Forum Archive Index - October 2000

["John and Beth Schwartfeger" <timestwo@xtra.co.nz>]

Well. The Commerce Commission has put a spanner in the works. Is that unexpected? Cast your minds back to the dairy industry a few short years ago. NZDG and Waikato. Not as big as Fletchers but the dominance internally was going to be similar. CC turned down the application. The parties went to the High Court and bingo. CC overruled and the take over went ahead.

It would be my guess (and it is only a guess because I am looking at human behaviour) that the same course of events will happen in the FEG / Shell proposal. What is becoming a more common event in NZ with any group in power set with making decisions, is to make a decision in such away that the decision will be challenged in a different arena (usually a Court) and that lets the initial party set to make the decision off the hook. Classic and numerous examples can be found in decisions made by councils under the Resource Management Act. Turn down the application so it has to go to the Enviroment Court then if things go wrong it was the Courts that made the decision. NZ has generated a system of fear of making a decision and being responsible for your own actions. People are scared of making a decision where further down the track it might be seen to have been the wrong decision.

If I was a betting man, I would bet $10 to a knob of goat sh*t and you have to hold the stakes in your mouth that this CC decision will be challenged in Court and a favourable decision will be made with a little tinkering around the edges.

No comfort for FEG share holders but hey, my FFS shares are even sicker.

 

Disclaimer. I probably have no clue what I am talking about and I have never worked or been involved in any decision making factory.:)))))

 

Good luck to us all.

John.