Originally posted by Pioupiou
I could not access that news article without subscribing.
As for guessing in the dark, my punt is that the leases are for solar panels, perhaps marketed by a shady group who represented that the systems would pay for themselves. Google “solar leasing”, and you will find sufficient material (warnings and marketing representations) there to give some credence to my punt.
I recall John Hughes, CEO for some years, mentioning in a presentation that TGA had got into solar panel leasing based on USA-style long leases. Product failures within the term of those leases could now be a problem. Also, falling solar panel prices, and other financing offers from local councils, would make those TGA leases unattractive now. If the third party who arranged those deals can be accused of misrepresenting that the deals were self-funding, that could open up an opportunity for a class action against whomever it was who originated the leases, and perhaps TGA as a party to the deals.
It seems to me that most of the initiatives that John Hughes undertook turned out to be lemons. If many operations that a surgeon performed turned out to be failures, the surgeon would be sued, and debarred from practising. Highly remunerated CEOs seem to suffer no such consequences.
sorry about that - I am not sure why I had access as I am not a subscriber. Basically there were two companies called Viewble and and the shoppers network. They put big televisions into small businesses ($15,000) and then they displayed advertising for other businesses. The idea was that the revenue from advertising paid for the flat screen tv. The TV was financed by equipment leases with various people - definitely FXL and Multipli, possibly Thorn.
Shopper Network had problems, advertising revenue didn’t happen and the small businesses were left with leases. They all complained and refused to pay leases. It’s been ongoing since November. My guess is that would be the problem Thorn referred to, but it’s just a guess.
