After Kathmandu, it feels like it's all uphill

The 98 per cent Jan Cameron-owned Retail Adventures Pty Ltd has lost its chairman, Robert Atkins, only months after buying the Australian Discount Retail (ADR) chain for an estimated $80 million.

Cameron only took Atkins on board in March after she took over the 380-store ADR chain whose brands include Crazy Clark's, Go-Lo, Chickenfeed and Sam's Warehouse.

Atkins, who has a 2 per cent stake in Retail Adventures, said he was unable to discuss the reasons for his sudden resignation: "I'm not in a position to disclose that at the moment." However, he did say he was looking forward to having Christmas off, a time one would assume would be busy for a retailer.

In October, the 57-year-old Cameron signalled plans to open a chain of 60 adventure-wear stores to compete with Kathmandu, just as its private equity owners were trying to list it. She pocketed $NZ275 million ($215 million) in 2006 when she sold the Kathmandu business she founded in 1987 to Quadrant Private Equity and Goldman Sachs JBWere.

Coincidently, her current business was also once in the hands of private equity. ADR was formed by the private equity firms Catalyst and Champ Private Equity from their purchase of the Australian $2-store assets of Miller's Retail and the Warehouse Group in 2005 for $200 million.

ADR went into receivership in January this year. Catalyst is yet to update its website, which still says: "The business is now focused on delivering strong organic growth in both the convenience and destination offerings."

BRISCON PART 2

A recent investor presentation by BrisConnections chief executive Ray Wilson seems to have gone down well.

Securities in the second $1 listed instalment of the Macquarie-listed toll road have slumped a further 2.9c to a new low of 0.1c.

Wilson provided an onsite investor briefing over the weekend, slides noting how the financial crisis had "highly unusual circumstances for both unit-holders and underwriters".

Yesterday's closing price was the same level the first instalment fell to when dozens of small investors - such as Melbourne housewife Fang He and the wannabe corporate raider Nicholas Bolton - bought large slabs of the road for a thousand times less than their original value. But with the underwriters Macquarie and Deutsche, and institutions QIC and Capital, now owning 98 per cent, BrisConnections is at least protected from more housewives buying large chunks of its securities and assuming massive liabilities for the final $1 instalment. The online broker CommSec has also made it a little tougher for investors. CommSec customers now have to sign a statutory declaration if they want to buy BrisConnection units.

FAITH IN BOURSE

It seems the Rod North-headed PR outfit Bourse Communications can move markets. The firm, which has represented the motivational speaking company Empowernet, now looks worthy of a statement to the ASX when a company retains its services.

Yesterday, the junior explorer Genesis Resources rushed a statement to the market headed: "Bourse Communications Pty Ltd retained as investor relations representative." Genesis shares have fallen 30 per cent since their listing five weeks ago.

ROUGH SEAS

Mariner Corporation founder Bill Ireland might have an unwelcome distraction next week to his company's attempts to raise $12 million.

Ireland has been summonsed to appear before an Australian Securities and Investments Commission-authorised public examination into the collapse of one of his group's property funds, Mariner Treasury Limited. The fund owes more than $22 million to its noteholders.

The receiver, McGrathNicol, has also served summonses on Mariner's former company secretary Robert Molinari and former auditor Andrew Dickinson from KPMG.

Mariner attempted to cut itself loose from the fund in late 2008, when it announced it had deconsolidated Mariner Treasury "in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards". Ireland, who also founded Challenger, has seen his latest venture rack up more than $120 million of losses.

Mariner Corporation, which changed its name from Mariner Financial last month, has also put a positive spin on its current 1.2c-a- share raising that could dilute its share base a further six times.

"The recapitalisation has been designed to create sustainable levels of short-term liquidity at the corporate and asset level while positioning Mariner as an attractive investment proposition in the future," says the booklet spruiking the non-underwritten offer.

Mariner says it now has a new business plan. "The board believes that post-GFC market conditions will provide new investment requirements and opportunities and the board and the company's management team have turned their attention to identifying these new opportunities and growth sectors ..."

Mariner notes some of its operational strengths in the document. They include the intellectual property from previous transactions, "convenient Sydney CBD office premises", and its "small dedicated team committed to the success of the company".

WINDS IN THE SALE

The sale of 833,333,333 new Mariner shares at 1.2c each to raise the proposed $12 million, is at a tad lower to previous raisings. In February 2007, Mariner sold 30 million new shares at $1.80 each to raise $54 million. It now has a market capitalisation of about $2.5 million. Aside from Bill Ireland, Mariner's top security-holders, according to its annual report, include Babcock & Brown, Washington H Soul Pattinson (headed by Ireland's old high school mate Rob Millner) and Scott Marinchek (who has recently set up his own retirement home business).

IN THE AIRLINE

Five years since former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon declined to partake in a wager that would have seen him dress as an airline hostess when Virgin Atlantic began flights into Sydney, the pommy airline has celebrated the anniversary of its services to Australia with a 1984 theme dress-up party. Virgin Atlantic chief financial officer Julie Southern was in town dressed as the cowboy from the Village People, while the airline's country manager Luke Fisher impersonated the band's leather-clad policeman. The party was held near Oxford Street. It is unclear if Fisher sang the song popularised by the Village People's policeman, Sex Over the Phone.

The 1984 party theme was not in tribute to the English writer George Orwell but rather the year airline founded by Sir Richard Branson first flew.

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