John Linton .......is not that good.
The financial 'status' of the world's national economies is a complete mystery to the world's national leaders according to the financial sections of the world's media. According to Whine Swan and Ms Faustus - Australia has nothing to worry about because of the 'mining boom' which they apparently haven't noticed is dependent on the rest of the world's nations buying Chines exports. I have zero/less than zero knowledge of world financial scenarios but I assume that unemployment is a bell wether guide to any country's overall economy as is the ratio of 'public servant employment' to 'private sector' employment. I tend to read the EU and US financial media more than I do the Australian financial media as it is less hysterical and appears to be much better informed and this particular piece of statistical reporting caught my eye earlier this morning:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8955194/Unemployment-surges-to-17-year-high-as-eurozone-crumbles.html
and appeared to be provide a sensible view about the will there/wont there be a recession versus a recovery in 2012....a recession is likely....as did this:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/greek-pm-warns-economy-to-shrink-20111215-1ovj5.html
I have experienced two recessions in my time in Australia and both were extremely unpleasant for a large percentage of Australians although not for me personally - in fact the second one enabled us to buy the house we still live in almost 20 years later for "half price" - at least less than 60% of its high point asking price - so I do understand that recessions are not necessarily bad for everyone. Perhaps the dummies in the ALP are right - and we will dig out of the ground our protection from recessions in EU countries, the UK and the US? It's completely beyond my non-existent knowledge to comprehend what will happen in Australia's economies over the coming year. I did sell all of our shares back in February because my untutored view was that it was all bad news in financial terms and that financial decision 'saved' me 20% of the value of our shares at that time.
It was therefore not without some trepidation yesterday that we shook hands on a deal to quasi JV a significantly increased investment in Sri Lanka in terms of additional employees and the associated 'floor space and ancillary costs' yesterday on the basis that now is the right time to rapidly grow our capabilities to sell and support small and medium business services around Australia. This is a very different decision for Exetel as we have always guarded our 'independence' very jealously so that we always had total control of our own future. This has not always been a good thing but it has been the way we have chosen to operate the company from day one. We would expect both parties to sign the formal agreement before Christmas once the two remaining, very minor, issues are resolved and begin the quasi JV program in mid January.
We still have another major decision to make to complete our planning for the next six months but that is looking increasingly harder to bring to a positive resolution.....though that shouldn't be the case. Although I still retain vestiges of my reckless 'business youth' I am far more conservative these days and I have too many reservations to proceed as it currently stands - although I realise my concerns are almost certainly groundless. So it might only be one out of two rather than two out of three - but it still "ain't bad".......as the quote on the front of our web site reminds us - "you can't eat money".
Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2011
ABN 350 979 865 46