CBD

A Dainty dish in federal coffers

Memo rock promoter Paul Dainty: are you short $100,000? Never fear, CBD has found it for you. No, not shoved in the back pocket of a roadie's jeans: this cash is sitting in a nice clean bank account at the ANZ.

Or at least it was until recently, when it was transferred to the Commonwealth's consolidated revenue fund because the bank account hadn't been touched for three years.

In December, the cash-hungry federal government cut the amount of time unclaimed bank accounts sit idle before being transferred to the Commonwealth from seven years to three years.

Corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reported on the takings on Friday in a gazette weighing in at a whopping 3217 pages.

If Dainty's DC Touring wants the money back, it will have to apply to ANZ, which will then recover the cash from ASIC.

PS: For a political party, surely every dollar is precious at election time. So perhaps someone should let the Fannie Bay branch of the Country Liberal Party know that it has $517.41 on the unclaimed list, again through an ANZ account.

Pay as you go

Its phone and fax numbers have been disconnected (CBD, August 13) and now Cape Range has been cut off from the ASX.

Cape Range, which is to be the vehicle by which private brown coal technology company Exergen lists on the exchange, was among companies suspended from quotation on Friday morning for failing to pay its annual listing fee.

Also failing to show ASX boss Elmer Funke Kupper's mob a cheque in time was biotech Bone Medical, which is having a stoush with its backer, US-based La Jolla Cove Investors.

In a statement to the ASX, Bone pointed to La Jolla's failure to pay $US100,000 a month to keep things ticking over, as agreed in October 2010. Bone reckons it has received just $US70,000 since March.

Edging ahead

Don't listen to him, he's just the boss. Fund manager MacarthurCook is over the moon at a yarn that ran last week in Singaporean business rag The Edge - except for the embarrassing bits. While it said the story was a "helpful summary" of the position of the MacarthurCook Property Securities Fund, the company told the ASX it "contains some errors". First among the "errors" cited was that four years ago when present management, headed by executive chairman George Wang, took over the company, it was not, as the article stated, insolvent.

Where, oh where could The Edge have gotten such an idea? Er, perhaps from Wang, who the paper quotes as saying: "When we bought it, we were liable for legal fees as well because MacarthurCook was insolvent."

What's up doc?

Disgraced former doctor Geoffrey Edelsten has been in touch after CBD inquired what he was up to at Melbourne Airport on Thursday (CBD, Friday). Sadly, the former Swans owner didn't deign to explain his international jaunt.

"We received your email late yesterday, as I am sure you intended," the royal pronoun-using jailbird said in an email. "And then you proceeded to publish defamatory comments in your notorious column today. Further action will be taken to redress this matter."

Name the place

The election battle grinds on but those other two great combatants - David Whiteley's non-profit industry super funds and John Brogden's for-profit retail crew - are continuing to hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

In the latest episode of sweetness and light, the former mortal enemies put on a turn by Chris Bowen in which the Treasurer outlined Labor's plans if it is returned to office at the impending election.

The for-profit Financial Services Council hosted Friday's brekky at the Whiteley Ballroom of the Amora Jamison Hotel in Sydney. Does that mean when it's the non-profit Industry Super Network's turn to return the favour it will be looking for a Brogden Room somewhere in Melbourne?

Got a tip?

bbutler@fairfaxmedia.com.au