Michael Hill’s relatively subdued mood at today’s annual meeting was a realistic reflection of the state of the retail sector. Sales are depressed and most companies are hoping for, rather than forecasting, a good Christmas period.

Hill told shareholders - rather tongue in cheek - that he is optimistic about the next few months because he expected individuals to stop buying yachts and purchase jewellery instead.

Figures in the following table show that the listed retail sector is depressed, particularly as far as the New Zealand operations of NZX listed companies are concerned.

On Monday Briscoe reported that group sales for the quarter ended 26 October were down 11.2% compared with the same period in the previous year, with Homeware sales off 10.2% and Rebel Sports 13.3%. Managing Director Rod Duke said August and September were poor but October was a bit

The government guarantee for banks, building societies, credit unions and finance companies has brought some relief to financial markets after last week’s depressing news. The only good news for New Zealand investors was that the NZX performed relatively better than most other markets last week and has fallen 35.4% from its high in May 2007 compared with an average decline of 46.4% for the other eight markets included in the table below.

The Government guarantee is a positive move but more than 100,000 finance company investors will be asking why it doesn’t apply to their investment.

South Canterbury Finance, Fisher & Paykel Finance and Marac Finance, owned by Pyne Gould Corporation, are covered by the guarantee but Hanover Finance, Dorchester Finance and Dominion Finance, amongst many others, are not because they have defaulted. If the directors and management of the last three

Welcome to the first edition of Guinness Peat Group Watch. The Watch will be published on a regular basis because of serious concerns over the governance, performance and strategy of the widely held investment company.

The first point to note is that GPG has been one of the worst performing NZX companies in the two years to 31 August 2008 with a negative gross return of 29.4%. GPG was the second worst performing company, after F&P Appliances, when compared with the NZX10 Index component companies (see below).

GPG is listed on three stock exchanges and they performed as follows over the same two year period: the NZX fell by 4.5%, the ASX rose by 2.7% and the London Stock Exchange declined by 4.6%.

The other issue is the remuneration of GPG’s top four executives Gary Weiss, Tony Gibbs, Blake Nixon