Yes, Chanticleer (“Dick Smith receivership gets the drums beating on risk“, January 8), Dick Smith is indeed a lesson to all. And yes, there are actually plenty of convenient targets too. Not just investors who swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. What about private equity managers who dress up companies with slick financial engineering and often load them up with debt and fees? What about the fund managers, retired senior and formerly competent managers who happily join the gravy train? What about the startling fees taken out by the banks, auditors, lawyers, insolvency experts, liquidators and administrators? What about the likelihood that Dick Smith was doomed to fail once sold by its founder, and not just in the past three mont…
Read the full article at: http://www.afr.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/dick-smith-a-lesson-in-messing-up-20160107-gm0we4