Mayflower Share Discussion Threads

[soysoy] 27/12/2004 12:09

I HAVE SENT NEWSLETTER OUT ANY ONE THAT HAS NOT GOT ONE FILL THIS IN AND I WILL SEND YOU ONE
http://anomalousintuition.co.uk/mayflower/html/contact_us.html
DONT FORGET TO PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON

[soysoy] 26/12/2004 22:47

I WILL BE SENDING NEWS LETTER OUT TOMORROW

[soysoy] 26/12/2004 16:55

Bus maker's collapse hits portfolio
26 December 2004
WE can only hold our hands up. While investors enjoyed their second successive year of rising stock markets, the Midas 2004 portfolio was wrecked by the demise of one of our four tips.

When we said this time last year that shares in bus and coach maker Henlys were 'a risky buy' at 921½, we didn't realise quite how true that would be.

Several profits warnings followed and though we suggested cutting losses in March, when the shares slumped to 19¾p, our portfolio selections were for the year - so we held on.

Henlys was eventually wiped out by a slump in demand for its products, the collapse of a joint venture and crippling debts. Not even the attentions of celebrated company doctor David James, currently advising the Conservatives on potential cost savings at Government departments, could save it.


Trading in the shares was suspended in June and a financial restructuring in October left shareholders with nothing. Worse, the pensions of 2,000 current and former Henlys employees are likely to be cut by up to two-thirds as their scheme is wound up.

[soysoy] 24/12/2004 16:12

SANTA MIGHT HAVE SUPRISE FOR YOU JAKNIFE "NEXT YEAR"

[soysoy] 24/12/2004 15:07

I think you be first jaknife

[soysoy] 23/12/2004 22:49

SANTA MIGHT HAVE SUPRISE FOR YOU

[soysoy] 14/12/2004 23:00

I WILL BE SENDING A NEWS LETTER OUT OVER THE XMSS WEEK

[soysoy] 12/12/2004 19:53

mr g.. p i will get in touch

[soysoy] 12/12/2004 13:40

Courts director transferred £3.9m into personal pension

12 December 2004
HOWARD COHEN, a former director of Courts, transferred £3.9m out of the company's pension fund and into a personal scheme just eight months before the furniture retailer collapsed into administration, the Sunday Times reports today.



The Courts pension fund has a deficit of at least £14m and the company's pensioners face an uncertain future unless a buyer can be found for the group.

The article says that, although Cohen was legally entitled to transfer the £3.9m, a pension expert believes that the trustees of the scheme should have used powers that allow them to reduce individual transfers if a scheme is underfunded.

'They should have taken the size of the deficit and the strength of the company's covenant into account. They have a duty to the people left in the scheme,' a leading actuary told the newspaper.

The pension-fund trustees included Bruce Cohen, Howard Cohen's brother, and two of his cousins, Paul Cohen and Edmund Cohen.

It is understood that Aon, advisers to the pension fund trustees, raised concerns about the transfer but these were allayed when the company made an extra payment into the scheme. The £3.9m was 15% of the entire fund.

Cohen transferred the money out in March , while he was deputy managing director. In January the company had announced it was carrying out a refinancing and strategic review.

Howard Cohen and Edmund Cohen declined to comment. Paul Cohen said he had no recollection of the transfer. Bruce Cohen said he did not know about it. Details of the transfer are included in the notes to the 2004 financial accounts.

Pension experts warn that unless KPMG, the administrators to Courts, finds a buyer prepared to acquire the company as a going concern, the pension fund will almost certainly have to be wound up.

[soysoy] 04/12/2004 12:42

USA PRESS




Layoffs begin at Mayflower Vehicle Systems
Stamping plant had announced in August
that 375 people would be let go

George Hohmann
Daily Mail business editor

Wednesday December 01, 2004

Previously announced layoffs at Mayflower Vehicle System's South Charleston stamping plant have begun, the plant manager said today.

Plant Manager Richard Fix announced in August that 375 of the South Charleston employees would be laid off, beginning Nov. 1. Today Fix confirmed that the announced layoffs have begun. He otherwise declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Union Partners of Cleveland is still working on a plan to buy the plant, Union Partners' managing director said.

"We are still working on the closing," Union Partners' John Andrica wrote on Tuesday in response to an e-mail query.

David Warner, executive director of the West Virginia Economic Development Authority, echoed Andrica's statement. "The financing partners are diligently working towards a closing," he said.

Warner said the financing partners are Mayflower, Union Partners, the development authority and a bank. He declined to name the bank.

In October, the development authority's board of directors approved Union Partners' request to assume Mayflower's existing state loans. Mayflower has one state loan with a balance of $186,170 and another with a balance of $3.4 million. Both are on plant equipment.

In addition to taking care of Mayflower's outstanding loans, a buyer would have to arrange financing for the purchase of the plant itself. Mayflower bought it from Great Dane Holdings Inc. in 1996 for $165 million and has since installed several new presses. The current value is not public knowledge.

Mayflower Corp. put its North American operations, including the South Charleston plant, up for sale last year. Mayflower Corp., headquartered near London, fell into the United Kingdom's equivalent of bankruptcy in March. The bankruptcy did not include the North American business.

Since the bankruptcy, Mayflower's European assets have been sold and efforts to sell the North American business have continued.

In August, when the layoffs were announced, Fix blamed the cutbacks on the loss of a major contract. He also said in August that the uncertainty created by the parent corporation's bankruptcy has made it more difficult to find work for the plant.

Gov. Bob Wise has said it is important that a stable buyer be found. Wise said in August a new owner "could be of benefit because these folks would then be even more aggressive in going out to find business to justify buying the plant."

South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb said Tuesday, "I think the Union Partners endeavor offers a glimmer of hope."

The South Charleston plant stamps sheets of steel and aluminum into auto and truck body parts and builds sub-assemblies for General Motors, Saturn, Mercedes and Freightliner.

Contact writer George Hohmann at 348-4836.

[soysoy] 30/11/2004 20:06

BEEN CONTACTED BY THE AIDB
TO HELP THEM WITH THERE ENQUIREY



The Mayflower investigation is the first inquiry by the AIDB, set up in May as part of a new independent regulator for the accounting profession to deal with allegations of misconduct against accountants.

[jakass] 29/11/2004 01:06

Can I just say that I have had an update on the current position regarding the Mayflower Action Group, things ARE happening - despite the lack of news so far, moves have been made to further your cause. It is unfortunate that due to restrictions which are necessary to protect your interests, the full extent of what is in the pipeline cannot be made public at the moment.

I hope you will all be patient for a while longer as matters progress.
Soysoy is doing the best he can under difficult conditions.

[soysoy] 28/11/2004 20:39

Been restricted legally to what I can say, and getting pxxxxd off with a third party which should of printed a story months ago
going for planed B now
which hopefully be fruitful

[soysoy] 28/11/2004 20:22

Not aware of any dead line
It`s more of case of proving that the directors lied to the shareholders

[jakass] 27/11/2004 21:08

soysoy - what is the limitation on making claims regarding the Mayflower collapse? Are there any - or should shareholders be looking to make claims before any possible deadline?

[soysoy] 27/11/2004 20:11

FEEL FREEE TO SEND YOUR COMPLAINTS ON HERE

[soysoy] 27/11/2004 20:10

ANY MAYFLOWER SHAREHOLDERS WISHING TO WRITE TO THESE FEEL FREE







Contact
For further information regarding the Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board, enquiries in writing may be addressed to:

Carol Aitken
Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board
117 Houndsditch
London
EC3A 7BT

Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[soysoy] 27/11/2004 20:07

Accountancy Investigation & Discipline Board

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AIDB announces investigation into Mayflower

AIDB PN 002 14 July 2004


At its meeting on 8 July 2004, the Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board decided to commence an investigation into Mayflower Corporation Plc and its subsidiaries. The matter was referred to the AIDB by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. The initial scope of the investigation will be as follows :



The role and conduct of members and member firms of the ICAEW and ACCA in relation to the Mayflower Corporation Plc and its subsidiaries, whether as auditors, advisers, directors, employees or in any other capacity.



The investigation will include, in particular:



(i) the conduct of the audits of the financial statements of Mayflower Corporation Plc and its subsidiaries for the years ended 31 December 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 by Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers;



(ii) the conduct of a review of the interim financial statements of the Mayflower Corporation Plc and its subsidiaries as at 30 June 2003 by PricewaterhouseCoopers; and



(iii) the conduct of David Thomas Donnelly, a former Director of Mayflower Corporation Plc and Transbus International Limited.


Notes to Editors


The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is a unified, independent regulator. Its mission is to promote confidence in corporate reporting and governance. The FRC incorporates five subsidiary boards: the Accounting Standards Board, the Auditing Practices Board, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Accountancy Discipline and Investigation Board and the Professional Oversight Board for Accountancy.


The AIDB is the newly established and independent, investigative and disciplinary body for accountants in the UK. The AIDB Scheme establishes the framework and sets in place the legal formalities of participation between the AIDB and the Participating Accountancy Bodies i.e. the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.


The focus of the AIDB is on cases which raise important issues affecting the public interest; other disciplinary cases will continue to be dealt with by the individual accountancy body of the member concerned. The normal channel of reference to the AIDB for 'public interest' cases will be the accountancy body primarily concerned. However, the AIDB will also have the power to call in cases whether or not they have been referred to it by an accountancy body.


All Press enquires should be directed to: Cameron Scott, Executive Counsel, Telephone: [phone].


END