8 replies on “Business and Finance Interview with Anglo Management”
Is anyone else getting fed up with these puff pieces on Anglo which are solely used by Anglo to promote their preferred option of the good/bad bank split?
There is the usual “Aynsley came on board to clear up the mess” cant but he was in place from Sept 09 yet oversaw a laughable restructuring plan submitted to the EU in November 09 and in March 2010 was telling the Irish Times that the max cost of bailing out Anglo and funding the new bank was €13bn (see link below).
The Independent complained last week of not being able to get journalistic access to Anglo and indeed no-one seems prepared to put them on the spot with the seemingly derisory provisions against non-NAMA loans or indeed other hot potatoes like disposing of loans potentially to the borrowers at discounts.
If Anglo are only going to grant journalistic access to “friendly” journalists, should the media just boycott the organisation?
Yes, talk about flogging a dead horse. In some ways I can accept that senior managment should fight for what they see (righly or wrongly) as the best solution for their enterprise (staff, cistomers etc.). However, I completely fail to understand how and why Alan Dukes aligned himself with management given that he sits on the board as a public interest director representing the shareholders (us!). As chairman of the board, he should have maintained a neutral position and closed down all public lobbying by management.
There are a lot of questions that Anger and its chairman need to answer startng with indications as to who the bondholders are, what politicans have (had) loans from Anger, the cost of winding up and its extraordinary lending decisions.
Not so long ago, Alan Dukes called for Nama to be covered by the Freedom of Information Act. Instead of spinning, his call should also have embraced his own bank given that it could account for about half of all loans going into Nama.
Aynsley/Dukes lost all credibility when they assumed, with full access to all the loan documentation, that the first NAMA discount would be 28% and it turned out to 55%.
With the news that Anglo have made a bad debt provision for 1.7 of Sean Quinn’s 2.8 billion, with a possible further 500 million to be written off as Anglo have only got 600 million of security, there can’t be much value in the rest of the non-NAMA loans.
MOL JS
Well said!
I thought Dukes lost all credibility in a business sense when he was on the board of eircom during the Vodafone acquisition. I was shocked when he was appointed to Anglo’s board and am unsurprised by his performance since.
A Funding Bank – new twist – essentially its being wound down.
@ Mark Dowling
I think you mean the sale of Eircell Mobile sale to Vodaphone, and was it not Dick Spring? Truly shameful decision , and certainly should have put a question mark over Spring’s being out on list of Public Interest directors. It was a dreadful decision for a worker director to go along with. Also his inability to withstand a cynical media campaign to get the original board of Telecom to resign (note the PDs Paul McKay had a bit more savvy and resisted the preassure).
Alan Dukes was an odd choice for Public Interest Director because he was, and Ithink he still is, connected to a lobbying firm. Only in Ireland.
8 replies on “Business and Finance Interview with Anglo Management”
Is anyone else getting fed up with these puff pieces on Anglo which are solely used by Anglo to promote their preferred option of the good/bad bank split?
There is the usual “Aynsley came on board to clear up the mess” cant but he was in place from Sept 09 yet oversaw a laughable restructuring plan submitted to the EU in November 09 and in March 2010 was telling the Irish Times that the max cost of bailing out Anglo and funding the new bank was €13bn (see link below).
The Independent complained last week of not being able to get journalistic access to Anglo and indeed no-one seems prepared to put them on the spot with the seemingly derisory provisions against non-NAMA loans or indeed other hot potatoes like disposing of loans potentially to the borrowers at discounts.
If Anglo are only going to grant journalistic access to “friendly” journalists, should the media just boycott the organisation?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0326/1224267096199.html
@JS
Yes, talk about flogging a dead horse. In some ways I can accept that senior managment should fight for what they see (righly or wrongly) as the best solution for their enterprise (staff, cistomers etc.). However, I completely fail to understand how and why Alan Dukes aligned himself with management given that he sits on the board as a public interest director representing the shareholders (us!). As chairman of the board, he should have maintained a neutral position and closed down all public lobbying by management.
There are a lot of questions that Anger and its chairman need to answer startng with indications as to who the bondholders are, what politicans have (had) loans from Anger, the cost of winding up and its extraordinary lending decisions.
Not so long ago, Alan Dukes called for Nama to be covered by the Freedom of Information Act. Instead of spinning, his call should also have embraced his own bank given that it could account for about half of all loans going into Nama.
Aynsley/Dukes lost all credibility when they assumed, with full access to all the loan documentation, that the first NAMA discount would be 28% and it turned out to 55%.
With the news that Anglo have made a bad debt provision for 1.7 of Sean Quinn’s 2.8 billion, with a possible further 500 million to be written off as Anglo have only got 600 million of security, there can’t be much value in the rest of the non-NAMA loans.
MOL JS
Well said!
I thought Dukes lost all credibility in a business sense when he was on the board of eircom during the Vodafone acquisition. I was shocked when he was appointed to Anglo’s board and am unsurprised by his performance since.
A Funding Bank – new twist – essentially its being wound down.
@ Mark Dowling
I think you mean the sale of Eircell Mobile sale to Vodaphone, and was it not Dick Spring? Truly shameful decision , and certainly should have put a question mark over Spring’s being out on list of Public Interest directors. It was a dreadful decision for a worker director to go along with. Also his inability to withstand a cynical media campaign to get the original board of Telecom to resign (note the PDs Paul McKay had a bit more savvy and resisted the preassure).
Alan Dukes was an odd choice for Public Interest Director because he was, and Ithink he still is, connected to a lobbying firm. Only in Ireland.
@Tim – you’re right. My apologies to Mr. Dukes.