TMA Conference 2009 - Survive 09

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Wednesday, 16 September, 2009

6.00pm Registration

6.30pm - 8.30pm  Welcome Reception
Treasury Room - Level 18 Park Hyatt Melbourne

Evening at leisure

Day One - Thursday, 17 September, 2009

Fairmont Room Ground Floor (Level 5) Park Hyatt Melbourne

7.30am  Registration and Arrival Tea/Coffee

8.00am  Conference Opens 
Rod Cunich, TMA Conference Committee Chair

8.10am - 9.00am  Workouts: Past, Present & Future
Session Chair: Greg Woszczalski, 180 Corporate
Lindsay Maxsted, Align Capital, Richard Fisher, University of Sydney.

Our presenters will compare turnaround and workout assignments in past recessions with opportunities, challenges and strategies that confront us in today's global economic climate. They will explore lessons learnt from the past and identify areas of uncharted waters created by today’s environment where fresh innovation will continue to be a key to success. Lindsay and Richard are two of Australia’s best known and respected practitioners who each have a wealth of experience in the technical and operational aspects of turnaround management spanning several decades.

9.00am - 10.00am  Class Actions in Restructuring Debate
Session Chair: Rod Cunich, Slater & Gordon
Steven Lewis, Slater & Gordon, James Higgins, Slater & Gordon, Alan Mitchell, Freehills, Craig Shepherd, KordaMentha.

Friendly fire or the devil incarnate? The place of class actions is a topic that inspires passionate debate. Our panel will explore the role of class actions in the public and commercial arena and their impact on restructuring and workouts. Can they help or are they a hindrance, is it possible to work with members of a class action or are they an unwieldy juggernaut on a mission - these questions and many others will be debated by our panel of experts.

10.00am - 10.45am  Sporting Success: Kangaroos Turnaround Story
Eugene Arocca, North Melbourne Football Club.

This session will outline how the application of basic business common sense made an impact in turning around the off field fortunes of the North Melbourne Football Club - whilst the journey is still far from over, we will explore some of the strategies behind what has to date, been an interesting and courageous fight back by a sporting club that was almost beaten.

10.45am - 11.00am Morning Tea

11.00am - 12.00pm Thank God You’re Here: Accessing Capital in a Downturn
Simon Lynch, Allens Arthur Robinson, Peter Welch, Shearwater Capital, Lachlan Edwards, Goldman Sachs, Nicholas Poole, Clayton Utz.

The fearful see threats, the enterprising see opportunities. Notwithstanding the perceived trauma of the GFC/GEC, there are still many highly liquid investors (both private and corporate) seeking out investment opportunities. These players are located both domestically and offshore - come and listen to some experienced market practitioners explain the pitfalls and opportunities in accessing capital in a downturn. Understand who the key players are, what motivates them and how they view Australia as a destination for their capital. Investment techniques are constantly evolving. This session will alert you to the latest developments in distressed capital investment.

Operational Turnarounds for SME - Building Regulator Supports Turnaround
Ian Jennings, Building Services Authority

The session will explore how the Queensland Building Industry Regulator has been proactive in encouraging industry players to take early action to avoid insolvency. The session will cover steps taken by the Building Regulator to provide assistance to industry players to avoid insolvency. It will also cover what it has meant for the industry and deal with how Governments can play an active role in turnarounds.

Spotlight on Manufacturing
Ian Johnson, Helmsman Funds Management

This session focuses on the restructure of an engineering business, Walter Engineering (Approximately one year ago) This restructure attracted an AVCAL award. 12.00pm -

1.00pm Blue Sky Mining - How to Bust Out from the Gloom
Sean Russo, Noah’s Rule, Darren Weaver, Ferriers, Andrew McIlwain.

There are few enterprises (with the possible exception of IT) where so much money can be spent to have so little “asset value” to show for it, as is the case with a mine that can’t produce positive cash flow. This session will concentrate on two case studies, looking at the lessons learned from the shared perspectives of three battle-scarred practitioners: the Insolvency/Restructuring guy, the Mining Executive and the reformed Resources Banker/Hedging Salesman, turned Advisor who between them has worked with varying success on more mining workouts than they care to admit to.

Hospitality Operational Turnaround - The Club with no Beer or Pokies
(Session Sponsored by Ferriers)
Session Chair: John Lindholm, Ferriers
John Ribot, De Bresac, Steve Gallacher, Queensland Lions Football Club.

Hear how an entrepreneur, club management and a turnaround expert combined their skills to revive a large ailing licensed sporting club. The club faced losing their Gaming License and was under pressure from ASIC to appoint a Voluntary Administrator. Learn how the turnaround team was able to manage to satisfy both regulators’ concerns, how they were able to achieve significant change at a Board level, kept members informed and gained the support of staff to drive the Club’s operational performance back to profitability.

Automotive Operational Turnaround - Reving up the Auto Industry
Gary Tescher, Promentor, Stephen Longley, PWC

This session focuses on an automotive turnaround with DSI Industries, formerly known As Borg Warner.

1.00pm - 2.30pm  Lunch
Trilogy Room - Lobby Level (level 6)

Lunch Speaker - History Never Repeats?
Geoffrey Blainey

2.30pm - 3.15pm Centro - The Workout that Saved the Property Sector
Colin Nicol, McGrath Nicol, Damian Templeton, KPMG, Peter Stawell, Freehills, Rick Drury, NAB.

The Centro Group was until 2007 Australia’s second largest Listed Property Trust. It then almost became the first major local casualty of the Global Financial Crisis. Listen to some of the major participants in one of the most complex and fraught workouts in Australian corporate history outline the steps that were taken which helped prevent Centro from oblivion, the risks that were present in the workout and learn how to apply these lessons to your own clients.

3.15pm - 4.15pm Obama’s Solution; Pre Packaged Insolvencies
Session Chair: Michael Sloan
Michael Sloan, Blake Dawson, Tim Norman, Deloitte, Said Jahani, Grant Thornton,Neil Singleton, PPB.

Pre packaged insolvencies (a pre-ordained restructuring achieved by means of a planned insolvency) is the most significant trend restructuring to emerge this decade in the United States and Europe. There are 100 pre-packs occurring per week in the United Kingdom. The technique properly used is far removed from phoenix activity. General Motors and Chrysler are two recent high profile pre packaged insolvencies championed by Barack Obama. The presentations will focus on case studies of two of the first pre-packaged insolvencies to be completed in Australia: Voluntary Administration – Advanced Group and Receivership – Waterford Wedgeford. Both saved jobs, preserved the business and enabled balance sheet restructurings to occur. The sessions will also focus on the hurdles faced here such as insolvent trading, 420A and the lack of market awareness of this cutting edge technique.

4.15pm - 4.30pmAfternoon Tea

4.30pm Reforms Needed to Encourage Workouts (Questioning laws inhibiting turnarounds)
Session Chair: Julie Armstrong, Herbert Geer
Neil Young QC, The Victorian Bar, Richard Fisher, University of Sydney, Ian Carson - PPB.

5.30pm Close of Day One

7.00pm Pre-dinner drinks
Ballroom Foyer Park Hyatt, Melbourne

7.30pm Conference Dinner & TMA Australia Awards
Ballroom Park Hyatt Melbourne

 Day Two - Friday, 18 September, 2009

Fairmont Room Ground Floor (Level 5) Park Hyatt Melbourne

8.45am  Registration

9.00am Welcome to Day Two

9.15am Distressed Investing in Australia
“Reality or Myth?”
Nick Dunstone, Henry Davis York, David Hackett, Cerberus Capital Management, Bridget Auer, ANZ Bank, Mike McCreadie, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Byron Ko, Albany Capital

Fortunes are built out of the financial distress of others - Acquiring secured debt is a vital component of distressed investing. Australian banks are generally unwilling sellers, though an army of investors await…...but is there a market? The session will focus on this emerging and exciting area.

10.15am - 10.30am  Morning Tea

10.30am - 12.00pm  Dealing with your Bankers
(Session sponsored by Freehills)
Session Chair:: John Nestel, Freehills, Ben Edney NAB, Anthony Jenkins, GE, Jim Millar, HSBC

Now, more than ever, businesses and their advisers need to be able to work with and understand their bankers. The impacts and constraints on bankers in 2009 are significant and ever increasing - Basel II and capital management imperatives, mark to market accounting requirements, increasing regulatory oversight all create dynamics which need to be understood in the context of the workout of stressed and distressed loans. Come and listen to some heavyweight speakers with experience of workouts (on both sides of the fence) explain what motivates bankers and what underscores successful workouts.

12.00pm  Close of Conference

12.15pm for 12.30pm  IRWIRC Lunch commences at Crown Towers
TMA to provide bus transfer at 12.00pm