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Fund managers have strengthened the push for an overhaul of capital-raising structures and practices in Australia as the corporate regulator called on company boards to do a better job of explaining them to shareholders.

Some of Australia's biggest institutional investors have reignited concerns about how companies are conducting equity raisings, arguing that share placements are not always managed in a fair and equitable manner.

Speed and execution were central as Bank of Queensland boss Stuart Grimshaw kicked off $450 million capital raising this week, at the same time as he revealed a surge in bad debt provisions. The raising has, however, opened old wounds among some large shareholders.

AS if a loss of $91 million for the first half were not bad enough, the hapless existing shareholders of Bank of Queensland are being poorly treated in the accompanying, highly dilutive and inequitable, $450m equity raising.

First, so far as the directors are concerned, by presiding over the big losses that have sent BoQ sharply into the red in the six months just completed. And which raises a very serious question over the broad profitability of the bank, but even more its operating business ...

Conflicts of interest at investment banks are a perennial issue, but in recent weeks, the banking arena has been showered with allegations of malfeasance, further tainting the industry’s image. Investment bankers are often accused of lacking integrity.

An 11th-hour attempt by a private equity giant to take part in Transpacific Industries Group’s recent capital raising was blocked by the waste management company and its advisers, Macquarie and CBA Equities.

If an American corporation announced a rights offering, its stockholders and the broader market would be worried. It would have nothing to do with dilution, coercion or short-selling risks. They would simply be worried that the company had no other avenues to raise capital.

INVESTMENT banks faced numerous potential conflicts of interest as they advised companies on repairing their balance sheets during the global financial crisis, enjoying a "boutiful" time as they sucked up nearly $2 billion in fees.

Boards and investment banks have come under fire for putting retail ‐ investors and existing shareholders at a disadvantage in their rush to raise capital over the past two years, after a leading governance firm claimed that many placements favoured particular ...

COMPANIES should be forced to disclose the big winners from capital raisings after a report found nearly half of the money raised in the aftermath of the financial crisis did not give existing shareholders the chance to take part.

CORPORATE Australia is congenitally unable to clean up its act. The prime regulator is institutionally incapable of understanding the inherent corruption. So there is only one course: share placements must be banned by specific legislation.

The Australian Securities Exchange is not in the habit of making foolish statements, so its suggestion that boards should have a free hand to determine a company’s ownership is presumably an aberration.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has warned boards that law reform might be needed to protect retail investors after $38 billion in capital raisings discriminated against small investors last financial year.

IF you can work out an entirely fair way to allow retail investors the same access as institutional investors get to equity raisings, without stretching the issue timeframe out to the horizon, you're going to be popular.

UBS this week stole a march on its rivals in the equity capital market game after unveiling a $375 million raising by CSR . There has been no shortage of capital raisings over the past year, but this one had an interesting twist designed to put retail and institutional investors on ...

Our pollies love to invoke the Anzac spirit. It tugs at the national heartstrings and generates a warm inner glow about ourselves. John Howard was forever banging on about mateship, even if he didn't quite fit the blokey mould, while our Kev is constantly ...

In the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse last September, share prices fell into a tailspin. Many of Australia's top companies had been holding out, hoping the market would recover, hoping their stocks would rise so they could raise new capital at a decent price.