No rabbit out of this hat

There is a strong suspicion that at many international airports, somewhere between the final duty-free and the taxi rank, there is a zone populated entirely by investment bankers waiting to pounce on foreign investors with decent-sized wallets.

They have an entire dog show of rubbish companies that they are unable to unload on investors that have any idea about the market concerned, so their only hope is to find some wide-eyed arriviste looking to make an impression on a new market.

This has been the experience of many an SA corporate looking to diversify away from the beloved country, but rarely has it gone as spectacularly wrong as the experience of Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers with its 2016 purchase of UK DIY chain Homebase. The Aussies came piling in, convinced that they could replicate the success of their DIY operation Bunnings, ignoring the noli tangere verdict of their adviser Archie Norman, chair of Marks & Spencer, who had a clue about the UK retail environment. They kicked out the local management team and replaced it with people who knew all the words to Waltzing Matilda.

The product range was changed from soft furnishings to power tools and barbecues big enough to braai an emu, and electrical goods that came with Australian rather than British plugs, so customers voted with their feet and pretax losses widened to a cheeky £145.2m in 2017. By the time Wesfarmers sold the company for £1, it had cost it £1.1bn, ranking it as possibly the worst Australian idea since the introduction of the rabbit.