Origin Yawn, Nuts Good - Week Ending 7th June 2019

Welcome to my Friday email where I dribble on about how much I do and don't know about things agri, sport and life.

I was a guest at my old firm Select Equities this week for 2 company briefings. SHV and BUB.

CEO Paul Thompson must be going nuts about how well Select Harvest's is performing. The almond crow was strong, the quality was good and the price is excellent. On top of this the US/China trade war is helping no end with strong export sales to Asia. The business is humming so well that by the time the current crop is fully sold the company will be virtually debt free. (excluding finance leases).

We also caught up with Kristy Carr from BUB's. They have been seriously busy doing deals. Firstly they hooked up with BGA for infant formula processing, then linked up with Beingmate and T-mall in China to help in country sales, then did what seems like a master stroke deal with Chemist Warehouse here in Australia to strengthen their position with the cross border trade. It's interesting to note that Chemist Warehouse is the No2 infant formula seller in Australia outselling Coles and only second to Woolies.

Spin.......It's everywhere these days. in politics as we expect, in cricket sometimes depending on the pitch and also in listed company announcements.

Take CCL for example. This week Coca-Cola announced the sale of the SPC baked beans business for $40m. According to one press report I read, they paid $700m for the business back in 2005. I believe they have spend many millions more upgrading the processing and packaging lines and had a couple of government handouts along the way. And wrote down the business over the years by $979m. All in all a crappy investment, with crappy returns and what would seem a crappy outcome......BUT, this is where the spin comes in. They have booked a PROFIT on the sale of $10-15m....outstanding accounting..!! who would have thought you could screw up a business that badly and make a profit...??? Maybe a check of the CEO's kpi's and incentive plans, might give you the answer as to how they got to the profit figure....Spin and hot air everywhere.

Last Friday I went for a drive out into western Sydney past the site of the new Badgery's creek airport. There is plenty of construction happening out there. I saw at least 9 cranes building apartments in Homebush and a similar number in Parramatta. Plus roadworks everywhere.

On sport as usual there was way more hype than substance in the NSW Blues team loss in State of Origin...boring..!!