Paul Collins

"Just as, back at university, Heatley’s suggested business ventures had been more audacious than his friends’, so too were his ideas now. ‘Craig was ahead of his time in shares in the sense that he actually had quite grandiose views about what could happen with certain companies, and I say that in a positive manner, not a negative manner,’ says Paul Collins, who was chief executive of Brierley Investments, the highest flyer of the eighties stock market hero companies. ‘Even though at Brierley’s we were regarded as being a large corporate raider, we tended to be relatively conventional so we looked at a business and looked at its assets whereas Craig would look at the potential. His mind was quite open and expansive.’ Collins cites George Bernard Shaw’s saying that some men look at things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ while others look at what might be and ask ‘Why not?’ Heatley is one of the latter, Collins says. Heatley himself puts it differently. He had sought out staff and colleagues with complementary skills because he knew his own weaknesses. ‘I am the world’s worst administrator—the worst. If I have a strength, and I don’t know that I do, but if I do it’s probably the big picture. It’s the tectonic plates as opposed to the grains of sand.’"

"While the corporate battle was deadly serious for Rainbow and BIL, it was entertaining to others. ‘Obviously there is little love lost between those daring Kiwi corporate raiders Craig Heatley of Rainbow Corp and BIL top banana Paul Collins,’ *The Sydney Morning Herald*’s CBD column opined on 26 March. ‘The two are locked in mortal combat over NZ retailer Progressive Enterprises, a battle which could prove costly to the loser. Collins claims that Progressive shares are worth twice as much as Rainbow shares (Rainbow is offering one share for each Progressive) while Heatley dismisses as “absolute bulldust” allegations attributed to Collins to the effect that Rainbow is about to fall in a heap.’[8](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn13)"

"Now on BIL’s board, Heatley’s radar was still pinging, especially for big investment opportunities. Paul Collins remembers sitting in his office with Bruce Hancox before the sharemarket crash when Heatley walked in. ‘Craig said, “I think we actually need to do something bold. I think what we need to do is buy General Motors.”’ Collins was dumbstruck. ‘I know it’s available,’ he recalls Heatley adding, ‘because I’ve been talking to some investment bankers in the United States.’ At that time Brierley’s market capitalisation was somewhere between $6 billion and $8 billion, Collins recalls, and General Motors was many times larger. ‘And here he was talking about us buying a company that at that time was probably capitalised at a multiple considerably larger than BIL’s. I said, “Well, where would we even start, assuming we found the money?”’ Heatley replied, ‘We’d just all relocate over there.’ He went on to explain what they could sell and split up to make it work and concluded by saying that Brierley’s should make $50 billion out of it."

"In the heat of the animosity, Brierley’s executives were astonished to open the daily newspapers one day to find a full-page ad placed by Rainbow. Printed in large type were two quotes from Paul Collins, one from November 1986 saying that Brierley’s would not buy into Progressive and one in March 1987 saying that Brierley’s had just bought into Progressive. The headline, in an even larger font, simply said, ‘CONFUSED?’ This was followed by the text, ‘We don’t blame you.’ The ad went on to say that the ‘recent activities of BIL regarding the merger of Rainbow and Progressive have created confusion where before there was harmony and accord’. Shareholders of Rainbow and Progressive had approved the merger, the ad continued, which had also been assessed by independent consultants and considered fair and beneficial to the shareholders of both companies. It ended by recommending shareholders call their stockbrokers for further advice. Collins had seen nothing like it before in New Zealand. While corporates in the United States and United Kingdom sometimes engaged companies to do proxy solicitations and to make direct pitches to shareholders and potential investors, it was almost unheard of at home. Heatley was breaking new ground."

"Heatley was inside but had felt on the outer from day one. The power lay with Ron Brierley—now Sir Ron after his knighthood was announced in the 1988 New Year Honours List—Paul Collins and Bruce Hancox. Heatley was not in that inner circle so had no control. ‘Heatley and Lane were also re-rated along with their former assets, and the judgement was harsh,’ van Dongen writes. ‘They weren’t and aren’t talented’ was Sir Ron’s own brutal analysis.[1](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn17) Something was going to have to give."