No news could mean bad news for eVentures

By DITA DE BONI and PETER GRIFFIN

The management of eVentures is in hibernation from the media as speculation about the company's fate intensifies.

Following the collapse of eVentures Australia last month, it is understood eVentures New Zealand may be heading down a similar path, with staff numbers expected to be slashed this week and the operation wound down.

Chief executive Cindy Mitchener and chairman Rod Deane would not return calls yesterday.

A statement promised to shareholders "within 24 hours" on Monday evening was also not forthcoming.

Small shareholders await word of their holdings after former chairman Craig Heatley indicated through an associated company, Classics Communications, that he would stand in the market for the 64 per cent of the company.

That would take his total holding to 80 per cent, leaving small shareholders locked in with shares worth just over one-third of their value at last year's listing.

Mr Heatley will pay between 14c and 16.8c a share for the 64 per cent share in the company.

The stake was originally bought for 15c a share by the US-based eVentures $100 million partnership - a joint venture between Japanese investment company Softbank and News Corporation's internet investment fund epartners.

Minority shareholders paid 60c a share for their collective 20 per cent stake. Almost $53 million sits unused in the company kitty.

The burst dotcom bubble is behind the present woes of majority shareholder the Softbank/epartners partnership in almost every market it operates in, including Europe, India and Australasia.

Softbank has scaled back its global operations and epartners will cut its commitment to the joint Epartners2 fund, in which $650 million was raised in July last year to finance global internet-based investments, by 80 per cent.

The fund will be capped at $US130 million ($305 million) and the remainder returned to investors. Epartners will not be investing in new companies in most markets.

It is possible investors in the local eVentures operation may have their money returned also. But one of its investments, MessageMedia, says it is trading profitably.

Managing director Chris Price said yesterday that the company had recently hired two more staff, had a growing list of clients and was "running exactly to plan."

He said MessageMedia New Zealand was run prudently. While eVentures has been called in to rescue the Australian MessageMedia operation, "we have staffed our business based on client revenue," Mr Price said.

eVentures New Zealand's other investment, E-Loan, shed all but three of its 17 staff and radically changed its business focus in April.

Plans to sell its comparative search engine tools in Asia fell over and the company began looking for customers among local financial planners and consultants.

The Warehouse has taken over E-Loan's IT support, marketing and promotion activities, which remain low-key.

Bruce Gordan, E-Loan's former chief executive and now The Warehouse's general manager for non-retail activities, did not want to be drawn on the turmoil surrounding eVenture's shareholdings, saying it was business as usual.

He was unwilling to say how many people were using its services but promotion of the E-Loan brand was taking place through Warehouse channels.

DF Mainland head of research Bruce McKay said Softbank and epartners would probably be happy to rid themselves of their interests in eVentures NZ, even accepting a discounted offer from Mr Heatley's company.

"The whole Softbank-Newscorp-epartners thing has shut up shop and gone away. It hasn't worked anywhere."

Mr McKay said that in all likelihood E-Loan and MessageMedia, eVentures' two investments in NZ, would be wound up or sold soon.

A possible buyer for E-Loan would be The Warehouse, which could use E-Loan's services to boost its financial services.

A buyer for MessageMedia would likely be NZ Post, which has a 20 per cent stake in the company.