Top 10 at 10: Hubbard's 'a jolly good fellow'; Bruce Sheppard a retiring sort; Tony Gibbs' grenade; Dilbert

Here are my Top 10 links from around the Internet at 10 past 3 pm. I welcome your additions and comments below or please send suggestions for Monday's Top 10 at 10 via email to bernard.hickey@interest.co.nz

1. 'He's a jolly good fellow' - There's no doubting Allan Hubbard's popularity in rural South Island.

The Timaru Herald reports more than 600 people marched to South Canterbury Finance's offices in Timaru in support of Allan Hubbard, brandishing placards and flowers. 

Hubbard's wife turned up to thank the crowd.

This is turning into a hot topic and a political issue. 

It's hard to know how this might turn out. I'd be surprised though if this sympathy was redirected to South Canterbury Finance the (likely) event that Hubbard loses control of it.

How popular will those debentures be without either Hubbard behind or the government behind it from the end of next year. 

Sandy Maier has a huge battle on his hands.

More than 600 people gathered at the piazza in Timaru, many carrying banners and flowers, to demonstrate their support, before marching towards the South Canterbury Finance building.

Upon arriving at SCF building the crowd erupted into For He's a Jolly Good Fellow and some laid flowers at the door and placed placards showing support in the gardens.

After a short time, Mr Hubbard's wife Jean appeared to thank the crowd for turning out.

"Thank you all, that is all I can really say. Thank you."

2. No more Bruce Sheppard - This is a sad day. Bruce Sheppard, the firebrand spokesman for the little guy investors, is stepping down from the chairmanship of the New Zealand Shareholders Association at its AGM on July 29 after 9 years, Stuff reports. He is being replaced by Auckland chair John Hawkins.

3. Plenty of Tony Gibbs - GPG director Tony Gibbs has lobbed a bomb into the GPG boardroom with this public statement slamming the GPG Demerger proposal being pushed by fellow director Gary Weiss. Ding Ding. I wonder what the old maestro Ron Brierley thinks of his boys squabbling in public. Gibbs wants a cash return tomorrow and Coats to be flicked off next year, followed by a cash return. He is saying: 'Show me the money'. He's not the only one.

I have previously outlined my preferred strategy for GPG and have reiterated this to the Board in recent days. However previously, rather than take a firm stance against my colleagues I supported presenting the demerger proposal openly to shareholders to determine whether it was in fact a strategy that would be supported.

Following the announcement, it has become very clear to me that the GPG Australia demerger proposal does not have the support of many of our shareholders and would not succeed. Rather than spend the next 6 months investing time and shareholders’ money developing this proposal further or seeking modifications, I believe we should abandon the proposal in favour of an alternative strategy.

4. Greek Islands for sale - The Guardian reports that Greece has changed its rules to allow foreigners to buy some of its 6,000 islands in the Mediterranean. I wonder how many in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Islands we could flog off in a hurry.

 Only 227 Greek islands are populated and the decision to press ahead with potential sales has also been driven by the inability of the state to develop basic infrastructure, or police most of its islands. The hope is that the sale or long-term lease of some islands will attract investment that will generate jobs and taxable income.

"I am sad – selling off your islands or areas that belong to the people of Greece should be used as the last resort," said Makis Perdikaris, director of Greek Island Properties. "But the first thing is to develop the economy and attract foreign domestic investment to create the necessary infrastructure. The point is to get money."

5. Oil price risk long term? - Bloomberg reports that BP's disastrous leak in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to curtail deep-sea drilling because insurers are pushing premiums up so high oil companies will have to self-insure or give up. The regulators are the least of the oil companies' worries.

BP’s leak in the Gulf of Mexico is “a market-changing event,” said Dieter Berg, senior executive manager marine at Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer and among those exposed to losses.

“Buyers and sellers of coverage will be reevaluating their appetites for offshore energy risk,” said Berg

Insurers are reassessing how much they can afford to underwrite as the incident exposes higher liabilities than previously thought, said Gregory Thomas, head of offshore activities at Assuranceforeningen Skuld, an Oslo-based underwriter for deepwater contractors.

Insurers are charging 50 percent more for policies covering oil rigs in deep waters since the BP leak, Moody’s Investors Service said on June 3. R.S. Sharma, chairman of India’s biggest explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp., said June 9 it would have cost the state-owned company three times as much if it had renewed its offshore policy after the disaster.

6. Chinese flexibility - The New York Times has a nice roundup of what the Yuan float decision means insider China. Essentially, this should help consumers there richer and more likely to spend money on imports such as our food. This is a good thing.

The currency shift brings immediate political benefits, since China will now presumably come under less pressure at the Group of 20 summit meeting this weekend. But there are important domestic considerations as well. The breaking of the renminbi’s de facto peg to the dollar means the currency is likely to appreciate in value, making Chinese exports somewhat less competitive in the global marketplace but strengthening the purchasing power of Chinese consumers.

Likewise, government policies to encourage wage increases for poor laborers — there are an estimated 150 million migrant workers in cities — could also spur consumption, if the pay increases outpace inflation.

7. Not so flexible - News.com.au reports on a survey by MortgageChoice in Australia showing that banks there have definitely toughened up on home lenders. No wonder the mortgage belts in Australia are so grumpy about interest rates rising and seemed happy to kick Kevin Rudd out. Anyone seeing similar changes in policies here? No wonder people are talking about house price falls in Australia.

Research by Australia's largest independent broker Mortgage Choice revealed that in early 2009, when borrowing costs hit 60-year lows, lenders were applying rate-rise stress tests that ranged from 0.75 per cent to 1.5 per cent. It is now 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent - despite a string of official increases returning borrowing costs to normal levels.

In 2009 home hunters had to prove they could deal with an increase in repayments of $190 to $380 a month, based on the then average NSW home loan - $391,000.

With today's bigger buffer and higher average mortgage of $452,000, a borrower has to show they have as much as $800 a month extra. "Any increase in the assessment rate will take some people out of the market," Mortgage Choice corporate affairs manager Kristy Sheppard said yesterday.

8. Not so simple - Randal Jackson at Computerworld reports that New Zealand businesses will incur unexpected IT costs when GST is increased to 15% from 12.5% from October 1. Anyone else seeing similar transitional issues?

Enprise Group CEO Mark Loveys says that from an IT perspective there is a general perception that the rate change is a simple issue. “Unfortunately, it is not that simple,” he says.

“Many businesses do not appear to have realised all the implications of the change. Changing the GST rate in your accounting system is one thing but it is the issues around the changeover – such as customisation of documents and reports and the timing of particular transaction types and situations – that are going to catch people out.

“Businesses need to start preparing well in advance of October 1 for the introduction of the new GST rate.” Loveys says examples include the handling of transactions such as lay-bys, credit notes, back orders, and quotations that are processed within time frames that span the GST changeover date.

9. When markets freeze - Bloomberg reports that more than 80% of the collateralised loan obligation managers in Europe's US$100 billion market for CLOs are set to fail because no new bonds have been issued for two years.

CLO funds, which oversee about 85 billion euros ($104 billion) in Europe according to Fitch Ratings, rely on selling bonds backed by leveraged loans. Demand for the securitized debt froze in 2008 when investors shunned hard-to-value assets during the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

CLO managers like Alcentra, Babson Capital Management LLC, Prudential Fixed Income, and Avoca Capital Holdings have taken over portfolios of smaller rivals in the past year. About 50 percent of the CLO managers in Europe are “zombie” platforms which are already showing little or no commitment to the business, Fitch analyst Alastair Sewell wrote June 10.

10. Totally irrelevant video - The Onion reports that the USDA has recalled 96,000 pounds of beef from one family. My favourite quote. "He was sweating a lot more than usual."

USDA Recalls 96,000 Pounds Of Tainted Beef From One Family