Former Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley has managed to raise a few eyebrows over share splurge

FORMER Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley has managed to raise a few eyebrows at the ASX over a $42,000 share splurge.

Former Lord Mayor of Brisbane Jim Soorley.

FORMER Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley has managed to raise a few eyebrows at the ASX over a $42,000 share splurge.

Soorley is a non-executive director of junior coal miner TerraCom and picked up 100,000 shares in the company on July 20.

That was just 11 days before the company issued its June quarterly report.

But the 15 business days prior to the release of such reports are considered “a closed period’’ for directors buying shares to avoid even the perception that inside information may be improperly used.

Since such stock purchases during these times can only be made in exceptional circumstances, the ASX dispatched a “please explain” to the company, chaired by former Leighton boss Wal King.

Illustration of Jim Soorley by Brett Lethbridge.

King responded this week that neither Soorley, nor other members of the board, were “in possession of any material price sensitive information’’.

Because Soorley sought and obtained written clearance for the purchase on July 19, King said the company “does not consider it appropriate to take disciplinary or remedial action in the circumstances’’.

But, in a curious bid to avoid further dramas with the ASX, King said TerraCom will amend its trading policy to specifically allow share purchases during the blackout period.

How this will avoid the potential for conflicts of interest in the future is anyone’s guess!

City Beat rang Soorley for a comment yesterday but he hung up right away. “I can’t talk mate. I’m driving,’’ he said. We had no luck reaching him later.

Soorley, a former Catholic priest who also chairs Unitywater and CS Energy, joined TerraCom in March last year.

He’s the latest in a long line of former Labor pollies to get a gig at the company, which previously employed Tony Mooney, Tony McGrady and Craig Wallace.

TerraCom generated a bit of attention in 2016 when it paid just $1 to acquire the mothballed Blair Athol Coal Mine, which Rio Tinto had closed four years earlier.

After years of enormous losses, it turned a $5 million profit in the 2017 financial year. Since then, the firm managed to raise $15 million in February and has kept benefiting from the recent spike in coal prices.

PERMANENT GIG

AFTER the shock death of South Bank Corporation CEO Jemina Dunn in October, bizoid Bill Delves stepped up to fill the void. State Development Minister Cameron Dick announced yesterday that Delves’ interim gig was now permanent following a nationwide exercise in headhunting.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Delves has worked in accounting and professional services outfits around the globe, including at such heavy hitters as KPMG and Ernst & Young.

Dunn, a former state director of lobbying outfit Australian Industry Group, became the first woman to take on the top job at South Bank. She passed away suddenly just three months after starting.

TURNAROUND CHALLENGE

CITY Beat spies in our UK office tell us that former Suncorp boss Patrick Snowball has just landed a challenging job to turn around a struggling subprime lender.

Yes, it emerged this week that our favourite ex-tank commander has agreed to take on the job of chairman of Provident Financial starting late next month.

Snowball said he was “very excited’’ to be joining the listed West Yorkshire-based group, which has about 2.5 million customers for its credit cards, online loans and auto finance.

But he’s got his work cut out for him. Problems in the home credit arm last year triggered profit warnings, the resignation of a CEO, a 70 per cent plunge in the share price and a suspended dividend.

Snowball pocketed $37 million over his six years at Suncorp before returning home to the UK in 2015.