Trencor’s timing blunder irks investors

Trencor/Textainer

OOPS, that was a bit of a blunder. So who was asleep at Trencor’s wheel this week when New York-listed Textainer’s results were posted a day too early in the US?

Trencor, which has a controlling 48% stake in Textainer, issued a trading statement on Wednesday, noting that earnings for the six months to June would be down on the previous corresponding period’s. All well and good, but the statement went on to note that Textainer’s net profit was $73.1-million (R784-million) for the half-year.

Whoever issued the trading statement obviously forgot Textainer’s result were due to be released only on Thursday.

A day may not seem a big deal to people who lead full lives, but for US traders and their market regulators it is. Anything more than a nanosecond is a pretty big deal to them. Full Textainer results were posted on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday night. It is unclear what, if any action, the Wall Street authorities will take.

As one irritated Trencor shareholder put it: if there’s a Securities and Exchange Commission violation there could be a fine, and who will pay it? Generally, companies (shareholders) pay for such errors. Perhaps it’s time to hold those in control more accountable.

“If the directors responsible cannot diarise the release of results correctly, should they be in these positions and be remunerated so well,” asked the shareholder without mentioning names of long-standing, possibly overstretched directors such as David Nurek and the Jowell brothers.

SABMiller

Talking of corporate governance issues, what is SABMiller up to? We all know chairing this group is a very special job, verging on what might be called a vocation, and that it’s likely to be extremely difficult to duplicate the remarkable set of skills Meyer Kahn brought to the board for all those years.

But surely there is somebody out there who does not already have a job as the chairman of an enormous and complex global company who could be persuaded to take the reins?

South African-born Jan du Plessis, now chairman of Rio Tinto, will become SABMiller’s chairman next July after serving as a nonexecutive director of the global drinks group from next month. Du Plessis will take over from John Manser, who became chairman in December after Graham Mackay died.

One can only assume headhunters have run out of the old lords who populate boards of London-listed companies.

Adcock Ingram

This week’s news that Adcock Ingram’s board had concluded “with absolute certainty” that there will be a basic and headline loss a share for the nine months to June seemed to get lost in the far more dramatic news that African Bank was back on life support.

The news was not unexpected from this soon-to-be Bidvestcontrolled entity. It was released about the same time that Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe and Adcock CEO Kevin Wakeford were trying to persuade the competition authorities to approve Bidvest’s control.

Disturbingly, that hearing was closed to the public so we don’t know how much more profit-sapping “restructuring” lies ahead. Still, the board “remains optimistic” about long-term prospects.

Shareholders may have noticed executives were awarded a lot of share options last month at about R52 a share. Could we be within sight of the bottom?

African Bank

Final word must go to African Bank. This is a frustrating story, mainly as it was avoidable. It was hubris on a grand scale.

What were the directors up to? And who appointed them?

Wealth destruction is one side of the story. Thousands of Ellerines jobs are likely to be lost just for starters.