Mystery sausage millionaires, Tattersalls, Singapore's execution policy
July 28, 2008
Here are Stephen Mayne's 5 stories from the Crikey edition on Tuesday, 8 November, 2005
9. Who are the mystery Sausage trading millionaires?
By Stephen Mayne
Herald Sun business reporter Craig Binnie cranked it right up this morning with a front page splash alleging that 10 prominent Melbourne millionaires bought shares in Sausage Software after Steve Vizard was informed of the impending Solution 6 merger on March 2, 2000, but before it was announced to the market on March 20.
This looks like a cracking story but it has been swamped by this morning's terror raids and arrests in Melbourne and Sydney overnight. The only thing missing from the story is the names. Clearly, the Herald Sun fears litigation but share registers are public documents so there shouldn't be too big a problem simply stating the facts.
Melbourne is full of gossip this morning over who are the following Sausage traders identified by the Herald Sun as follows:
- Investment company run by members of one of Australia's wealthiest families
- Wealthy Toorak widow associated with one of Australia's best known companies.
- Wife of former Liberal MP
- One of Australia's wealthiest men
- One of Melbourne's most well known businessmen and a family member (surely everyone has a family!)
We very much doubt that any of these upstanding individuals or families would be involved in such trading, but questions are being asked about Vizard's various business, sporting and arts connections.
The problem with proving insider trading is that you have to establish that someone was directly provided inside information and then used that information to profit. ASIC pretty much had Steve Vizard cold thanks to the board records and the trading information, even though his accountant Greg Lay refused to testify.
For any of the Herald Sun's "ten Melbourne millionaires" to go down, it would need to be established that they directly got a tip from Steve Vizard, or some other insider, that the Sausage and Solution 6 merger was coming up and a serious market re-rating was expected.
There was clearly a lot of inside trading going around at the time of the dotcom boom and it is disappointing that Steve Vizard remains the only scalp, yet even he managed to escape jail. Not good enough.
11. How to protest against Singapore's execution policy
By Stephen Mayne
These Amnesty International statistics cited by Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler in Crikey last week are pretty startling:
1. USA: 300 million people/60 executions per year = 20 per 100 million
2. Vietnam: 80 million people/60 executions per year = 75 per 100 million people
3. Iran: 70 million people/160 executions per year = 230 per 100 million people
4. China: 1.3 billion people - 3,500 executions per year = 270 per 100 million
5. Saudi Arabia: 25 million people/80 executions per year = 320 per 100 million
6. Singapore: 4 million people/30 executions per year = 750 per 100 million people
Combine that with some information a current Singapore resident passed through last week that several high profile government-connected young people have managed to slip through the drugs net when caught in possession, and it got me thinking about how the Singapore Government could be persuaded not to execute Australian citizen and heroin trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen.
With every legal and government avenue seemingly expired, isn't there a more obvious tactic – boycott the Singapore Government's huge commercial interests in Australia.
After 12 years, I dumped Optus yesterday when buying a Blackberry from the local Telstra shop. The Optus rep tried the standard "we'll match any offer," but he was speechless when I said the move was a political protest against Singapore's status as the world's most prolific executioners in per capita terms.
He then tried to say that Optus was separate from the Singapore Government. Not true buddy, the government owns 62.7%.
Other potential targets for a consumer boycott include hotels (the ANA in Sydney and the Park Hyatt in Melbourne), apartments (Australand), flights (Singapore Airlines), shopping (the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney) and the Singapore Government's vast energy sector interests in Australia.
If state governments really wanted to flex their muscles, they simply need to declare that the execution of Van Tuong Nguyen would see Australand banned from winning any more state government contracts. After all, the Singapore Government is currently building the Commonwealth Games village for the Bracks Government.
But don't hold your breath for the commercial media to get behind such a campaign given the huge advertising budget of Optus and the fact that it's not an attractive white female such as Schapelle Corby facing the gallows in Singapore.
28. The battle for control of Tattersall's
By Stephen Mayne
Julien Playoust and Dr Michael Vertigan, the two challengers for the Tattersall's board, are meeting with shareholders at swanky Royal South Yarra Tennis Club in Melbourne this morning as they lay out their argument for being appointed to the board at the expense of long-serving trustee Paul Kerr, of the famous public relations family.
In terms of contested board elections, this is the biggest Australia has ever seen and probably won't go down the path of NAB in 2003 or Foster's in 1990 when a proxy fight was averted by a peace deal. After all, Playoust himself owns about $80 million worth of Tattersall's shares and is the lead respondent in the case against the four long serving trustees and their outrageous claim for a $100 million payout as part of this year's $2 billion Tattersall's float.
Tattersall's chairman David Jones, who also chairs the Melbourne Cricket Club committee, sent the following note to staff in late October:
I would like your support for Peter Kerr's re-election as a director of Tattersall's Limited at the AGM on November 21. There are 2 other candidates also seeking election. Tattersall's already has a very talented and successful board of directors, and my fellow directors have voted unanimously to support Peter's re-election.
Therefore I ask that you now complete your Voting Proxy forms and immediately return them to me as Chairman of Tattersall's or to Computershare with a vote FOR Peter; and AGAINST both of the other candidates. Many thanks for your support.
Kind Regards
David Jones, Chairman
The existing Tattersall's board have made a $72 million provision against the $100 million claim which the challengers clearly believe is excessive. What sort of corporate governance system allows four long serving directors to make a $100 million claim against their own company?
It makes the recruitment process for the four new independent directors at the time of the float particularly interesting. Did they sign up on the understanding that they would support the trustees remaining on the board and chasing their outrageous pay day?
So who are these new independent directors? James King is former boss of Colonial in Asia who also ran CUB for a couple of years. Then you have Brian Jamieson who is currently running the Minter Ellison office in Melbourne and before that was chairman of KPMG in Melbourne. Even a former Rich Lister like Lindsay Cattermole has no problem taking the Tatts coin. The last of the newcomers is Harry Boon, who has recently retired as CEO of Ansell, a company which did a lot of good for society over the years.
David Jones makes it clear that Kerr is unanimously supported, but surely someone like Dr Vertigan, who was a fabulous secretary of the Victorian Treasury during the Kennett years, would add plenty to the board. Why couldn't they just expand the board by two?
And how outrageous that they've gone down the old "no vacancy" route, declaring there are only two spots for three candidates. As we've said many times before, if shareholders want to increase the size of a board by two then they should be able to do that, provided it is in accord with the company's constitution.
Tattersall's will only have seven directors after the retirement of William Adams at the AGM and the constitution provides for up to nine. Therefore, two additional director could have been appointed, but instead, one of the three candidates will miss out, probably after getting a majority of the vote.
Check out Stephen Batholomeusz's excellent summary of the issues in The Age here.
33. Yoursay on business and the church
By Stephen Mayne
Speaking in Tongues, the SBS religious chat show featuring non-practising Jew, John Safran, and larrikin Melbourne Catholic priest, Father Bob McGuire, debuted last night and pulled a reasonable average audience of 344,000 viewers. By contrast the repeat of South Park at 8.30 pm was watched by more than 472,000 people and the new episode of Mythbusters 7.30 pm, the most popular SBS show, was watched by an average 965,000 viewers.
Tips and comments on the question of "business and the church" have been pouring in to smayne@crikey.com.au so keep it up ahead of tomorrow morning's pre-recorded interview for episode two. Here is a sample of some of your feedback:
Kevin Cox writes:
Why are we so surprised that the churches are into commerce? The churches have always been into commerce. Religion should be viewed as part of the entertainment and leisure industries and this fiction about non-profit should be abandoned as should all other non-profit/non-taxed organisations. If you indulge in economic activity then you should be part of the same system. Why should I support the Anglican Church through it being exempt from taxation? Bringing the non-profits into the taxation system is one of those issues that fail to get a mention when we talk about tax reform.
Thomas writes:
Many Christians feel uneasy about the Church holding wealth, and nearly all, Protestants and Catholics alike, express apprehension about the Vatican's coffers when we are called to give to the poor. Our whole society seems to be ontologically suspicious about wealth in the Church. The main response is “Who else would you have possess the wealth?” When we hear of a Church or religion dabbling in a venture we immediately cry foul, but would we prefer our money to be going towards fast cars, boozy meals, and political donations? If the Church is a company, she outstrips every other in philanthropic endeavours. As for Vatican coffers, John Allen, an American Vatican correspondent and biographer of Benedict XVI, writes in his book, All the Pope's Men, of the regular deficits that the Vatican runs and the difficulty of holding properties that cannot be sold or even used as security.
Joel writes:
Although they don't seem to have any prominent interests in Australia, one example of an aggressively commercial church is the Church of Latter Day Saints, which actually has an intentional program of investing the tithes they receive from members into commercial ventures.
James writes:
Much of your quoted figure is based upon the priceless artworks in the Vatican that will never be sold and are insured for $1. The new evangelical churches (such as Hillsong) which are more like businesses, with compulsory tithes of 10% are dangerous. The uproar over these plainly money making organisations could take away the tax rebates of the Anglican and Catholic churches – who are the main providers of social services in this nation? The money of these churches is used for charity and providing for the basic amenities of pastors.
The business like Assemblies of God Churches are giving institutionalised Religion, which plainly benefits society, a bad name by association. A sad state of affairs.
Mark writes:
This probably isn't the sort of thing you're looking for, but my perspective is that of a satisfied customer of the Uniting Church's financial services. We have insured our car through the UC Insurance Agency for nearly ten years with plenty of good communication and no hassles, and are just about to open a couple of term deposit-type trust accounts for our children with UC Invest. We understand that such profits as are realised from these operations are put back into things like church property improvement and maintenance, which obviously we have no problem with. We also have direct knowledge of several instances where this has in fact happened. Another, more self-interested motivation for going with the likes of UC Invest is that while of course you can never be certain about these things, you would hope that these operations are run and overseen by, to put it baldly, honest people. Certainly the probability of this should be greater than in the mainstream financial sector, as you may well be able to attest! The interest rates offered are reasonably competitive without being outstanding. Nor can I see a problem with churches doing 'property deals'. They are basically managing their worldly assets responsibly — see Matthew 25: 14-30! In short, I struggle to see much tension between commercial interests and 'faith, education and the provision of healthcare, charitable or retirement services.'
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34. Stephen Mayne: Paul Anka and me
By Stephen Mayne, pop culture ignoramus
It was amusing to watch the ABC's one hour special on veteran crooner Paul Anka last night. The guy certainly is a legend and it brought back memories of the time we met at Crown Casino just before it opened in April 1997. It was during my dodgy phase with Crown boss Lloyd Williams where criticism of him and the casino in the Herald Sun were tempered in return for a long line of great scoops.
Lloyd had brought the world's greatest casino developer, Steve Wynn of Mirage and Bellagio fame in Las Vegas, to Melbourne to inspect his facility. Accompanying him was bankrupt hotel and casino mogul Chris Hemmerter, who developed many of the mega hotels on the Hawaiian islands and some little bloke who called himself Paul Anka.
I had never heard of Paul Anka and the little fella got a little frustrated when he had to point out who he was.
"I have sung in every major casino in the world and never have I seen a facility like this," he said, before adding "I wrote My Way."
He must have been annoyed when the subsequent Saturday feature reported that Anka was "the man who says he wrote My Way and is helping Mr Williams recruit stars from around the world to perform at Crown." Of course he wrote My Way, plus numerous other classics such as Diana, Lonely Boy and Put Your Head On My Shoulder over the years.
The Paul Anka special drew an average audience of 511,000 people last night, so he's clearly much better known to normal people than a pop culture ignoramus such as Crikey.
Still for someone who is feted wherever he goes and only travels in private jets, it must be nice to occasionally have to big note yourself to get taken seriously. For all I knew he was just some PR bloke butting in all the time.
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