Tuesday 11 August 2009

Hedley PNG rumours

KitchenSlut reviews the latest drama about embattled down and almost out, Cairns developer, Tom Hedley.

  • Michael Moore from CairnsBlog passed on an email last Wednesday of a hearsay rumour sourced from a contact with local shipping company that many containers with Hedley equipment were being shipped to PNG and that he was setting up shop over there.

    I was sceptical at the time as presumably any Hedley equipment would be in the hands of the receiver. Presumably the receiver would also be seeking to realise some kind of return on those assets and perhaps PNG would be an option but that didn't necessarily mean Hedley would be linked into the PNG end of anything.

    However, the Compost yesterday posted a story under the headline "Hedley off and racing to PNG". The Compost refers to reports from "southern media agencies" of Hedley looking at PNG as a way of resurrecting his business career. Tom wouldn't comment as he was off at the horse races apparently and his former development manager, David Row, denied knowledge.

    From a quick google the only "southern media agency" I can find to have reported this is the News Ltd stablemate The Sunday Mail where it appears under the byline of our old mate Gavin King, former chief of staff at the Compost. King is far more fulsome than the shy Compost report under the headline "Hedley plans to start a new life in PNG":

    "The fallen tycoon is likely to relocate from Cairns to Port Moresby to establish a construction business from the ashes of his defunct private companies, worth an estimated $700 million two years ago."

    King reports that "Mr Hedley's right-hand man David Row told The Sunday Mail he visited PNG in recent weeks to scope potential work" and quotes Row directly as saying "It's too early to say what we might be working on but we are certainly looking at opportunities over there."

    How interesting, and worth keeping a watch on!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I was sceptical at the time"

Well if you had not been, you would have had a "scoop" ! It was reported on Wednesday and was not reported in the media until Sunday. (and subsequently denied on Monday).

nocturnal congress said...

I wish Hedley well in PNG. From what people have told me, the PNG Government can be very difficult to deal with with all manner of problems cropping up.

KitchenSlut said...

Thanks for the poke Nick :)

Scepticism comes naturally and have found it to be the most prudent financial approach!

I will also point out that yesterday the Compost ran a front page on the currently surging sugar price as well as featuring this in the business section and the editorial comment. Kitchenslut posted on this last Saturday and also posted on the promising trend in sugar prices back in February.

However I make no claims to expertise in this field and my natural scepticism and long memory suggest that front page tabloid exposure is historically on the balance of probabilities more likely than not to be a contrary indicator.

KitchenSlut said...

To update a previous post the Compost has reported comments from the Hedley receiver today:


"He said reports receivers were looking for containers with equipment bound for Papua New Guinea were "an urban myth"."

"He said some of the containers had been sent to PNG before the receivers were appointed in July and the others contained leased equipment which was being dealt with by the leasing companies."


I don't know how Gavin King feels about his journalism being referred to as "urban myth" however he did put in a sound performance on Sunday night at the One Night Stand Comedy as the prime target of Shirley Sunflower!

Also the listed soon to be ex-Hedley Leisure & Gaming has been suspended from the ASX today for failing to lodge annual results on time.