Graeme Hart's Carter Holt Harvey receives OIO approval to sell 18 North Island forestry blocks

God knows, paper is going to be a great investment in the future, people like Bernard are right behind increased paper sales, and if everyone in China starts wiping their bum with NZ pine then they will make a killing.  Pinus is rubbish.

Has Graeme Hart ever created a job. He borrows, buys, strips, carves and sells.

But does he ever actually build anything?

Off course half off them haven't got a pinus in the first place.

Did Townsend tell you  the CHH farms are comparable to Matamata country NeilD? It will take decades for a forestry conversion to build up the organic soils and fertility comparable to Matamata. How much PK is buffering the forestry conversion production?

I can see both sides of the argument here. Graeme Hart is a very clever businessman who can take bloated organisations, carve them up and sell individual pieces for what he paid for them in total. Banks (and other investors?) see that talent and are prepared to loan him lots of money to make highly leveraged buy-outs.

However, the lack of communication must make working for a Rank Group owned company very uncertain and frustrating.

Also, its an amazingly high risk game because of the high leverage. If one of his deals turns sour it could cause the whole empire come crashing down under mountains of debt. I'm amazed the banks are prepared to fund this. It's probably because the debt is collaterised and the risk is "theoretically" spread over multiple parties. 

or they know how to pick a winner rather than to stand up for the not so enthused.

Clever business people and my “money heroes” are the ones, who distribute most of their money back into the communities, paying decent salaries, supporting charities, education, culture, sports, environment, etc.

Who bloody needs millions ? –  especially in today’s world - just the greedy.

Sustainable redistribution of money by millionairs/ billionairs back to societies would make a far better world.

..and why pursue the stupid goal to become a millionaire - should not be supported and admired anyway under the current worldwide circumstances.

The only thing that disappoints me about Graeme hart is that because of his low profile, he doesn't share his knowledge and skills with the rest of us. It would be good if he could at least donate a little bit of his time by communicating with the public to help improve NZ in terms of building wealth and productivity.

I think Warren Buffet does a better job in this area.  

hold on. if he's got debts of $8b and assets of $5b, doesn't that make him NZ's poorest man?

hart of harts,a man after his own hart,big deal boring.the man loves to deal.just like you or i if he died of rectal cancer tomorrow we would survive.bernard's right all you hart r s lickers.

This thread was going good till the socialists turned up in their Lada's.

Its' Friday yay....yay ....yay..!!! and you know what that means ...don't you ya young scamps...

in keeping with todays thread of popularity ..I'll dedicate this to getting old and confused and wondering what the F%#k we were talking about in the first instance.....and so

Couple  in their nineties are both having problems remembering  things. During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're  physically okay, but they might want to start writing things  down to help them remember ..

Later that  night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his  chair. 'Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?' he  asks.

'Will you get me a bowl of ice  cream?'

'Sure..'

'Don't you think you  should write it down so you can remember it?' she  asks.

'No, I can remember it.'

'Well, I'd  like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write  it down, so not to forget it?'

He says, 'I can  remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with  strawberries.'

'I'd also like whipped cream. I'm  certain you'll forget that, write it down?' she  asks.

Irritated, he says, 'I don't need to write it  down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and  whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!'

Then  he toddles into the kitchen. After about 20  minutes, The old man returns from the kitchen and hands  his wife a plate of bacon and eggs. She stares at the plate  for a moment.

'Where's my toast ?'    

The other day I went for a walk to check out the new board walk across Orakei basin during a day I had off.  To get there I walked through the state housing area in Meadowbank. I don’t think there would be a single state house there that wasn’t worth at least $550,000, and that would be just the value of the land! Some of the state houses which overlook the basin and have views out towards the Waitemata harbour and the CBD are probably worth well over 1 million.

A number of these houses have been sold over the last 10 years or so to private buyers, and it’s amazing to see what they have done with them in terms of renovation, additions, fencing, landscaping etc. Some of them are looking really good. Because of that work it was quite easy to distinguish between a former now privately owned state house and one that was still owned by the Housing Corp. With time one can see how this whole state housing area is slowly becoming gentrified.

As I walked through I observed something that was of great interest to me.

All the privately owned houses, nobody appeared to be home. The windows were shut, I couldn’t see any cars in the driveway and I didn’t see anybody outside around the property. Given that this was around 3pm on a Monday afternoon, I assumed that the occupants were at work.

In the adjacent state houses however, all the people were at home. The windows were open, cars were in the driveway, and sometimes you could even see the people sitting outside enjoying the sun.  

And I thought to myself why should you be able to sit in a valuable state property paid for out of our taxes in the middle of a work day doing absolutely NOTHING while no doubt also collecting a welfare benefit, while your neighbours are at work slogging their guts out to pay for the responsibility that they have taken on by buying these rundown properties in the first place and improving them? One group is contributing to society, paying taxes and improving their communities, while the other group is doing absolutely nothing other than bludging.  

Have indigent bludgers ever created jobs, invented anything, or established a company?  Who is paying for them to sit at home in the sun all day, in a valuable house they don’t own collecting a benefit they pay no tax for while driving clapped out old cars on already clogged roads to go and visit their mates who are doing exactly the same thing?

Bernard when you condemn the bludging poor of this country with the same vigour and force as you do the Graeme Heart’s of it, then you might get some traction in the credibility stakes with your comments. But until then………………..

As off -topic as you Chistov ...but as you say its Friday. 

Two old ladies are out driving. The one in the passenger seat notices that her friend has run a red light. She decides not to say anything as there was no near miss.

However the same thing happened again and this time she decides  that if it happens one more time she will say something as she is getting nervous.

Sure enough, her friend runs a third red light.

"Mildred! What on earth are you doing..that's three red lights you have gone through.

Do you want to kill us?

"Oh shit" says Mildred "am I driving?"

Ok Bernard, give us your example of the perfect modern day Kiwi capitalist, the person who ticks all the box's for you....see, i keep sratching my head wondering who it might be but can't for the life of me come up with a name.....plz don't keep us waiting long..cheers

GBh.....The Morgan's have put a lot back into NZ and Overseas. 

Sam has become a social investor www.jasmine.org.nz 

GH, as far as I know, is not taking that approach. 

And Bernard is correct: the Hart model is entirely based on extreme leverage and crushing costs out of businesses. If his purpose is simply bigger and bigger deals, then it is highly likely he will over stretch at some point and lose it all.

Or perhaps he will be like Buffet and Gates and give it all away in his later years. Who knows?

But the leveraged finance model is on its last legs. We went through this in the 70s and 80s...it's a model based on ponzi principles.....as the buyers of Yellow Pages found out recently.