Bill Rayner

"The Perth Stock Exchange raked over the various entities behind North West Mining’s offer. Stokes and Bendat were linked to a 47 per cent slice of CPI shares through two other family companies, the Stokes family’s Vetlabs Pty Ltd and the Bendats’ Paulla Investments Pty Ltd (named after Bendat’s fortunate adult children Paul and Laura). As with Retford and Villaro, the issued capital of these two family companies was held in trust by Stokes and Bendat’s tax advisers, their solicitor Geoffrey Cohen and an accountant called Harrington. The stock exchange was uneasy about the ‘Russian doll’ layers of ownership and control of the various companies involved in the takeover, and whether minor shareholders had a clear understanding of what was happening. The exchange chairman noted in a public statement that Stokes and Bendat would obviously have influence over the trustees but concluded that the two businessmen did not technically control the trusts themselves. ‘Shareholders would no doubt be able to view the acceptance of the offer . . . in this light,’ the statement concluded. Turning to the valuation of the shares at $1, the exchange conceded the transaction did not need compulsory valuation by a qualified valuer or at least two directors — but stated it was disappointing that the CPI board had not sought an independent opinion of the offer. ‘Despite the controversy,’ Bill Rayner would note later, ‘shareholders voted with their hip pockets.’ On 29 June 1977, the company announced a 98.6 per cent acceptance of the North West Mining offer. Game, set and match to Stokes and Bendat."

"STOKES’S INSTINCT TO avoid the mob turned out to be strong. So did his misgivings about whether the boom would last. But the itch to join the big league of media players niggled at him. It was a make-or-break moment. If staying in the market was a test of nerve, as so many of the 1980s big shots implied, would selling out brand him as some sort of failure? Even (or especially) with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, the politics of it was as primitive as playground push-and-shove. Nobody wanted to blink first. But Parker advised Stokes to follow his instinct and step off the train in case it crashed. Parker had got it wrong with PGF and Stokes had got it wrong with Pacific Film, waving aside Bill Rayner’s gentle protests that film processing was…"

"‘It’s the best business since the shopping centres,’ Bill Rayner would say later. Neville Owen agrees. ‘Caterpillar is one of the world’s great survivor US brands — better than Boeing, Harley or Levis,’ he declares. Stokes had picked up what would become one of the best Cat franchises in the world, and would eventually add two more. He would be far better known for media ventures, but the union with Caterpillar would be his greatest business move."