3 February 2012

Kerryn Downey and William Black, of McGrathNicol, the Receivers for South Canterbury Finance Limited (SCF), are very pleased to announce today that SCF’s shareholding of 33.6% in DHL has been acquired by existing NZ shareholders.

US shareholders, holding 25% of the shares in DHL, followed a parallel process and also sold their shares to the existing NZ shareholders.

The transaction values the DHL Group in excess of $535 million, enterprise value. SCF will receive $56.4 million from the sale of its 33.6% interest.

The Dairy Holdings Group is the largest corporate owner of dairy farms in New Zealand. The group owns 58 dairy farms and owns and leases a further 15 grazing blocks, all in the South Island, covering a total land area of 18,000 hectares. In the 2010/11 season, the DHL Group produced 14.1 million kg of milk solids from approximately 43,400 milking cows.
Kerryn Downey said, “This has been a lengthy and robust sale process that commenced in December 2010. We have worked closely with other shareholders and our sale advisors and are delighted that the sale has been to NZ buyers and will not require OIO approval. This is a good result for SCF, the Crown and the Trustee.”

The Receivers of SCF were advised by First NZ Capital, working with Murray & Company acting for the US-based shareholders.

 ends

For further information regarding the SCF Group, please refer to the website (www.scf.co.nz) and the Receivers’ website (www.mcgrathnicol.com).

Media Enquiries:
This release issued on behalf of McGrathNicol by:
Kate Alexander
Alexander Communications
Tel:    +64 9 524 4957
Mob:  +64 27 244 6094
kate@alexandercomms.co.nz

About McGrathNicol
McGrathNicol is an independent advisory firm specialising in corporate advisory, forensic, transaction services and corporate recovery. It is a market leader in Australia and New Zealand, with more than 300 people across the region, including more than 31 partners.
Note to media
Kerryn Downey and William Black, of advisory firm McGrathNicol, were appointed Receivers and Managers of South Canterbury Finance Limited and its charging subsidiaries on 31 August 2010.
Charging Group Entities (collectively “the SCF Group”)
South Canterbury Finance Limited (In Receivership)
Belfast Park Limited (In Receivership) 
Braebrook Properties Limited (In Receivership) 
Face Finance Limited (In Receivership)
Fairfield Finance Limited (In Receivership) 
Flexi Lease Limited (In Receivership) 
Galway Park Limited (In Receivership)
Helicopter Nominees Limited (In Receivership)
Hornchurch Limited (In Receivership)
Rental Cars Limited (In Receivership)
SCFG Systems Limited (In Receivership)
Sophia Investments Limited (In Receivership)
Southbury Insurance Limited (In Receivership) 
Tyrone Estates Limited (In Receivership)

Kerryn Downey and William Black  of McGrathNicol, the receivers for South Canterbury Finance, have announced today that shareholders of Dairy holdings Ltd, have bought shares owned by collapsed South Canterbury Finance. Read the full story here. in the New Zealand Herald.

The liquidator for the Blue Chip group of companies, Meltzer Mason Heath, has filed a $40 million claim against the failed property investment group, which banked investors’ funds straight into its own bank accounts instead of into trust accounts.

The statement of claim, lodged in the High Court in Auckland, is against Blue Chip’s former directors and auditors, and on behalf of about 800 investors, says Jeff Meltzer of Meltzer Mason Heath.

Todays announcement featured in a number of key national news outlets including The New Zealand Herald, TVNZ,  Sharechat, National Business Review, Stuff, Interest.co.nz and a number of other news outlets across the country

Kelvin Taylor, marketing director at Diadem shares his expert opinion and insight into project management in an opinion piece published at idealog.co.nz

 Taylor believes the three most likely factors to be compromised within project management are time, quality or cost.

The article explores how project managers can manage compromise, strategies and tactics to use and how to weigh up the cost of implementation.

The full article can be read here.

The company started with humble beginnings, selling their pizzas to students at Victoria University.

Controversy, “cool factor” and great pizza have been key ingredients in the development of the highly successful company who have now successfully entered  Asia – opening stores in Seoul, Korea after already making a significant impact on the New Zealand market.

The International development of the brand has been steady with franchises in India, Ireland and Australia.

The Dominion Post, Nelson Mail and the Manawatu Standard  recently ran a page dominant article on HELL Pizza, talking with the founder Stu McMullin. You can read the online version here of the Dominion Post version.

Keryn Ward was interviewed by Jim Mora from Radio New Zealand. She updated retailers, shoppers and the community on the status of the centre after the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks on 23rd December. The link to the interview can be found here.

The Palms Shopping Centre in Shirley will remain closed today, Saturday 24 December following yesterday’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.

Structural engineers are continuing to assess the building to ensure that it is safe prior to reopening. The safety and wellbeing of our retailers, staff and customers is our main priority.

Customers are asked to obtain updates on the centre via The Palms Shopping Centre Facebook page and website.

We realise that it is unfortunate that the centre is unable to open on Christmas Eve nevertheless The Palms Shopping Centre Management Team and retailers wish all their customers a merry and safe Christmas.

While New Zealanders often view themselves as active, outdoorsy people, a recent study has found that many Kiwis’ feel unhappy with their health.

The survey, conducted by AIA NZ, looked at 10,200 people’s lifestyle habits across 15 Asia Pacific nations. Individual’s satisfaction with their own health and the way they practiced healthy living, were examined. Of the 403 Kiwi’s surveyed, 91% said they wanted to do more to improve their health. Both ‘better quality of life’ and ‘mental health’ featured as main motivators for exercise.

Common health concerns found across the board were issues around lack of sleep, insufficient exercise and carrying extra weight. 72% of Kiwi’s surveyed felt they would like to loose some weight.

Articles exploring the findings featured in both The New Zealand Herald and The Rotorua Daily Post.

Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding By W. Timothy Coombs

I was asked by organisers of the  New Zealand Communication Association to do a key note speach at their 24th Annual conference which was held at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland on 12th & 13th December, 2011.

The theme for the conference was “Convergence”. This lent itself to discuss topics around convergence of of ideas, technology, cutures and nations, academic disciplines and education and industry.

It was a good opportunity to interact with the people who are shaping our university students minds in the area of communications.

Some of the papers discussed at the forum included:

• Josephine Ellis, AUT University. “On-line feedback and the Facebook effect” and  “A research journey by way of the classroom”.
• Dr. Lara Giles, EIT. “Meta-literacy”.
• Dr Kane Hopkins, Massey University. “How New Zealand organisations are using Facebook: A public relations perspective”.
• Jill Clark & Leta Roache, Whitireia.  “Grunting and Snorting on Facebook and Twitter: A Boomer’s Guide to Communicating with Gen Y”.
• Hamish Robertson Dr. Trudy Rosenfeld and Dr. Joanne Travaglia, University of NSW. “Communicating in Ageing Societies: Diversity and Dementia Looking to 2050”.
• Jacqui Hartley-Smith, EIT. “The jigsaw puzzle”.
  Arjan Van der Boon, MIT. “Teaching in your pyjamas? Online Learning with Wimba – The Student Experience”.
• Peter Bruce, Northtec.  “Building Stakeholder Engagement Capability”.
• Nuddy Pillay, MIT.  “To blend or not to blend, that is the question: the perceptions of students on the impact of the face to face and Web Based learning environment on their learning”.
• Susan O’Rourke, AUT.  “Teaching journalism, newspapers, convergence and the Arab Spring: Reflections from Oman”.
• Dr. Rosser Johnson. AUT.  “Cosmopolitanism, commercialism and food television: a case study of Tegal World Kitchen”.
• Debbie Page and Elna Fourie, Wintec. “Leaps and bounds, or a technological divide in the communication classroom”
• Una Wildon, MIT. “Process Based Learning: The Convergence of Teaching and Assessment in Writing courses”.   
• Nippy Paea, MIT student.  Whakarongomai ki taaku nei Reo:
• An Investigation into key factors in the engagement processes between Institute and Iwi
• Saarah Gul, MIT student. Investigating Facebook: The Impact of Facebook usage on the youth in New Zealand
• Manisha Jyoti, MIT student. “Perceptions of homosexuality and homosexuals among different Christian believers”.
• Trish Baker (Wellington Institute of Technology) and Jill Clark (Whitireia New Zealand). An introduction to cooperative learning. 
• Josephine Ellis, AUT University. This workshop to get participants to look at their own areas of teaching practice to identify research questions

My own talk focussed on Convergence and Conversation and how, for better and for worse they are changing how businesses and organisations respond during times of crisis.

I discussed examples of organisations where Convergence (media, technology etc) was beneficial and also where this same concept made lives difficult for company and organisational executives. 

Media Convergence can work against organisations :

• Organisations have less time to respond
• Organisations are global even if they are localy focussed, are forced to consider how their actions are seen beyond country boundaries 
• People (customers, voyears, onlookers) will comment on issues even while not understanding the facts
• There are always opposing viewpoints ready in the wings to be quoted or published online
• Private conversations become public faster and are more available
• Company execs are expected to be available – whenever…wherever.

Media Convergence can work for organisations : 

• Organisations have more media avenues to add to their toolbox
• Everything organisations and companies  do is visible Internationally
• People will go with their gut / brand allegiances / values and this will be demonstrated visually through social media
• Opinions  can be “heard”, published and commented on the minute you want them to be. The power is now with consumers as opposed to with media alone.

We discussed the necessity to have a plan in place for the unexpected and how to achieve outcomes by using the strengths of “Convergence” to our advantage and how to minimise the effects of the negatives. I have attached an example of one of the many and growing texts on the subject for those interested.

Don Jaine,  Seqel Partners discusses succession planning and the new three Bs in the December edition of New Zealand Management, the leaders magazine.

An extract below. Read more in the New Zealand Management Magazine:

“Lately our executive search company SEQEL Partners has been working with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise on how to solve the succession problem for business owners, an issue that has occupied my colleagues and business acquaintances for a number of years. Of particular urgency is the matter of the lack of leaders to succeed baby boomers in the New Zealand market.

In observing the market, it’s obvious that the famous line about business owners wanting ‘the boat, the bach and the BMW’ is outdated. The new, post-GFC paradigm is ‘bought, burned or buried’. That is, owners sitting around waiting for a buyer with a fat cheque are out of luck. Rather, their options in the new environment are the following:

• Bought – For the very good businesses (<10% of the market) that are always positioned as ready for sale, there will be opportunities for them to be sold to competitor organisations in the same sector. The private-equity-backed businesses and the effective business leaders who are prepared to invest in acquisitions and market consolidations are likely to be in acquisition mode over the next three to five years. However, they will be acquiring businesses for much lower earnings multiples than were prevalent in the mid-2000s, pre-GFC. The PEs that were paid in that period were fuelled by cheap access to large levels of debt, which is now no longer available.

• Burned – In our observation, most business owners are going to get ‘burned off’ by businesses that are well advised, probably involve private equity, and have smart, independent board members and very effective executive teams. These businesses will burn off a large number of participants in each market sector by simply being better led, better managed, more agile, and more effective and active users of technology – GPS, CRM systems, successful eCommerce and more. Many business owners of medium-sized organisations which are smaller participants in their sector will be burned off by more effective operators.

• Buried – Many businesses will die with the owner, leaving their families very little financial legacy, and a broken or broke business – and potentially a load of issues to resolve. While it might seem a sensible idea to potentially wind a business down by not investing and failing to grow in favour of the immediate return of a comfortable lifestyle, our opinion is that the upshot is in fact an uncomfortable one for the dependents of a business.