HGH - Heartland Group Holdings

[Snoopy]

I fail to see how anybody can so consistently fail to understand a set of accounts and so consistently post incorrect drivel and fanciful made-up numbers.

We recently had you calculating the levels of Tier 1 & 2 capital for banks instead of just looking it up and your guess being nearly 50% higher than reality.

And now you apparently do not know the difference between lending and borrowing.

Yes well lending and borrowing are two sides of the same transaction. As always with these Heartland posts, I seem to be in a rush when posting and I only have the silly pdf version of the annual report which I can't bookmark. One thing I did know was that if I did get it horribly wrong you would take great delight in pointing it out PT - and so it proved. So thanks for that.

The actual answer then looks like it is contained in Note 37:

Corporate Rural: $528.1m (-6.5% from FY2012))
Corporate Property: $49.0m (-58% from FY2012)
Corporate Other: $805.1m (+11% from FY2012)
Residential: $231.0m (-29% from FY2012)
All Other: $397.3m (+12.7% from FY2012)

So reality hasn't quite matched the hype. Rural lending down, despite the push into that area. 'Corporate Financing Other' up which is I guess all that equipment HNZ are good at. Significant increase in the 'All Other' (too hard?) basket.

SNOOPY

[simla]

Don't worry, Snoopy, I'm actually quite glad you guys are having this argument. I haven't looked at banking shares before, so you're focusing my mind on the questions. (Banking isn't my sort of thing, but investing in NZ is, hence HNZ.)

The finance industry definitely has a couple of characteristics not found in other industries (as most industries do, of course). In particular, they inevitably borrow short and lend long to at least some extent, and they also have to worry about whether their customers will pay them back. Liquidity and profit seem to compete in this industry.

The other side of the argument is that this looks a very well run company who know how to manage that sort of thing as par for the course.

They're both seem fair points and so I'm finding this argument quite good for focusing my own mind on what is a reasonable response as an investor.

I happily own HNZ shares so obviously it isn't worrying me much, and indeed I see no obvious reason to have issues with HNZ as opposed to banking shares in general (but I'm no expert either way, so take no notice of my opinion on that.) But I do think it is relevant to just what percentage of a portfolio a cautious investor might run with. Does anyone know if the investment community has an accepted view on just where banking shares fit into an average portfolio? I have no idea whatsoever.

[vorno]

""Internet Banking is unavailable at the present time due to scheduled maintenance. Please try again later.""

Well... It's nice to know that I haven't been able to access my HNZ accounts this weekend.
I wonder how this will piss off a lot of people?!

[Bjauck]

""Internet Banking is unavailable at the present time due to scheduled maintenance. Please try again later.""

Well... It's nice to know that I haven't been able to access my HNZ accounts this weekend.
I wonder how this will piss off a lot of people?!

I have accounts with both the ANZ/National Bank and HNZ. ANZ Internet have had more outages than Heartland. Heartland Bank internet bank is in the process of incorporating PGG Wrightson Finance Internet customers at the moment which may explain the necessity to take banking poffline at the moment. Whichever bank you choose will mean that internet banking will not always be available 24/365.
Disc. Shareholder in ANZ and HNZ

[vorno]

Perhaps I've just had good luck then? My main banking is with ASB and I haven't had a single outage that I can remember in 13 years!

If its teething issues, sure no worries. It's just something I thought of pointing out.

[winner69]

I also use ASB but my last outage was about 12 months ago.

In today's modern era such outages should be a) very rare or b) planned for and of short duration (15 min, off peak).

HNZ need to do better.

Do HNZ accept Bitcoin?

[zs_cecil]

Do HNZ accept Bitcoin?

If HNZ accepts bitcoin trading, it will probably become the NO. 1 bank in NZ very quickly, I reckon.

[Harvey Specter]

Does any NZ bank?

I wouldn't expect any wood. Bitcoin is a cross between a speculative bubble and a 'currency' for illegal transactions.

[Casino]

I wouldn't expect any wood. Bitcoin is a cross between a speculative bubble and a 'currency' for illegal transactions.

Speculator greed multiplied with criminal energy? New rating: Strong buy

[Harvey Specter]

Speculator greed multiplied with criminal energy? New rating: Strong buy

I must admit, I thought the Silk Road closure would have had a serious impact but it bounced back even higher.