Between 2006 and 2010 New Zealand saw the systemic collapse of the finance company sector, with 30 finance companies going under. Investors are out of pocket nearly $2 billion dollars and the Securities Commission has large charges against 14 directors.
- 12 lessons that can be learned from finance company collapses:
1. Unsophisticated investors didn’t understand the risk
2. Investments with finance companies are not as liquid as some other classes of assets
3. Finance companies that failed had significant concentrations of credit risk
4. Underlying cash flows of the failed finance companies were very weak
5. Security over assets was weak
6. Rating scales used by Credit Rating agencies contributed to the confusion
7. Investment documents issued were inadequate
8. Financial advisors provided poor investment advice
9. In some cases Trustees did not act swiftly enough
10. Finance companies had significant liquidity risk due to short dated nature of their funding
11. Related Party Transactions were rife
12. Flaws in Legislative framework left investors unprotected

Sourced from Mark Laing a clever friend

Andy

A wee update on Tuesday’s post. The first shipment of Ranfurlyâ„¢ samples is on it way.

It’s an exciting week for TimeZoneOne this week, with the shipping of our first range of samples for our new apparel brand Ranfurly™

The collection, which will launch in North America to be sold all over the USA and the West Coast of Canada will hit the stores in fall 2011.

Our line, which at this stage is focused around women’s sweaters, tunics and cardigans, is a Merino story which is New Zealand inspired, designed and made.

Featuring New Zealand’s most beautiful Merino wool and workmanship, this better end line has been well received by wholesalers and we expect sales in the New Year to be strong.

Check out a few of our garments below…

It’s not quite Wall Street, but over the last year Zoners have been competing against each other on NZX virtual trading to see who can grow a biggest virtual share portfolio. The virtual shares are based on actual NZX-listed shares. Each of the six teams started with 50,000 virtual dollars (v$). Several teams lost interest and were taken out of the running for not submitting their financial reports in time, while the winning team, Foley Contractors, was able to grow their virtual wealth by over by over v$25,000. My team, VeldCorp came in a close second after a strong rally in the final quarter while the Codd Squad were able to pick up the bronze medal, despite barely making enough to buy a virtual cup of coffee, because nobody else finished the race. Click on the graph to embiggen.

David McLeod

A new McDonald arrived today.

Stella Ann McDonald

7 pounds 3 oz

Born Oct 7, 2009 (around 12pm)

Congratulations to Richie and Lori.

I have just returned (landed in Chicago late last night) from 2 weeks in NZ and some time in Sydney. As such this blog will be a little be random as my thoughts are still in another TimeZoneOne.

What is jet lag?

It is a physiological desynchronization caused by travel between different time zones.

The severity can vary according to the number of time zones crossed as well as the direction of travel-most people find it difficult to travel eastward (i.e., to adapt a shorter day as opposed to a longer one). The resulting symptoms include extreme fatigue, sleep disturbances, loss of concentration, disorientation, malaise, sluggishness, gastrointestinal upset, and loss of appetite.

In general, adjustment to a new time zone takes one day for each hour of time difference.

Well Done to the BancVue team…

During the last couple of weeks the TimeZoneOne BancVue team has been flat out getting the new campaign ready to market. This project has many moving parts and many deliverables but with hard work, creative thinking and a positive attitude we have broken the back of it. Upon my return to the office today I asked Hamish how he had been copying with the very late (1am) nights. See photo.

Lor on the road…..

This morning I caught up with Lor who also returned yesterday having had a week traveling around NZ with Patty.

How was the weather?

We had great weather. It only rained a couple of times when we were driving. It didn’t even rain in Doubtful Sound. (Where it rains 190 days a year, 230 feet annually).

Best moment?

We flew from Mt Cook on a small plane over the mountains and landed on the Franz Joseph Glacier. The landing was so soft and when the engine was off it was so quiet, nothing but clear sky and bright snow. The eerie blue ice of the glacier ice made it seem like we were standing on a huge slice of blue cheese. If only I had a giant cracker. 

How was the driving?

The driving went fine, although there is not as much hard shoulder as I would have liked. As the towns are quite small we had no traffic problems especially after I understood the ‘secret of the circle’.

One odd thing about NZ cars is that each time I went to indicate the windshield wipers went on.

Meet any good people?

I was on a jet boat going across Lake Horoko and the driver said ‘this lake is 98% fresh water’.

Another passenger asked ‘what is the other 2 percent?”

The driver replied, ‘fish shit’.

Gotta love kiwis.

5 Highlights…

1.       Mac Black beer

2.       See Mel in Queenstown, yelling at her until she couldn’t ignore me any more

3.       Getting slowly drunk on the wine tour

4.       Meeting Paul the Hump Ridge jet boat driver. Eating his BBQ.

5.       Paying $50 to see a 3D movie the Hermitage Hotel.

When biscuits become cookies….

A NZ trip always means a new office stock-up of biscuits. The aim is that our clients can get a wee taste of NZ when they visit, but they have to be quick as general office consumer is high.

Thanks to the Creative Team….

It was great to catch up with the C Team recently. Thanks to y’all for your hospitality.

Tatts

Being the resident TimeZoneOne golf analyst it would be remise of me not to mention the latest outstanding young golfing talent from the “The land of the long white cloud” – Aotearoa.

Hail Sir Danny Lee (well he hasn’t been Knighted yet, but look out he may be soon). 

Danny Lee’s golfing resume is quite impressive given the fact he is still 18 years of age.

Danny Lee’s Short Resume

In 2008 Danny Lee becomes the Youngest U.S. Amateur Champion ever at the age of 18 years and one month old, six months and 29 days younger than Tiger Woods.  The victory gives Lee exemptions into the U.S. and British opens, a probable invitation to The Masters and a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Amateur as long as he remains an amateur.

On the road to Danny Lee’s 2008 US Amateur victory Danny Lee had won the prestigious 2008 Western Amateur Championship and join an illustrious fraternity of winners that includes Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

The biggest and most impressive of all Danny Lee’s victories came this year in the 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic (this is a professional Australasian/Asian/European Golf Tour’s event).  In winning this event Danny Lee showed a golfing maturity well beyond his young years in birding the last two holes for a one stroke victory and became the youngest ever winner of a European Golf Tour tournament.

Hail the Folksey appointed Sir Danny Lee.

Folksey

 

Last week the SMG Captivation Awards web site went live for our client SMG. A big well done goes out to all the team who worked on this project. Rob and Mel deserve a special mention for the great job they did in managing this technically challenging project.

The site provided our client with a live virtual space to announce award winners daily over the past week for their global annual in-house awards programme. It featured winners videos, live comments from the SMG team around the world plus profiled all the finalists from SMG offices around the globe.   

The site looks great! 

Nigel 

The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, multi-use building, recognized around the world for its distinctive architecture, prestigious location and presence on Chicago’s skyline.  When completed in 1969, it was the tallest building in the world outside New York City.  It is the third-tallest skyscraper in Chicago and the fifth-tallest in the United States, after the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower and the Aon Center.  When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums and contains the highest residences in the world.  The Observatory is situated on the 94th floor and offers breath-taking views of both the city of Chicago and Lake Michigan.  It is one of Chicago’s most popular attractions.

Some interesting facts

At the peak of construction, more than 2,000 people worked on the project; some five million man-hours were required to complete the development.

• Enough steel to make 33,000 cars was used to make the frame, which took three years to complete and weighs 46,000 tons.
• Its four corner columns weigh up to 100 tons each.
• The building’s 1,250 miles of wiring carries enough power to supply a city of 30,000 people.
• There’s enough aluminum in the building to cover 12 football fields.
• Its 11,459 extra-thick, bronze windows contain enough glass to produce a single, 5ft sheet 13 miles long.
• Because of John Hancock Center’s lakeside location, caissons had to be sunk into 10ft holes drilled 190ft into bedrock.
• The unusual design required innovative construction methods, including the use of “creeper cranes,” previously used only in bridge construction, to hoist steel beams into place.
• Prefabrication of the immense corner joints meant construction proceeded at a rapid pace – up to three floors a week.

In June of this year, TZO partnered with the John Hancock Observatory to rebrand and create new signage surrounding the building.  The existing signage had been in place for 15 years and was looking much the worse for wear.  Also, people would often circle the building unsure about how access the Observatory Lobby.  TZO was tasked to create new signage employing the updated Observatory brand.  This has been quite a process and has been quite a logistical challenge.  The job is now complete and the John Hancock Observatory has directional signage worthy of a building of its stature.

Hamish McDonald

It was meant to be a big sporting weekend for some of us southern zoners. Starting on Saturday with the Peak to Pub, a race which consisted of snowboarding or skiing down Mt Hutt, biking down the access road and then running to Methven. A few hardy souls had entered but were at the mercy of New Zealand’s infamous changeable weather. The warm nor’wester brought with it strong gale force winds which forced the event to be postponed to Sunday. Unfortunately most had other plans so were unable to compete which was a shame.

On Sunday morning the wind had changed and brought rain. Three more zoners got up early to compete in the Physiomed Women’s Triathlon. The initial adrenaline was a little dampened when we arrived, and the longer we stood in the rain waiting for the event to begin the more our enthusiasm waned. Luckily by the time the race started the weather gods had noticed our sun dance and the rain stopped while we were swimming, and stayed away for the duration. We all managed to stay upright and on our bikes which was a bit of a feat due to the slippery conditions. After some amazing photo finishes we waited to see if any of us placed our respective categories. Sadly, not this time, but watch this space!

A great effort by all, big ups to Maria (2 time duathlete) and Liz (triathlon newbie).

Rose ‘tri veteran’ 3 time triathlete