Babcock and Brown - SOME WINNERS - most are losers

This post is in honour of the nameless Robertson resident who was once a Director of Babcock and Brown.

• There will be a few happy faces this morning after the settlement of liquidator Deloitte's $160 million damages action against the directors and auditor of Babcock & Brown, the whizz-bang financier that collapsed in 2008, wiping out $12 billion of creditors' and shareholders' funds. 
• Happiest of all will be B&B's co-founder Phil Green, who won't have to dig into his pocket to pay any of the estimated $25 million to $30 million damages awarded in the confidential settlement.

Read more of that story here.

In case you cannot be induced to visit that site - here are the punch line(s)

• Those who have less reason to be cheerful include B&B's noteholders, the key remaining creditors, who are still owed $620 million. They'll be lucky to get 2 cents in the dollar, if our calculations are right.

• And there's still the small matter of the other $11.38 billion that B&B managed to vaporize. Plus, whatever happened to ASIC's investigation?

Ain't it marvellous how some people can keep on tip-toeing all the way, just ahead of the disaster and pain they cause to others?

Thanks to Paul Barry and his new e-publication The Power Index.