It appears that the proposed Horne Street wine bar next door to the Daily Planet brothel is for Trimble's own company and the PPN shareholders shouldn't get excited by the newspaper article.
I would have expected an ASX announcement to clarify that PPN is not involved in the wine bar at all. Most of the time it is hard to know what belongs to Trimble and what belongs to PPN.
As Trimble now owns 76% of PPN, based on a very generous valuation of the Daily Planet building in 2002, I am not sure whether he is aware that the minority shareholders exist and that he doesn't actually own 100% of PPN.
The minority shareholders are not happy at the way the PPN Board appear to look after Trimble's interests at their expense. For example, Trimble's recent pay increase is out of proportion to the size and income of PPN.
"Arm's length" means exactly that and there needs to be a clear separation between Trimble's own interests and those of PPN.
PPN Price at posting:
9.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held