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CBD

Mirvac has to have a bigger pool  

Mirvac Group seems to have an interesting take on the community outrage surrounding the largesse heaped on executives and directors at the big end of town.

The property group, which reported a tidy $1.08 billion loss last financial year, has proposed lifting the annual remuneration pool for its non-executive directors by $500,000 to $1.95 million.

"Increased expectations of the community, governments and the courts in relation to the role of public company directors has meant directors need to commit an ever increasing amount of time and resources to their role," explains Mirvac in its notice of meeting, at which it will ask shareholders to approve the pay rise.

Obviously, Mirvac directors need to be paid more money so they can also spend more time attending to the community concerns over executive pay.

The company also argues the bigger fee pool will give it enough flexibility to add to its team of five non-executive board members.

This comes a year after Mirvac shareholders agreed to lift the remuneration pool by $200,000 to $1.45 million.

It was only five years ago that the non-executive remuneration pool at the company was $600,000, when it had five independent directors.

Mirvac's chairman, James MacKenzie, was paid $420,000 for heading the property group last financial year.

And me, too

The Mirvac non-executive pay claim coincided with another remuneration request by a James MacKenzie-chaired company.

Yesterday the Noble Group's majority-owned Gloucester Coal put a resolution to its shareholders for approval of a $1 million, or 200 per cent, lift in the annual non-executive remuneration pool to $1.5 million.

Coincidentally, Gloucester offered the same explanation as Mirvac almost word for word.

"Increased expectations of the community, governments and the courts, in relation to the role of public company directors, has meant that directors need to commit an ever increasing amount of time and resources to their roles," says the Gloucester notice of meeting.

The latest pay request comes just two years after Gloucester shareholders agreed to raise the non-executive remuneration pool at the coal company from $350,000 to $500,000.

MacKenzie, meanwhile, was busy answering community concerns yesterday as the chairman of the Chesty Bonds singlet maker, Pacific Brands, which sacked 1200 workers when it moved more production to Asia during the year.

"While the rationale of making so many people redundant was plain, it didn't make the decision any easier or more palatable," he told the company's annual meeting.

Strangely, no pay rise was sought at the Pacific Brands meeting.

Rehabilitated

The former jailbird Rodney "Rocket" Adler is now as free as a bird. Last week the ex-director of the collapsed HIH Insurance finished his parole relating to criminal convictions for several corporate indiscretions.

Adler is now free to leave the country for his summer holidays. But maybe he will have to bypass the United States where things can get a little tricky in immigration if you have a criminal conviction.

The parole expiry comes amid signs that Adler is trying to rebuild his reputation as a law-abiding citizen – he did away with his jailyard mullet some time ago.

He reappeared at last month's black-tie Sydney Institute 20th anniversary dinner on the same table as the former premier Neville Wran.

Aside from him being a former governor of the institute, the annual dinner used to be named in honour of his father, Larry Adler.

The 50-year-old will have to wait another 13 years before he will be allowed to become a director of a company.

Another banned company director who used to chair the institute is the former James Hardie chairman Meredith Hellicar.

Flying horse

It is good to see the Macanese airline Viva Macau is happy to co-exist with the racehorse of the same name, which is owned by the territory's richest man, Stanley Ho (aka The King of Gambling).

Reg Macdonald, who replaced the former Qantas executive Con Korfiatis as Viva's chief executive this year, said he had no plans to contest the horse's name.

"He named it around the same time as Viva Macau," explained the chief executive of the four-year-old airline about Ho's six-year-old horse.

Macdonald said he was happy with the publicity the horse brings in. Let's just hope the airline has a better recent track record than the horse.

Viva Macau, which is often ridden by the Australian jockey Darren Beadman, has had two wins out of 30 starts.

Another Ho horse, Viva Pataca, has fared better, with 12 wins out of 29 starts and $HK71.3 million ($9.9 million) in prize money.

Ho counts the departed Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee as a second cousin. His son Lawrence is James Packer's co-chairman in the Macau casino operator Melco Crown.

You don't bet

Elsewhere on the betting front, Americans appear to have lost their interest – if they ever had any – in Australian horseracing.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has given notification that the US wagering website youbet.com has two months before it is deregistered in Australia.

It seems enthusiasm surrounding youbet's entry into Australia in 1999 has died down. At the time, youbet's then chief operating officer, Ron Luniewski, said: "Australian horseracing is different to horseracing in the United States. It's more of a European style, in that all of the races are on turf, and on some tracks the horses race in a clockwise direction."

Tall tales 

More tales of outrage from the ANZ's new offices in Melbourne's Docklands.

The bank was forced to respond to an email sent to several newsrooms yesterday from a concerned "friend of ANZ staff".

Aside from complaining how the coinless vending machines required debit cards and staff were wearing coats and gloves in the building to stay warm, the email went on to express dismay over the perks the executives could enjoy on Level 10.

One alleged luxury is the marble boardroom table being shipped in from Milan, Italy. But apparently, it may remain a rumour. An ANZ spokesman said: "There will be a boardroom table, but it's not marble. It will be made of wood."

He also shot down the rumour six ANZ staff travelled business class to Milan to inspect a marble table.

The latest complaint came just as ANZ was putting its new logo on its 100 Queen Street address.

Got a tip? Use our online tips box or email srochfort@smh.com.au

Insider

 

 

By Danny John

Outsiders top the shortlist for boss

The search for a new chief executive for BT Investment Management has narrowed to two candidates, and the part Westpac-owned funds manager has reportedly shunned local contenders with offshore names on the shortlist.

The funds management arm of BT Financial appointed the executive search firm Egon Zehnder to find a replacement for Dirk Morris in June.

Since Morris left, the reins have been in the hands of BTIM's chairman, Brian Scullin. A rebound in equity markets has made Scullin's work a little easier.

Indeed, BTIM issued a slight upgrade to earnings last month. The funds manager expects to record a cash profit for financial 2009 of between $25 million and $27 million, well down on last year's $40 million.

Some in BTIM had hoped a new chief executive would be found before the annual results are posted next week, but the annual general meeting in December is now being eyed as the target.

The funds industry magazine Investment & Technology News reported that a shortlist had been prepared following months of interviews and it included internal candidates and other heads of funds in Australia.

A spokeswoman for BTIM declined to comment yesterday.

Up time 

The theme of recovering markets is looming large for listed fund managers, which lagged the rallies in the banking sector.

Most notable are Perpetual Investments, up 6 per cent on a year-to-date basis, IOOF, up 60 per cent, and BTIM, up 65 per cent. Challenger Financial Services Group is the exception.

Since its troubled mortgage business went to National Australia Bank, it has surged.

Indeed cash-rich Challenger is now seen on most fund manager screens as a takeover target, following the exit of two big shareholders this month: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and billionaire James Packer, who sold down his major investment.

But it seems they moved too early and missed out on all the upside: Packer quit Challenger at $3.25 and the Japanese bank let go at $3. Yesterday Challenger closed at $3.90.

Their exit leaves fund managers Barclays Global Investors Australia and wealth manager AMP as the two key shareholders.

The rebound for Challenger continues with total assets under administration and advice surging by 50 per cent in the September quarter, as investment markets continued to improve.

Assets under management and advice rose to $112.26 billion from $75.01 billion in the June quarter, with boutique partnership funds driving returns. 

Good news week 

The jobs market has also been showing signs of recovering and media analysts are running their numbers again over the prospects for such newspaper publishers as Fairfax Media and APN News & Media, and for Seek, which dominates the online job market.

Royal Bank of Scotland's Fraser McLeish has raised his price targets for the sector.

He reckons a slump of more than 50 per cent in job ads in print and online over the past 18 months was "out of step with the relatively mild step up in unemployment", and this indicated the mark had been overshot and the rebound may be stronger than expected.

The broker now sees 8 per cent growth in job ads in both print and online in the first half of next year, a big turnaround from his earlier forecast of a 3 per cent fall.

McLeish recommended investors play the "more bombed out cyclical names which have been hit the hardest through the downturn".

RBS raised its price target for Fairfax Media – owner of the Herald – from $1.68 to $1.95, and predicted Seek shares would reach $7 within a year.

APN's price target rose from $1.96 to $2.50 and that of West Australian Newspapers from $6.20 to $7.25. What's perhaps more interesting is that, with the internet garnering more than 90 per cent of the jobs advertised in Australia last month, the broker believes the shift of dollars from print to the web has now largely played out.

"As we move into a recovery period, we expect the cyclical factors to significantly outweigh the structural challenges and for a 'rising tide to lift all boats'," McLeish said, helping media stocks yesterday to some healthy gains.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs JBWere told its clients there was a good chance News Corp would upgrade its guidance when it reports earnings early next month following bullish comments from Rupert Murdoch at last week's shareholder meeting.

Profits from its newspapers including The Wall Street Journal could be better than expected, Goldies said.

All the optimism stands in stark contrast to news from The New York Times, which has just announced another 100 job cuts, or about 8 per cent of the total, in its newsroom.

Sugar daddy 

Coca-Cola Amatil's chief financial officer, Nessa O'Sullivan, gave investors a sugar rush yesterday with her presentation to the Citi Australian Investment Conference.

The stock closed 2.1 per cent higher after the fizz-maker said trading conditions in the third quarter were strong and reaffirmed it was expecting high-single-digit earnings growth in the second half.

CCL will give an official market update on November 5 but said yesterday that momentum from the first half, where profit rose 10 per cent to $189.8 million, had continued.
 
Sales increased as the company improved its market share in non-alcoholic beverages and beer and passed on rising costs from the higher sugar price to its customers.

 

Briefs

Boardroom

Female register A national register of talented businesswomen should be created to help boards find suitable female candidates, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has suggested in a submission to the Federal Government's review of equal opportunity legislation.

Weapons

Metal Storm deal Metal Storm says it has reached agreement with an overseas investor about an equity investment in the defence technology company. It requested a trading halt yesterday to allow time for a payment relating to the unnamed party. Its shares last traded at 2.6c.

Food

Metcash bolt-on Metcash told its shareholders yesterday that it was seeking bolt-on acquisitions and new opportunities to fuel medium and long term growth. The chief executive, Andrew Reitzer, also confirmed its earnings guidance of a 7 to 10 per cent rise this financial year.

Energy

Shares snapped up Institutional investors have snapped up shares in Oil Search's $895 million capital raising ahead of a final investment decision on the PNG gas project. It resumed trading after completing a discounted placement of 151.7 million shares at $5.90 per share.

Broking

Wilson surges The first quarter profit of the fund manager and broker Wilson HTM surged past last year's annual result as assets under management climbed on the back of the share recovery. Unaudited net profit rose to $3.3 million for the September quarter, compared with $2.2 million for the entire year to June 30.