BY PANOS PREVEDOUROS PHD – Is Honolulu Area Rapid Transit Chair Don Horner Shamelessly Dishonest?
Why would he say this?
Pacific Business News reported:
Don Horner, chairman of HART’s finance committee and CEO of First Hawaiian Bank, said he was satisfied that Ansaldo’s finances are in order and the city can proceed with negotiating a contract with the firm. He said he it also gave him “strong comfort” to hear Finmeccanica’s commitment to the project.
“Overall, and I can speak as a banker, I was very impressed with the substantial amount of profitability, the liquidity, the history, and the commitment from the parent company,” Horner said. “I am very pleased with the progress that we made today.”
When the truth is this:
https://www.economist.com/node/21525409
WHEN Finmeccanica announced bad results on July 27th, investors strafed its share price, cutting it down by 28% in four days (see chart). In the first half of 2011, excluding a gain from the sale of one of its businesses, the firm made barely any profit: €13m ($18.2m) on revenues of €8.4 billion. Shareholders are spitting fire.
The Italian government holds a 32% stake. That prevents the company from sensibly quitting unprofitable businesses. Meshed together from a ragbag of defence and technology businesses formerly owned by the state’s IRI and EFIM holding companies, Finmeccanica has everything from helicopters to trains to gas turbines. Its former boss, Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, tried to simplify the group down to three areas: aeronautics, helicopters and defence. But the group still owns several businesses that do not fit.
Its biggest problem is AnsaldoBreda, a maker of trains and trams, which has lost more than €1 billion. The government’s unwillingness to allow job cuts makes a solution impossible. Politicians from AnsaldoBreda’s home region in Tuscany objected loudly this week after Finmeccanica’s new boss, Giuseppe Orsi, talked about selling the division. Some 60% of Finmeccanica’s employees are Italian, though the domestic market yields just a fifth of its revenues.
Finmeccanica is used as a dumping-ground for unwanted state assets. In 2008, when the government finally found a solution for Alitalia, the country’s loss-making airline, private investors gobbled up its profitable flight division but curled their lips at its maintenance business, so in 2009 it was sold to another group of Italian firms, with Finmeccanica taking 10%. Politicians have long pushed for a merger with Fincantieri, a troubled shipbuilder also under the government’s thumb. Last September Mr Guarguaglini was obliged to point out that Fincantieri’s activities have little to do with Finmeccanica’s.
- Horner is Chair of HART
- HART has an $1.1 Billion contract with Ansaldo
- Ansaldo is owned by Finmeccanica
- Finmeccanica has large debts to BNP Paribas (2nd largest French Bank)
- BNP Paribas owns 1st Hawaiian Bank
- Horner is CEO of 1st Hawaiian Bank
Thanks to Ian Lind for bringing this up: https://ilind.net/2011/09/15/potential-conflict-in-review-of-rail-contractor/
Is Panos Prevedouros hopelessly misinformed? (I’m not saying he is…just asking).
’bout what? I did not write the story. It’s all out there. I simply put some (more) of it together.
And there ‘s lot more coming Monkey. Sorry, I meant Keith.
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