Exposed to Queensland property developers and property...

Exposed to Queensland property developers and property investment funds for starters. One of them being the Raptis Group. John Mulcahy has apparently been up towards the front of the pack in borrowing more to lend more into construction and development at the peak of a real estate bubble. Another financial hero who would have gained massively if the 'business model' had succeeded, but will still retire with sacks of loot after its failure and the destruction of shareholder value. Also the earlier Promina acquisition apparently was overreach.

I don't really get this sort of thing but I sold our family holding in Suncorp yesterday. Adele Ferguson's highly critical article in the Australian on Monday kind of decided me; but I'd been looking at the chart wistfully earlier and wishing I'd kept a closer eye on it. Adele Ferguson reckons that if there's more in the pipeline like Raptis, "and it's hard to imagine there aren't, Suncorp could face another profit massacre". Adele pointed out that one of its biggest shareholders, Perpetual, has been steadily selling down its holding for the last year. The article is under the title of "Loan problems loom at Suncorp" and is no longer free to access.

In saying this, it's possible that I sold after most of the losses were already wrung out of the share-price, but I somehow doubt it. Sold out at a minor cap loss; the holding being started in 1998 with some 'exchanging instalment notes', and was thereafter added to via dividend reinvestment plan and a share purchase plan take-up.

Adele's final comment is, "Whatever the future holds, it would be brighter if Mulcahy was building his credibility rather than shovelling so much of the banks money into holes in the ground"