Forum Archive Index - July 2002

["Taidje Khan" <taidjekhan@hotmail.com>]

John

Fellow WFD holder here. Price performance-wise this has the misfortune of 
being the one WooFing Dog in my portfolio at present, but that said I'm not 
unduly concerned. This one's definitely for the longer haul. Full year 
profits were down 60-odd percent but that was well signalled after the loss 
of cardiac surgery contracts and costs of subsequent diversification push. 
In fact, I say good on them for getting on with it and not sitting round 
bemoaning the vagaries of public health policy. When people on the waiting 
list start dying of cardiac failure maybe the govt will see sense and start 
utilising Wakefield's excellent resources again, but in the meantime, hey, 
people (and let's face it, one thing we're not short of is baby boomers d'un 
certain âge) still need orthopaedics, gynaecology, plastic surgery, 
urology....
This new private hospital, if they get it, will take some cap-ex no doubt 
but all to the future good and at least they're not squandering it on legal 
gag efforts like another hospital authority we could mention (my guess is 
candour'll be WFD's middle name for a good while to come after getting hit 
with the old Sec Commission knuckle rap last December).
To sum up with a quote from Datex: "...consistent (but variable) profits... 
an excellent reputation with little debt and low risk investment 
characteristics, and the longer term outlook is positive".
Yeah, I'll stick with them (in fact, now that I think of it, could be a good 
time to pick up a few more...)

T.K.
PS If anyone's going to the eventual AGM, there is one small thing I'd be 
interested to know: On page 52 of the Prospectus: buried deep in the 
mini-print under 'Other Interests' there appears the following statement:
'Wakefield has agreed to subscribe for a 1% shareholding in PCL (Prometheus 
Capital) after its restructure for a price of $100,000'. My questions: What 
exactly is "Prometheus" ? Who valued it at, effectively, $10m ? And what use 
is 1% ?



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