@MarsC it is not John Hemptons "best" short... but he is asking...

@MarsC it is not John Hemptons "best" short... but he is asking for more financial information and believes that there are losses that are being buried in holding companies, and possibly not being accounted for in a timely and accurate manner. He isn't alone in this. And he embarrassed GH by pointing out that he was asking shareholders to approve an annual report with errors.

I respect GH for what he has built and managed and he has also treated all stakeholders fairly; suppliers; franchisees; customers and in general shareholders. Some slightly weird dealing like buying the farm through HVN and not his private bank account... never explained... also if i recall there was some issues around accounting for some eastern european subsidiaries about 4 or 6 years ago.

As you point out... these are minor and people have done FAR WORSE. I would barely call what he has done 'bad'.

However... I do criticise him for telling shareholders who arent happy to sell up and move on. That is not forgiveable. As one of the CEO's of Australias largest companies... plus one of Australia's richest men, and whether he likes it or not... he is considered 'establishment'. He is therefore held to higher standards.

He should really apologise for this, not just to HVN shareholders... but any shareholder of a listed company. We deserve more from our elected board members. Running a company like it is his private bank account ... or the appearance of that... is not at all acceptable.

People in the HotCopper community generally analyse and question motives behind strategy and analyse financials to get a clear idea of what the company is doing. If every CEO took Harvey as an example... there would be carnage. There is enough dodginess already occurring in many sub 500m market cap companies... we dont need this in out over 1B entities.

We also deserve more than "sell up and shut up" from any CEO... whether the market cap is 1m or 5318m