Guys an article from yesterday's "The Australian" worth reading :
Centro's servants
CENTRO'S embattled chairman, Paul Cooper, must be a pretty slick sort of salesman.
As his chief executive Glenn Rufrano finishes preparations for his New York showdown with Centro's US and Australian banking syndicates, Cooper has gone out and recruited quality personnel to his two boardrooms.
Cooper has delivered accounting heavyweight Rob Wylie to the board of Centro Properties and South African property guru Avin Leiberman to Centro Properties Trust.
Both are seriously qualified individuals and would appear unlikely to lend their names to a venture that is without hope.
The quality of Cooper's appointments last Friday were overshadowed to a degree by the fact that he was forced to recruit by the retirement of longtime Centro servants Peter Wilkinson and Sam Kavourakis. You know the sort of stuff, sinking ship and all that.
The idea that the departures of Wilkinson and Kavourakis were part of a growing exodus from Centro is fair enough. But it is not quite right.
The fact is, there is probably no way Centro's bank, here or in the US, would extend life-saving debt relief to the company without boardroom reform.
Kavourakis and Wilkinson were directors of Centro through the assemblage of this $4.95 billion disaster and the idea that they would continue with the board beyond as settlement the banks' endorsement of the Rufrano plan is ludicrous.
Meanwhile, Rufrano might draw some encouragement from a deal nutted out between Australian mini-tech Hyro Limited and the liquidator of Lehman Brothers.
Rufrano, remember, is looking to relieve Centro of about $200 million a year of interest payments in a debt-to-equity swap with his major bankers.
And that is exactly what the Lehman liquidator has delivered to little Hyro. Instead of potentially busting Hyro by forcing the repayment of a $20 million convertible note Hyro had with Lehman, the liquidator has accepted an upfront cash payment of $1.2 million and a two-step capital issue equivalent to 17 per cent of the company.
Which only goes to prove, even in this dreadful, gloomy market, that where there is life, there is hope.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,24526895-20142,00.html