The full force of the NZX comes down on Veritas ...wow
https://www.nzx.com/files/attachments/268000.pdf
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The full force of the NZX comes down on Veritas ...wow
https://www.nzx.com/files/attachments/268000.pdf
Stunning rebuke huh? $50,000 fine for not disclosing pertinent material, potentially devastating information, to the market.
But it is mitigated because VIL had legal advice! So it is not really at fault!
Notice how the NZX and FMA only really ever take on the weak, almost dead or already dead - those with bugger all fight left in them?
For the others, it is always 'out of court' settlements with no admission of wrong doing - Milford, Fay Richwhite etc.
Put a QC in front of the pathetic pimple faced bureaucrats of the NZX and FMA, threaten them with personal retributions should they exceed their jurisdictions and watch them fold like a tent or reach for the 'out of court' settlements.
And the NZX wonders why the average person out there think the NZX is a bloody joke.
Reflects very poorly on the abilities of the directors particularly Hunter and Cook. I sold my shareholding in Veritas at a loss a while ago but I am still exposed to abilities of Hunter and Cooke by the way of my shareholding in Plexure.
What VIL did not disclosed was very crucial information.
The share price at that time would have been impacted much more adversely if the information was fully disclosed.
Sp then was 22c, now 8c.
Interesting that Salt Fund actually increased its stake in VIL post the announcement.
Ouch!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/980...-shuts-up-shop
Another Mad Butcher franchisee closes shop - looking grimmer by the day!
I've had a couple of chats with Aaron Drever. I think he's a likeable enough young rouge that didn't have enough checks and balances around him when he was a real estate agent. One wonders where the principal of the firm he was working for was in terms of giving him guidance in terms of his career...happy enough to take his cut of the vast commissions coming in but not prepared to try and keep his effervescent enthusiasm in check and make sure from a procedural point of view Aaron was sticking to the right protocols ?
I hope he does okay out of his new venture. He lost his father a while back as noted by Balance in the post above and lost a very lucrative career in real estate.
Give the guy a break. I might go and buy some tasty sausages off him and have another chat and see if he's still enjoying his black Chrysler SRT8 as much as I'm enjoying mine.
Retail requires someone who puts customers first ,has first rate suppliers, and great staff,and has the capital to achieve the business's goals.
A retail business needs good margins to pay its huge overheads.
Short change customers,suppliers,staff,landlord,or IRD,etc and he will be history very quickly.
With no background in this type of business, his chances of success are slim.
Watch out for a cheap SRT8.
ps.
Retail
1st year.....loss.
2nd year....breakeven.
3rd year.....modest profit.
If you are lucky,reasonable profit in year 5.
Aaron Drever - 9 adverse disciplinary findings and then stripped of his real estate liscence.
It would be interesting to know what the problems were. From what I have read in the media it would be possible to take the view that the real estate agents disciplinary tribunal would generally err on the side of the real estate agent. These must have been serious matters surely.
Yes its a tough game. Maybe he's cashing in already to build up his capital...not many of these bad boys come on the market https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/use...1463856402.htm Perfect car for a likeable rouge.
Brain - He was too young and took on too many listings. You won't hear of the hundreds and hundreds of satisfied customers. The guy was selling vast numbers of houses and was a real go getter...earning over $1m a year in commission. He didn't follow correct procedures on many occasions as he took on too much work.
Like I said yesterday, he should have had FAR more guidance and mentoring from the principal of the firms he was working for.
Punters still waste their time to go the ASM
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/995...-butcher-owner
In the meeting, Stranaghan asked Veritas chairman Tim Cook if the company was heading for liquidation.
Cook said: "That does not mean liquidation at this point... But I give no assurances or guarantees."
Excerpt from the article Winner kindly provided a link for. Caveat Emptor...I think this speaks for itself as to the likely value of Veritas shares.Quote:
Cook refused to continue an interview with Stuff when asked about Veritas' debt repayments to ANZ.
Same clown of a Chairman Tim cooking this story back in October 2015 :
"Nosh Group
The Nosh stores as a whole continue to show growth on last year and remain on
track to be profitable in the next quarter. Our latest Nosh store opened in
Pakuranga on time and to budget and, following a soft launch, revenue
continues to grow with significant marketing activity continuing in the local
area. The Board look forward to strong trading over the Christmas and summer
season for all stores."
What a bunch of *ankers.
Cook said "some action" would need to be taken over the Mad Butcher franchise.
"At the end of the day you need someone with a chequebook prepared to buy them," Cook said.
Ha ha - didn't they pay about $40m odd for this franchise when they floated - OK not really they but the excited IPO investors eg
Still worth something but if they going broke they may as well give the franchise to the poor suffering store operators for a pittance. Be a nice ending I reckon and the opertors probably make a go of it without the burden of subsidising the expensive tastes of HQ
Beagle - a job for you
Moore said the company had searched for another director to join Veritas' board but there had been no takers for the position
Buggers still owe ANZ Bank a truckload of money - the balance sheet is a shocker with intangibles making up 90% of total assets! All that lovely goodwill cooked up by the *ankers as they generously paid up for assets & businesses in search of scale and synergies.
Two other notable listings that have involved absolute bus loads, (apparently we're all buses and trains on here at the moment and trucks not allowed) of goodwill have been Evolve and Metro Performance Glass neither of which have done well.
How much creative oven roasted and cooked up goodwill on that Tegal balance sheet Winner ?
Wouldn't it be a fascinating project for someone who was really bored over the holidays to compare the SP performance of companies with less than 10% of their assets as goodwill to those with over say the 75% level...straight shooters compared to creative accounting companies shall we call it...
I have long held deep suspicions regarding the methodology and lack of amortization policies regarding goodwill on corporate balance sheets.
Not the only one by any means.
VIL NTA -56 cps
EVO NTA -29 cps
MPG NTA - 2.2 cps
All have seriously disappointed (to one degree or another) investors since their IPO's. Coincidence or was the float priced of all three jacked up well beyond what was fair and reasonable ?
To be fair the Mad Butcher was actually a very good business - very profitable, had an excellent brand and market position.
The *ankers managed to completely stuffed the business up by piling up the business with debt, buying businesses they had no idea how to run etc etc.
Anyone who ever followed the sorry saga of Aquiline Investment (stuffed up by Jim Scott, ex CEO of Air NZ) will know how easy it is to kill off businesses when them *ankers are let loose.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10677196
Veritas is but a repeat of Aquiline.
The owner of a Mad Butcher franchise would have a lot of worries.
I would expect they are not trading very well,as the brand loses its appeal .
Most seem to be family run,so the whole family could soon be without a job.
But worse still,is their on going lease commitments will force some into bankruptcy.
In the meantime they will be working seven days a week, without holidays, trying to keep their businesses going.
I doubt any would have a "diversity" policy.!
I would hazard a guess Veritas treat their Mad Butcher franchisees much the same way as Retail Food Group do
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retai...07-h00lbl.html
This network has created a lot of human misery. They're all unhappy. I haven't met a happy one.
No surprises there.!
Same old story,"a decline in head office support".Rising costs of head office inaffective advertising and administration costs,as head office take on too many over paid under performers,[sometmes part of a diversity policy].
Retirement savings lost,homes lost,mental and marriage breakdowns.
"Trust us we know what we are doing,we give you a profitable turn key operation" is just lies.
Plenty of cases here in NZ.
Laws of liable stop me naming them.
Funny as - Morton buys back Mad Butcher for zillions less than he got for it a few years ago.
Just shows you bad investment companies are at valuing business and another case of outfits like Grant Samuel coming up with valuations that conveniently are in ‘desired range’. That Mad Butcher franchise was never worth $40m. I was working on a similar sized franchise purchase / sale at the time and those vendors used this a benchmark —- ha ha they only got about what Morton is paying now.
Hope the Mad Butcher stores start becoming successful again
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/6...inal-pricehtml
Seen this happen many times before. Maybe it was his strategy all along?
Investors have been comprehensively skunked. It must be the shortest priced bet in town that the one remaining asset the better bar company isn't really worth anything like what VIL paid for it.
ANZ's problem remains.
Probably not exactly a long queue of buyers, but interesting selling to a Veritas director - how does that process and conflict of interest work? Interesting that he thinks that after being a director of the company running the Butch, he can do better by owning it?
Dis: Never have, and never will be a shareholder
Two quotes:
“There’s only one Alan Bond in your life!” Kerry Packer
“They need to take a good hard look at themselves” Sir Peter Leitch
Its hard to believe they can keep up the charade of a listing with a straight face. Quite obvious this is in a managed wind down, even said as much in a behind the paywall article on NBR the other day. Anyone who thinks there's any value remaining in this company for shareholders would be better off believing that Santa really does come down their chimney with the presents. Whoever is bidding for ~ 300,000 shares at 5 cents must like making $15,000 donations. ANZ calling ALL the shots and hoping to minimize their losses in my opinion. If you have a really old car with a completely knackered engine you take a few hundred dollars from the scrap metal merchants rather than just letting it rust to nothing on your driveway. Same principle applies to selling penny dreadfuls.
Pity the annual stock picking competition doesn't allow us to go short on some stocks, this would be a guaranteed winner !
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/101...lier-thousands
Not Veritas anymore but another train wreck... in the same train. Sucks if the cleaners have not been paid... likely they can afford least to sustain that loss of income. Let's hope no one else decides to have a crack at riding this dead horse.
https://www.nzx.com/announcements/317253
ANZ are allowing them to linger a little longer. Who on earth would want to pick up refinance funding for this?
"This extension was agreed to enable the Veritas Board to continue its active discussions with a new funder regarding a refinance of the Veritas group’s ANZ debt facilities in their entirety."
Dead man walking
All fixed up
Veritable going to become a growth company in a vibrant commercial sector
It’s all on now
https://quoteapi.com/resources/da986...8NuPt_gBHTuits
‘GROWTH’ used 5 times in the short announcement along with nice phrases like ‘significant growth’, ‘buoyant’, ‘potential’ etc ...and even profit a few times
Suppose when you are in deep **** you have to give a fair bit away to get out of it
The term of each tranche is three years and interest is payable quarterly at the bank bill rate plus a margin of 6.5% per annum.
A fee of 2.5% of the total amount of the facilities is payable to Nomura on draw down
an exit fee is payable on expiry or repayment in full of the facilities, of the greater of 1% of the total amount of the facilities or 2% of the principal amount outstanding at the time of expiry or repayment.
As part of the refinance, Veritas has also agreed to grant warrants to Nomura which give Nomura the ability to acquire up to 19.9% of the ordinary shares in the company for no consideration. The warrants may not be exercised during the first year after they are granted, and expire on the date that is three years after their grant date.
Yeh right , growth company in what, grog sales in night clubs are falling now .
Wow those terms are frightening. Obviously a lender of last resort. Who would trust the current management and directors to add value from here under those terms given their past shocking record ?
Hey, share price is up 40% today - Happy Days and Blue Skies!!
sold half at 12.5 and the other at 14.5... somehow made a profit from the most drunken of buys.
veritas on to it ....has an objective of becoming the number one hospitality operator in New Zealand.
Won’t postvresults as pretty meaningless in the context of the future anmbitions
Ive been following this with a great deal of interest. The 'glass half full' in me would hope that they are essentially cleaning out the shambles that was Mad Butcher/Nosh and will now focus on the cash generating assets, that being their existing bars as well as the development and purchase of new assets. I can actually see this working provided they dont give too much away to Nomura, either in equity or funding costs. Onwards and upwards and having Moreton leave is positive in itself
so what are we purchasing with VIL at the moment, future, if so what does that look like ?
Thats a good question. They have long term leases in place (except 1 decent site) but also the funding is in place to buy another established operator (not sole operator, rather a group of bars/restaurants). That obviously helps the buying power with the breweries as well as all the operating efficiencies. At current pricing, I dont see alot of downside. Obviously the caveats are a) funding costs with Nomura (however this is somewhat offset by the fact Nomura will likely own 20% of the equity so they skin in the game and vested interest to make this work)
Good to see they have jettisoned Tim Cook - now hopefully they get a Chairman with some actual commercial experience in the sector they are targeting. Excuse the pun but Cook really butchered this company
Tim Cook resigned from Plexure board before the last SGM. There was a significant shareholder vote against his re-election to the board. Seems that he is very much out of favour. There are a number of directors on NZ boards that shouldn’t be there. Maybe large and small shareholders will hold their feet to the fire. I am hopeful for greater accountability.
best we find out what those projects are so we can short the stock !!
"Having been instrumental in refinancing and stabilising the company for its future growth, I have decided to step down next year as I have significant commitments on two new projects,Cook said."Oh great, two new projects!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/108...-stepping-down
"Having been instrumental in refinancing and stabilising the company for its future growth, I have decided to step down next year as I have significant commitments on two new projects,Cook said."Oh great, two new projects! LOL
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/108...-stepping-down
Looks like McCashins Brewery interested in Veritas ...going to buy some shares at 20 cents
Good things come to those who hang in there
http://nzx-prod-s7fsd7f98s.s3-websit...650/293866.pdf
I think this Maccashins move could be really beneficial for the company. They are really well versed in hospitality and will certainly aid Veritas in extending their footprint both in Auckland and the rest of NZ. Conversely, perhaps they are looking at a back door listing....
Wonder what made McCashins pull out and not take up their option to take 20%?
Well... More like 50 percent
Apparently they requested no information from the company itself - paid Moreton his $50k and let the option expire
Michael Morton finally out of veritas. Sold his entire 35.5% stake to 9 different buyers
Change of name to Good Spirits Hospitality GSH
Sounds more appropriate than Veritas - the goddess of TRUTH
It looks like gsh is on the block for merger or sale forecasts of over 1.5m profit it looks cheap