Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

BNB - Babcock & Brown

Babcock and Brown's directors are clearly not a superstitious lot but in the end that did not help..
 
http://www.crikey.com.au/Business/20090313-Babcock-and-Brown-slips-quietly-into-administration.html


Babcock and Brown slips quietly into administration


Friday, 13 March 2009

Adam Schwab writes:



Like a dying man whose life support was quietly turned off without a great deal of commotion, Babcock & Brown’s New Zealand subordinated note holders voted today against a restructuring plan, forcing the company to appoint voluntary administrators .

In an announcement to the ASX, Babcock stated that “while the Babcock & Brown Board believes that there will be value for BBIPL’s Corporate Facility lenders, it does not believe that there will be any value for equity holders, and holders of the Company’s subordinated notes following the completion of the BBIPL asset sale program.” Babcock shares had been suspended from trading on the ASX since 12 January 2009.


Administration marks the end for the Babcock mothership, once dubbed Macquarie Bank’s ‘Mini-me’. In its prime, Babcock was a voracious fee-generating machine, which, in 2007, had $72 billion worth of assets under management as well as 33 offices across the globe. In 2007, Babcock collected more than $700 million in performance, base and advisory fees from satellites including Babcock & Brown Infrastructure, Babcock & Brown Wind Partners and Babcock & Brown Power. BNB’s 2007 Annual Report claimed net assets of $2.5 billion.


Like other highly levered, boom-time companies (including MFS and Allco), the Babcock downfall has been swift. In July 2007, the company was valued by the market at $10 billion. Throughout its rapid rise, Babcock executives, including former CEO, Phil Green, were paid During its four years as a listed entity, Green collected more than $30 million in cash payments. Other Babcock executives also received generous total remuneration, including Eric Lucas ($45 million), Peter Hofbauer ($47 million) and Rob Topfer ($36 million).



Babcock’s collapse bears stark contrast to the confidence of its executives, who continued to exude confidence even as world economies started to crumble and the sub-prime crisis caused the cost of debt to rapidly and substantially increase. In March 2008, almost a year after the collapse of two Bear Sterns hedge funds, Green told Business Spectator that:

We’ve seen no evidence of any deterioration in valuation of those sort of infrastructure assets in the wholesale space. We accept that in the listed environment in Australia, really the only place those vehicles exist, there’s been deterioration in valuations, but we think that’s short term and we certainly don’t think it reflects the value that the global investor market place on the underlying assets.


In June 2008, as BNB shares slipped from $34 to less than $20, Babcock’s Kelly Hibbins accused Stephen Mayne of providing “inaccurate and unduly alarming for investors who look to commentators such as you for informed insight and guidance.” Mayne had previously suggested that Babcock was facing “imminent collapse”, a comment which appears to have been eminently prescient.


Earlier that month, Babcock reassured investors as to the stability of Babcock’s businesses, with Green noting that:

Babcock & Brown will continue the asset recycling and freeing up of capital that has previously been outlined to the market; de-leveraging our balance sheet and, further, will move to narrow our investment focus to core activities including development and co-investment.

Babcock & Brown has a significant pipeline of assets in greenfield development including wind (16,000 MW), solar (1,400 MW) and gas fired power generation (3,360 MW) assets, and power transmission assets; and PPP projects in countries around the world including selected countries in Europe, North America and Australia. Babcock & Brown’s development and acquisition pipeline is one of the key attractions for investors in both our wholesale and listed funds.


Babcock & Brown remains committed to investment in this pipeline to deliver a source of competitively priced, attractive assets for its managed funds platform.


Our employees remain strongly aligned and committed to the ongoing success of Babcock & Brown and its listed and unlisted funds. We have received significant levels of support from our partners globally who recognise the depth and expertise of Babcock & Brown’s people and business as evidenced by the announcement of the Angel Trains transaction in the UK last week.


Babcock’s administration does not immediately affect Babcock & Brown International Pty Ltd (BBIPL). Babcock’s announcement noted that, “BBIPL is the main operating and asset owning entity of the Babcock & Brown Group. BBIPL will continue to operate and will proceed with the orderly realisation of assets over an approximate 2-3 year time horizon to reduce debt.”


Babcock satellites, BBP, BBI, Babcock Japan Trust and Babcock & Brown Residential Land Partners released similar announcements noting that BNB’s administration does not of itself prevent BBIPL “from continuing
 
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/babcock-investors-guard-after-reports-bank-offer-101339

Babcock investors on guard after reports of bank offer

Fiona Robertson | Monday April 20 2009 - 03:53pm

Babcock & Brown investor activists will not be easily won over if the company’s bankers are planning to make them an offer, the coordinator of investor group ActionBBSN says.

David Gibson says the investors have no basis for trusting the banks.

“Even if an offer was forthcoming we would still view it with some scepticism.”

Mr Gibson says the group will place their trust in independent administrator Deloitte’s report, which is due out before a second creditors’ meeting in August.

Deloitte has four months to investigate the state of affairs at Babcock & Brown and report to the company’s creditors – mainly subordinated noteholders who are owed nearly $A600 million – on the potential for returns from a continued administration or liquidation.

But news reports from the Australian this morning suggested that a banking syndicate was considering putting a buyout offer to the 8000 Babcock noteholders as a pre-emptive move.

Analysts tipped that any offer would have to be much higher than the previous 0.1% payout offered to noteholders by Babcock directors to succeed, the Australian reported.

Babcock directors previously put up almost $A600,000 in a bid to keep the company out of administration. The company's bankers - who kept the operating subsidiary of Babcock & Brown alive via a restructure of its $3.3 billion debts - were not involved in that bid.

Noteholders rejected the offer, which equated to a tiny 10c return on every $100 invested.

Investors on both sides of the Tasman have $225 million in NZDX-listed notes and in Babcock subordinated notes.
 
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/babcock-investors-guard-after-reports-bank-offer-101339

Babcock investors on guard after reports of bank offer

Fiona Robertson | Monday April 20 2009 - 03:53pm

Babcock & Brown investor activists will not be easily won over if the company’s bankers are planning to make them an offer, the coordinator of investor group ActionBBSN says.

David Gibson says the investors have no basis for trusting the banks.

“Even if an offer was forthcoming we would still view it with some scepticism.”

Mr Gibson says the group will place their trust in independent administrator Deloitte’s report, which is due out before a second creditors’ meeting in August.

Deloitte has four months to investigate the state of affairs at Babcock & Brown and report to the company’s creditors – mainly subordinated noteholders who are owed nearly $A600 million – on the potential for returns from a continued administration or liquidation.

But news reports from the Australian this morning suggested that a banking syndicate was considering putting a buyout offer to the 8000 Babcock noteholders as a pre-emptive move.

Analysts tipped that any offer would have to be much higher than the previous 0.1% payout offered to noteholders by Babcock directors to succeed, the Australian reported.

Babcock directors previously put up almost $A600,000 in a bid to keep the company out of administration. The company's bankers - who kept the operating subsidiary of Babcock & Brown alive via a restructure of its $3.3 billion debts - were not involved in that bid.

Noteholders rejected the offer, which equated to a tiny 10c return on every $100 invested.

Investors on both sides of the Tasman have $225 million in NZDX-listed notes and in Babcock subordinated notes.

does this mean will share holders get something? i did not get rid of them when had a chance now suffering..........
 
does this mean will share holders get something? i did not get rid of them when had a chance now suffering..........
Your not the only one, I believe there are a few of us on the forum who have been stuck with BNB............would be nice if we could get something half decent back.

cheers
 
is it my wrong understanding or can we now realise the capital loss?
I am not authorised to send url on the site but go to the
asx web site and do a BNB search
11/06/2009 Anticipated Removal from Official List of ASX
11/06/2009 Declaration re Shareholder ongoing economic interest in BNB

at least no need to throw any further money down the drain on this looser.
Sad bit is a lot of people are making money on the carcass
 
I've been hoping to have this one finalised this financial year.

From the announcement:
All future announcements by the voluntary administrators will be lodged publicly on the Deloitte website (www.deloitte.com.au). Direct mail notification will occur when formal notices are legally required for noteholders and creditors.
I'd assume we can only claim the loss once we receive the formal notices by mail. I assume this will be sent out when they are ready, although 'when formal notices are legally required for noteholders' sounds like we may need to contact them and tell them we require the notice...........maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

I'm assuming we just wait for the notice..........I'd really like it so I can reduce my CGT this financial year.

cheers
 
Thanks for the link, I couldn't find that one on their site before.

I'm guessing that notice will be snail mailed to all shareholders over the next week or so........at least now we can crystallise our loss for this financial year.

cheers
 
For any muppets out there wanting to know what not to invest in, and why, this thread is 23 pages of pure gold.

Vale BNB.

gg
 
BNB Taught me to think for myself.

I bought a Commsec trading pack last year.

Of the 5 shares included in the pack - 4 of them are currently the bottom 4 in my total portfolio, (I picked the other 9 companies with no knowledge of the share market) and the other one was BNB.

Makes me realise that this is a game for people with common sense......not a sheep with an economics degree.
 
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