Frankie And Johnnie Are Afraid To Part
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 7, 2003
Insurance can't be that sick, says Christine Lacy.
While new AMP chairman Peter Willcox is fighting fat-cat exit payments, his opposite number at QBE, John Cloney, is locking in a gold-plated adios for his chief executive, Frank O'Halloran.
Just when you thought retirement benefits and golden hand-cuffs were passe, Frank now has an incentive to stay until his 58th birthday in May 2004.
But yesterday he was insistent he had no plans to leave the top office even though his annual report hints otherwise.
As a QBE-er since 1976, including five years as boss, the board promises a birthday pressie of 150 per cent of his annual cash salary and bonus ($2.4 million last year) if he sticks around or is forced to an early retirement though ill-health.
Admitting to no major ailments he's never had a sickie in his life O'Halloran said he didn't have a contract with QBE and the retirement plan was initiated by the board.
QBE seems to have quietly amassed some tip-top talent to back up O'Halloran, if last year's bonuses are any guide.
QBE's New York man, Tim Kenny, topped even the big boss, with total pay of $2.87 million, including a $1.2 million bonus.
Limit underwriting director Peter Grove, a Lloyd's veteran, collected $2.56 million and 100,000 options, while Lloyd's division boss Steven Burns and European operations chief Paul Glen both broke $2 million.
Director John Phillips, who made his mark as one of the more outspoken aficionados of corporate governance, collected a $399,000 retirement allowance after leaving the board last April.
He must be thanking his lucky stars he didn't wait another year.
Tidying up
Things are only cranking up for former Bank of Melbourne boss Matthew Slatter, now that he's dealt himself into the big league with Tabcorp's $1.7 billion plunge on Jupiters.
Within hours of the takeover being signed, the folk at Salomon Smith Barney were on the phone trying to flog online sports betting outfit Centrebet for $185 million or so.
Also back on the agenda, after being on the backburner while the Jupiters deal was done, is the likely buy-out of Leighton's share in the Star City casino management contract.
Talks four or so weeks ago were believed to have brought the parties closer than ever on price, with Leighton valuing the 15 per cent stake at about $48.5 million.
Kerry Packer offered $240 million in 1997 for the other 85 per cent of the rights, implying a price tag on the Leighton portion of $42.4 million, but withdrew at the last minute.
Two years later Ross Wilson bought back what was by then Harrah's 85 per cent share of the contract for $204 million, implying a value of $36 million on the Leighton stake.
It will be Slatter's challenge to outdo his predecessor in extracting maximum value across the table from the straight-talking Wal King.
Soup from sauce
As Gina Rinehart and her friends at South Africa's Kumba Resources scour the wide brown land for the big bucks to develop their Hope Downs iron ore project, her son and heir John is busy showing off his feminine side.
While the freshly promoted Chris Fraser and Peter Bacchus at Salomon Smith Barney hunt down as much as $1.5 billion for the mining development, the 27-year-old has revealed all about life as a Rinehart in an ``explosive" interview with the Women's Weekly.
Despite mum's multi-million-dollar-a-year royalties from Rio's vast Pilbara iron ore operations, young John laments an upbringing sans pocket money.
``When I was at university ... I told mum I was broke and needed food. Her response was: `Have you got any tomato sauce in the cupboard? Make soup'."
He goes on: ``I don't have lots of money myself. The company owns the apartment I live in and my salary is less than most of my friends'."
He shares his shabby digs, which are just downstairs from mummy, with 19-year-old girlfriend Gemma Ludgate, whom the Weekly describes as a lass of ``elegant carriage" and the ``the perfect foil to John's sometimes excitable personality".
But despite being the eldest of four and the only son, young John says he's no shoo-in to take the reins of mum's Hancock Prospecting.
``My sisters are all talented, capable girls. We will see what happens," he says. ``I am still looking for my niche and I don't mind if it's outside the company."
It will be if Rose has anything to do with it, anyway.
All right for some
A relaxed and comfortable Telstra Retail boss Ted Pretty was spied post-lunch yesterday in the bowels of the GPO clearly not one of the lucky execs to get a guernsey on the team renegotiating the $US1.5 billion loan facility to the Reach Asian joint venture.
Bearing no weight of responsibility over his key role in bringing Telstra and Richard Li together three years ago, Pretty was looking very chummy with former Optus exec Stephe Wilks.
Wilks these days is applying CPR to the struggling Leighton and Macquarie Bank-backed Nextgen Networks.
Climbing the GPO grand spiral staircase together it was all smiles, perhaps after nutting out a large scale capacity deal to shore up Nextgen's precarious position.
Free ride's over
You have to feel sorry for Brad Keeling, who now has the Tax Office and two liquidators gnawing on his carcase.
Carmody's boys are suing Brad personally over unpaid tax on the $6.9 million bonus from One.Tel he collected in 2000. They claim the penalties alone have now reached $8 million.
At the same time, they have put Brad Keeling Management into liquidation over an unpaid tax bill of $11 million, most of which relates to tax assessments on various investment schemes. Those tax-related claims will be back in court in three weeks time.
Meanwhile, One.Tel liquidator snappy Steve Sherman has started action against BKM for the return of the bonus and some other money involved in One.Tel share buybacks.
Sherman and BKM liquidator John Lord will sit down this morning to try to divvy up the corpse.
This one's not, though
Such delicate legal negotiations must have failed in the case of Bradley David Cooper.
Today's court lists include the inaugural mention of a suit by HIH liquidator Tony McGrath seeking repayment of Cooper's $1.25 million share of a fee paid on the eve of the insurer's collapse for introducing Kerry Packer as a potential purchaser of HIH's property portfolio.
The rest of the total $2 million fee was paid to Packer protege Ben Tilley, who is understood to have repaid his $750,000 portion within weeks of enduring a four-hour liquidator's examination in the Supreme Court late last year.
Ho-hum horse tales
John Singleton will be hoping for some trackside success tomorrow at Flemington when his Golden Slipper winner Belle De Jour owned with Bob Hawke lines up in the $1 million Newmarket Handicap.
A win would continue a purple patch for Singo and his Strawberry Hills stud, as well as providing a nice top-up to his latest deal.
In last Saturday's Silver Slipper Stakes at Rosehill his Gentle Genius was first past the post just ahead of the media entrepreneur signing up for a new sports marketing joint-venture, Sail Australasia.
On the other side of the deal from STW Communications is listed South African sports investment company Sail Global.
We wonder, then, if Sail to be chaired by former Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen might also be interested in Singo's 10 per cent stake in Australia's only listed sporting team, the Brisbane Broncos, which he still retains after News Ltd beat him for control of the company in a nasty battle last year.
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald