'Life all comes own to a few moments.'exert from news.com.au...

'Life all comes own to a few moments.'

exert from news.com.au -The Australian article.

Stokes has a lot of personal pride resting on this deal, having lifted his metaphorical skirt to reveal his private empire and ambitions .

Defeat then would be a bitter blow. Pride is one thing, but the reality is it's also a fantastic deal for Stokes.

Forget the nonsense about the WesTrac merger "solving" Seven's deferred tax liability over the KKR investment because the reality is that liability will be triggered only when KKR exits.

The deferred liability is an accounting issue, not a question of fundamental value like getting access to $1 billion in Seven cash or increasing Stokes's ownership from 48.7 to 67.9 per cent or indeed collecting $150 million cash on the way out.

Then, of course, once the deal is out Stokes will continue to collect $18m a year at least in property rentals, another $1.98m in aircraft leases and, of course, substantially more dividends from Seven.

Like any business person, Stokes would like to achieve all of that as cheaply as possible, which is why he is doing his best to avoid having to pay more for the deal.

Shareholders are no doubt confused about the upside from the Westrac Caterpillar franchise in China when Stokes himself is willingly surrendering 32 per cent of that upside by selling the business to Seven.