tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15768887.post4358401524893568281..comments2024-03-09T18:57:10.942+13:00Comments on Liberty Scott: Worthless asset - Part 1 - Why is it worthless?Libertyscotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12741049550997300680noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15768887.post-19794859439735596612009-03-06T23:30:00.000+13:002009-03-06T23:30:00.000+13:00Geoff: The problem is Ed Burkhardt's accounting pr...Geoff: The problem is Ed Burkhardt's accounting practices were um ingenius to put it nicely, capitalising maintenance expenditure, so that when money was spent on track it increased the book value of the firm, which is nonsense. Ed is a train enthusiast, and while what he did could be sustained for a short while, it didn't generate enough to replace wornout assets. <BR/><BR/>If Kiwirail can Libertyscotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12741049550997300680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15768887.post-52700290529298489822009-03-06T23:10:00.000+13:002009-03-06T23:10:00.000+13:00Michael Beard almost destroyed the company with hi...Michael Beard almost destroyed the company with his policies.<BR/><BR/>Napier-Gisborne had 20-30 trains a week during the height of each produce season during 1993-1995, under Ed Burkhardt's leadership. By 2001, under Michael Beard's leadership, it was down to 2 trains a week.<BR/><BR/>One management was achieving modal shift from road to rail, and one was not.<BR/><BR/>If the purpose of you andAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15768887.post-3449062741237302512009-03-05T19:59:00.000+13:002009-03-05T19:59:00.000+13:001. It's saleable assets come down to land, ferries...1. It's saleable assets come down to land, ferries and scrap. Most of the rolling stock would struggle to be sold as it is narrow gauge and quite old. That's excluding that under a recession it would all be a lot harder. I doubt you could recover what was paid for it though. Most of the value is in the land, which was always the Crown's in any case. The land was never sold.<BR/>2. Libertyscotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12741049550997300680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15768887.post-71309013586729589092009-03-05T17:00:00.000+13:002009-03-05T17:00:00.000+13:00* Overall, definitely one of your more objective p...* Overall, definitely one of your more objective posts on the rail issue.<BR/><BR/>* No - the "Railways" are not worthless at all, if it was to be closed down tomorrow and assets sold it's hard to there not being a very healthy surplus of funds. There are plenty of saleable assets and the goodwill surrounding profitable parts of it's current business.(For Mr English to come out Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com