Technology One bosses pocket a mind-boggling $44.4 million windfall

YOU could call them Brisbane’s $44.4 million men. Two Brisbane IT executives have each pocketed a mind-boggling $22.2 million this week. It follows each taking home $16.5 million in 2016 and $12.9 million the year earlier.

TechnologyOne chairman Adrian Di Marco.

YOU could call them Brisbane’s $44.4 million men.

TechnologyOne chairman Adrian Di Marco and fellow director John Mactaggart have each just pocketed a mind-boggling $22.2 million windfall this week as part of a regular sell down of their holdings in the company.

It emerged that each of them offloaded four million shares in the listed firm, which they co-founded back in the late 1980s and grew in to one of Australia’s biggest software outfits.

Di Marco declined to reveal yesterday what he plans to do with the huge pile of dough beyond saying it was a good way to diversify his wealth.

But he stressed to City Beat that the sell-off in no way amounted to a lack of confidence in Technology One, which just reported a 15 per cent jump in full-year net profit to $50.1 million and has a share price near record highs.

Technology One executive chairman Adrian Di Marco, at the AGM in the convention centre. Pic Jono Searle.

Both gents have made a habit over the last decade or so of green-lighting a huge stock dump just after the annual results are unveiled.

Indeed, they each took home $16.5 million in 2016 and $12.9 million the year before that.

There was a pause last year as Di Marco passed the CEO baton to Edward Chung after 30 years of running the joint day to day.

Di Marco and Mactaggart still have plenty of skin in the game, controlling more than 27 million shares and 38 million respectively.

Of course Di Marco was already travelling well before the big sell off this week, taking home a $1.34 million compensation package and $3.45 million in dividends for the year.

Did we mention the palatial spreads in Hamilton and Noosa Heads, which together are easily worth more than $10 million?

FEELING THE PAIN

IN striking contrast, Brisbane bizoid Allan English is still in a world of hurt and he was very frank about that yesterday with investors.

The Silver Chef founder and chairman has endured a year from hell at his company, which leases out kitchen equipment.

The most dramatic restructure in the firm’s 32-year history saw it jettison a division that leased vehicles, breach financial covenants and suffer its worst-ever annual result, a $48.8 million net loss.

Not surprisingly, the share price has tanked, plummeting from a high of more than $11 in late 2016 to recent record lows below $1.60.

English told shareholders at yesterday’s AGM that “we recognise and acknowledge the pain this has caused’’ and stressed that he was not immune from the discomfort.

“I too personally feel this pain as much as any shareholder,’’ he said.

“This year’s financial result has had a significant negative impact on the English Family Foundation by reducing the funds available for donations and support to the most disadvantaged individuals in our community’’.

English moved more than half his stake in the business, about 4.4 million shares, to the Foundation in 2014. It has helped more than 1.3 million people out of poverty both domestically and overseas.

If there’s any good news, for both investors and the poor recipients of aid, it’s the sense that things might have bottomed out.

English said the board and management “remain confident in the continuing strength’’ of the business.

“We believe the decisions made (to reorganise the business) were correct for the long-term success and profitability of Silver Chef,’’ he said.

In a refreshing sign of good faith, the executive team has gone without performance-based incentives over the past two years and the board has agreed to take a 50 per cent pay cut over the next 12 months.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all companies were that enlightened?