Westpac, the bank that placed Lane Walker Rudkin in receivership, is the world's most profitable bank.
The Canterbury clothing manufacturer owes its creditors, principally Westpac, some $50 million.
According to a February report from the Boston Consulting Group Westpac is enjoying big profit margins.
The report, entitled Living with New Realities, found that Westpac was the only full-service commercial bank in the world to generate a return on equity of more than 20 per cent last year -Westpac's return was 20.4 percent.
Return on equity (ROE) is one of the leading measures of financial performance and gauges how well a company uses earnings from previous periods to produce more profits.
Australia's four major banks - NAB, CBA, ANZ and Westpac - delivered the biggest combined returns to shareholders along with Spanish banks.
Westpac has also been helped by the Australian Labor Government announcing a funding guarantee late last year.
The guarantee effectively shifted some of the business risks associated with banking to Australian taxpayers.
Westpac's status as the world's most profitable bank might be good news for its shareholders but workers at Lane Walker Rudkin might just be wondering why they are in danger of losing their jobs because of Westpac calling in the receivers.
What's the inference, that Westpac should not pursue bad debts ? Or is LWR special in some way because its is an iconic Canterbury company. Who would ever lend to an iconioc company if this was the requirement - get real !
ReplyDeleteAnd should the world's most profitable bank be allowed to simply wipe out a significant part of the local Canterbury economy?
ReplyDeleteWhat is more important - people's jobs or Westpac's bottom line?
I say that failing industries like LWR should be nationalised leading to direct worker control. Why not?
Over the last week I've heard nothing but rhetoric and platitudes from politicians and union officials. Most of them have been supporters of the neoliberal economic policies that put LWR in this grim position in the first place.