT MAKE A PROFIT:

WE COULD NOT AFFORD IT.

Todays SMH"

"Asciano splurges, but no dividend

ASCIANO has paid chief executive Mark Rowsthorn a cash bonus of almost $742,000 and will farewell another senior executive with a $2.16 million golden handshake, in a year in which the debt-laden ports and rail operator came close to collapse.

Details of the cash splurge were released yesterday when Asciano posted a widening of its full-year loss to $244 million - from a loss of $182 million a year earlier - due to a difficult second half and write-downs on its car stevedoring and container businesses.

Just over a month after raising $2.35 billion to ease its crippling debts, the company also warned that it had not seen any signs of a sustained recovery in its business this financial year.

Issuing one of his most bearish outlook statements since Asciano was floated in 2007, Mr Rowsthorn said some of the company's businesses had seen volumes stabilise but ''there remain few, if any, signs of an imminent recovery in the domestic and international economies''.

Mr Rowsthorn said the weakness experienced in its business in the second half of 2008-09 was set to continue throughout this financial year.

''I think he is just being cautious,'' a White Funds Management portfolio director, Angus Gluskie, said. ''Right at this point in the cycle it doesn't pay to talk yourself up.''

Despite Asciano's share price falling by more than half in the year, all of the company's top eight executives received cash bonuses, which - apart from Mr Rowsthorn's - were higher than in 2007-08.

Mr Rowsthorn was paid a total of $2.7 million for the year, including a ''cash incentive'' of $741,678 and $30,042 in ''non-monetary benefits''.