Venture's vulnerability: mischief likes a black box

IT WAS a pink elephant problem. Venture Corp boss Wong Ngit Liong told the market not to focus on Philip Morris, which is what it did.

By failing to address the elephant in his results briefing on April 25 - namely, strong rumours that Philip Morris is Venture's single largest customer - Mr Wong allowed the short-sellers to keep preying on Venture in the days following the tobacco giant's announcement of a weaker-than-hoped-for market outlook.

Now, it's taken Venture a whole two weeks to finally pull its weight.