Sunday, July 22, 2007

Pnina Feldman is rich – with nothing to show for it

The Advertiser – Adelaide 19/04/97 By Ian Lovett

The sister of corporate high-flyer Joe Gutnick proved yesterday that diamonds really are a girl’s best friend when her new company made a spectacular debut on the sharemarket.

In scenes reminiscent of the Poseidon days in the 1920’s the 20c shares in Pnina Feldman’s Diamond Rose company soared to $1.75.

At that high point, Mrs Feldman – who owns 57.5 per cent of the company – was worth $44.6 million on paper.

When trading finished, the shares were selling at $1.29 – still more than six times their issue price. All that from a company which has yet to find a diamond.

With four of her daughters, six rabbis and baby grand-daughter Rose, whose name the company borrowed, Mrs Feldman watched the action on the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney.

“Diamond Rose is truly blessed,” she said. “But I’ll be even happier when we find diamonds”

The company has a batch of exploration leases.

Mrs Feldman started the company to help her husband, Rabbi Pinchus, fund a centre which supports education and welfare.

“I only hope never to make so much money that my head spins so much so I get diverted from helping the community,” she said.

Ms Feldman says her motivation in floating the company is to find the 12 gemstones of the breastplate worn by the High Priest in the Temple of Jerusalem 3000 years ago, as describes in The Bible.

Perpetual Trustees, which landed a stake of four million shares in the 10 million share float, is believed to have made a $3.5 million profit already on its $800,000 investment, selling 3.9 million shares at $1.10 each.