Full Disclosure

The Age

Tuesday February 6, 2007

MARK HAWTHORNE

Qantas expected to fetch more than $40,000

THERE'S a new bidding war for Qantas, and it apparently involves the national carrier and the Airline Partners Australia consortium, which has offered $11 billion for the airline.

The NSW licence plates QANTAS will be auctioned in Sydney on Monday - and corporate interest is so great that auctioneer Shannons expects more than $40,000 for the coveted plates.

Last night Shannons auction manager Christophe Boribon was being coy about the identity of interested parties, but Full Disclosure has learned that two parties involved in the APA takeover of Qantas have registered to bid.

"We are hoping a few people from Macquarie Bank turn up on the night, too," Boribon said. "But we can't confirm the names or identity of anyone bidding."

Shannons initially published an estimate of $25,000-$40,000 on the plates, but interest has been so great that the price could go much higher.

"An auction like this is a one-off," Boribon said.

"Obviously we want the corporate interest, but promotional companies might see this is a great deal, too."

Also going under the hammer on Monday night will be the NSW plates COKE and HERTZ.

All three plates belong to a private owner who had the foresight to buy the registrations more than 20 years ago.

On the wrong Trak

A FRUSTRATING year has ended for former QuikTrak Networks chief executive Mark Pallister.

In November 2005, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission filed fraud charges against him over matters that had already been dismissed in a lower court in Western Australia.

The charges included a claim that Pallister falsified invoices and other documents and made false statements to obtain more than $900,000.

Pallister said the money had been repaid and claimed the nature of the transaction was misunderstood or misrepresented by ASIC.

Although the charges had no connection to QuikTrak, which installs satellite security systems in exotic cars, Pallister decided to step down as managing director when the charges were foreshadowed.

He quit as director and as chief executive, but remains the largest shareholder of QuikTrak.

Just as the ASIC charges were being laid, QuikTrak's shipment of transponders for its security equipment was delayed four months and the interim results were blighted by a non-cash write-down of $13.6 million.

The laying of charges against Pallister also prompted Thorney Holdings, the investment division of Richard Pratt's Pratt Group, to cancel its subscription to a planned $4 million placement by QuikTrak.

To cap it off, the charges also punched a hole in Quik-Trak's share price, which dived from 45? to 36? on the day the charges were announced. They have since dropped to 19.5?.

After several delays, the fraud case was set down for hearing at 9am yesterday. It was only on Friday that ASIC and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions revealed they were going to drop the case. They told Pallister at 4.45pm on Friday.

Reports from the court suggest that the judge was not pleased, noting that it was "unacceptable" for the matter to have come this far and then be withdrawn at the last minute.

Not-so-slick idea

IT WAS a grand idea to cash in on American jingoism - the Terror-Free Oil Initiative opened a petrol station in Nebraska selling "terror-free oil". Spokesman Joe Kaufman says the chain buys US and Canadian oil to ensure none of the profits go to "governments that support terrorism" - Kaufman seems to have missed the entire Iran Contra scandal. "We believe we are financing our own demise by purchasing crude oil from the Middle East," he said. "We'd like to avert another 9/11 if possible."

Unfortunately, Terror-Free buys its petrol from Sinclair Oil, which buys oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which trades oil from the Middle East.

Fording rough waters

FULL Disclosure has documented the off-the-wall management style of US Ford chief executive Alan Mulally.

The former Boeing director has banned BlackBerrys from Ford board meetings, issued a dictum banning "humour at anyone else's expense" and travelled to Japan to learn how to make cars from Toyota.

Now the FoMoCo chief has vowed to visit a US dealership this year and spend a couple days selling cars. After meeting dealers at a conference in Las Vegas, Mulally agreed to a request to spend a couple of days on the showroom floor. "I'm not bad in sales," Mulally said. "I've got a little track record on this thing."

Since Mulally joined Ford, its share price has fallen 3 per cent while Boeing's is up 15 per cent over the same period.

Ford's US sales fell 19 per cent last month.

Appealing

CHEMEQ will appeal against a Supreme Court decision that it failed to meet the terms its convertible bonds deed poll.

Chemeq is battling bond holders Stark Investment and Harmony Capital Partners - the Singapore-based company that has teamed with Kerry Stokes to invest in troubled Nylex - and has been ordered to repay the $60 million face value of the bonds.

Chief executive David Williams said the board believed "there are genuine grounds for an appeal".

© 2007 The Age

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