Anything's possible in telco boardroom spat

EFTel doesn't come across the radar too often. The broadband provider competes against the likes of iiNet, TPG and Internode in the DSL market.

At the start of the year, EFTel was one of 10 internet providers that wrote to the competition watchdog demanding action against Telstra for alleged anti-competitive conduct. That move made headlines, but did little for the company's share price.

By June, it had hit an almost five-year low of 5, prompting an announcement that EFTel would pay its first dividend in six years - a whopping 0.1 a share.

EFTel closed at 4.4 yesterday, well off the highs of 2003, when it was trading at 58.

This is what prompted this week's action by disgruntled shareholder Matthew Bretherton of Thooruna Pty Ltd.

Last month, Bretherton, the second-largest shareholder in EFTel, tried to have most of the board removed, but the meeting was cancelled.

Now he has called an extraordinary general meeting to kick out chief executive Simon Ehrenfield, at his own expense.

What Bretherton finds concerning is a line from the auditor's report.

For the second year running, Deloitte has expressed "existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the entity's ability to continue as a going concern".

There's a little matter of the company's net liabilities being double its net assets.

Against that back, EFTel has operated without a chairman for the better part of a year, paid a $160,000 maiden dividend to shareholders and, in June, issued 12.5 million free options to executives.

And, Bretherton points out, the only new director is the aptly named Jeremy Cousins, a first cousin of Ehrenfield and his business partner.

Ehrenfield's total pay packet has risen to $337,054 for the year, which is double the dividend paid to shareholders, and more than the company's $270,000 annual profit.

The Ehrenfield family controls a mighty whack of stock, but Bretherton is pushing on undeterred.

Maybe he's sticking to the company's motto - "anything's possible".

Amid the battle, another director, Russell Collett, has walked, resigning after five years with the company.

Not part of the deal

A FEW were keen to get their hands on the annual report of Birmingham International Airport when it came

out.

Macquarie Airports jettisoned its stake in both Birmingham and Rome airports last year as it cleaned up its balance sheet.

The annual report isn't an interesting document, but is peppered with lovely pictures of planes, passengers and terminals - but many shareholders got a buzz from the image on page 19 of the document, taken by an X-ray machine.

Full Disclosure isn't quite sure what the item is, at the bottom left of what appears to be a classic Samsonite beauty case (pictured left).

But we're assured the rather personal item wasn't part of the MAp deal.

Haoma goes for gold

THERE aren't too many winners getting about on the sharemarket at the moment, and the words "dead cat bounce" can be heard the length of Collins Street.

That makes any company notching a 33% daily rise of interest, although figures can flatter to deceive - Haoma Mining jumped from 4.5

to 6.

What sparked Haoma's share price rise were some positive results from its Bamboo Creek Mine in the Pilbara.

Few have ever doubted that Bamboo Creek, which produced gold in the 1890s, held more gold than it has given up, but the particles are so small they cannot be measured by traditional assay methods.

The CSIRO has pioneered a new method of measuring microscopic particles called the refined elazac assay method and confirmed that Bamboo Creek is not only rich in gold, but also silver.

The company is the baby of pollster Gary Morgan, who is having a second crack at becoming Lord Mayor of Melbourne.

"We always knew Bamboo Creek had more gold, but we could never figure out why the assays didn't show this," Morgan, Haoma's chairman, told Full Disclosure.

The new method shows Bamboo Creek has 0.49 grams of gold per tonne of ore.

Morgan said news on extraction of the gold would be announced in coming days.

Hello, goodbye, hello

INVESTMENT banker Brett Paton had been waiting just over six months for government authorities to rubber-stamp his appointment to the board of Tabcorp.

Having finally got the nod yesterday at 9.06am, the former UBS chief found he had to retire at the start of the gaming giant's annual meeting - after only 114 minutes' service. After retiring, he rejoined the board.

In what Tabcorp chairman John Story quipped "must be the quickest appointment of all time", Paton's post-retirement reappointment to the board had to be endorsed by shareholders.

He need not have stressed - not only did 94.6% of proxies support his appointment, but Tabcorp shareholders unanimously backed the move with a show of hands.