Clive Peeters eases back towards normalcy

Since Clive Peeters emerged from a trading halt, during which it was revealed that payroll manager Sonya Causer apparently siphoned off almost $20 million of funds to invest in a 43-house property portfolio, the company's shares have almost tripled in value soaring from 14? to an 11-month high of 39?.

In recent days, it has settled back to 35?, after Clive Peeters revealed it would still have lost $6.5 million before tax last year without the alleged $20 million fraud.

For the record, the market capitalisation of Clive Peeters has risen from $17 million to $44.5 million since the company returned to the boards a $27.5 million rise, which is more than Causer removed from the company's accounts.

Indeed, managing director Greg Smith and director Peter Lord, who together own almost 66 per cent of Clive Peeters, have seen their own share portfolios rise in value by $17.55 million since ownership of the houses was signed over to the company.

Once the houses are sold, Clive Peeters should be able to pay down about half its debt, plus there's the little matter that the company is performing better than anyone expected.

A few property trusts listed on the ASX may wish to put Causer on a retainer.

Caught in court

BRISCONNECTIONS management hopes the company's ultimate legacy will be a road that unclogs the traffic nightmare between Brisbane's CBD and the airport. For now, the company's legacy is a hunt for cash that is clogging up the courts.

The refusal of many unit holders to pay the second instalment on the company's part-paid stapled units has turned into a $208 million debt collection exercise. BrisConnections must use its "best endeavours" to hunt down the cash which has already been paid by Macquarie Capital Partners and Deutsche Bank in accordance with an underwriting agreement with BrisConnections.

BrisConnections has 63 separate legal actions under way against unit holders for non-payment of the instalment. That includes the issuing of 35 writs, and 22 wind-up notices for insolvency under section 459P of the Corporations Act. Also six statutory demands have been issued for money.

They include an outstanding writ issued that is yet to be served on John Howard Williams, best mate of Nicholas Bolton's dad, for $76,099,993.

Then there's the debt parties associated with colourful Sydney character Jim Byrnes. The former bankruptcy adviser to Alan Bond has been banned by the corporate plod from being a company director, but a party linked to him managed to amass a large holding of units.

In NSW, a statutory demand for $59,719,014 has been issued against that party, Brisconnections Toll Road Link, which is being represented by law firm Beazley Singleton.

The curious David Barrow, trustee for the The Julie Anne Barrow Charitable Trust, named for his deceased sister, is fighting a statutory demand for $5,609,666 in Victoria. That demand has been made against corporate trustee of the trust, Super Choice Now.

Other major claims include "section 459P notices" against Queensland company Sakdahan over a $15 million debt, and Victorian company Raffles Lodge over a $8.7 million debt. A writ for $1.3 million has also been issued against Australian Style Investments, Bolton's private investment company.

A spin down toll road

TOLL-ROAD operator ConnectEast yesterday fessed up to the Australian Securities Exchange that it had been served a writ and statement of claim by Leighton Holdings, one of its biggest shareholders.

BusinessDay had already hit the streets with the news.

Leighton subsidiary Thiess John Holland, which built the EastLink toll road for ConnectEast, believes it was misled over traffic numbers, which haven't met forecasts since the road opened in June last year. It has foreshadowed a $400 million claim.

Full Disclosure couldn't help but note that news of the legal claim was made in a statement rather vaguely titled "Equity raising update". We suggest that the title "$400 million legal fight looms with Wal King's cashed-up construction giant" might have been more accurate, but perhaps such a message was unwanted by the ConnectEast spin team.

Indeed, on the very day the writ was issued by the Victorian Supreme Court, ConnectEast announced to the market "EastLink Traffic August 2009". That missive contained nothing but good news about traffic growth on EastLink, including the line that "average daily trips was the highest since tolling commenced".

Wonder if they were trying to get in the first blow before the lawyers descended?

Wealth of notions

CAPITALISM is dead, if you believe the Wall Street doomsayers. But in Melbourne, Sanctum Theatre and Fenestra Productions plan to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of Adam Smith's magnum opus An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations as part of this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Smith's treatise, published in 1776 and commonly referred to as Wealth of Nations, was a great leap forward in economic thinking, and introduced the idea of the "invisible hand" of commerce that underpins market capitalism.

As part of the festival, Sanctum and Fenestra plan to "realise Smith's ideal of a true and unfettered market on a small patch of turf in Brunswick", which they are calling "Wall Street on Barkly".

At the Wealth of Nations market, which will run from late September into early October, "merchants of mania, hawkers of hubris and snake oil salesmen" will be able to peddle their wares.

If you want to join the party it looks like a decadent night of live bands and performers, rather than a discussion place for economic theories

check out the website at

www.sanctumtheatre.org.