TAU is an exercise in a privately run club. Hackett holds >76%...

TAU is an exercise in a privately run club. Hackett holds >76% of the issued share capital, his mate, son-in-law, nephew (whatever), holds a further 8.5% and Daly holds a further 1.5%. That's >85% to the Board.

At F16, they had 412 shareholders of whom (@15.5c) 213 were considered unmarketable in size. Back then, that left 199 marketable shareholders, a number of whom had common ownership control (so just glimmer separation, rather than any real separation). Going forward, TAU needs 400+ marketable shareholders (not counting common holding interests, etc). Hence why, with the now heavily stalled in specie distribution of the Queensland resorts, they were talking of moving these to a lesser standard exchange than the ASX.

AHF however is vastly different. At Sep16, it had 4,209 shareholders with Hackett and co controlling at best (or since then ) 12%, but little more. Of these (@19c), 676 were considered as unmarketable in size. Now, @11c (all things being equal), this would mean (up to) 1,287 (but more likely, around 1,200), still leaving ~3,000 marketable (/viable) shareholders.

The difference between the two is that Hackett really does control one (both ownership, board and operationally so), whilst with the other, for a temporary remaining period only, he controls the board and operational side of things, but not the ownership side.

This time last year, he controlled the shareholders. Now, he's frightened of them. He's not laughing. He's stuck in a vortex of his own making and he's seeing his own interests dwindle, by the day. Consider this, TAU's AHF shareholding (directly held) was valued in TAU's accounts at $2.65M at Dec31. Currently, it's worth $1.67M meaning that TAU's current net asset position is down $1M to $7.4M (or below). At Jun16, it was $9.1M. So, he's got plenty of worries regarding TAU itself including whether it is currently in compliance of its ASX listing obligations (ie: shareholder spread, etc) , and its ASIC /APRA prudential obligations (ie: net asset position, etc).

For AHF, it has tormented shareholders but it has clean business lines, whether it be the farms, CDC , or something else. Put together, it is not the business that is in bad shape. It is management and the board. As they say, how do you save a million $? Well, first you start out with $2M, $5M or $10M, and then you ........!!!

So, it is not the Company or the business that is in trouble. Rather, it is management, the Board and its executive (no holds barred).