Southport Golf Club seeks fair way after boardroom bogey

A CEASEFIRE of sorts has descended on the well-manicured lawns of a 95-year-old Queensland golf club after a tumultuous week that saw divots flying in the boardroom.

A ceasefire of sorts has descended on the well-manicured lawns of the 95-year-old Southport Golf Club.

OUT OF THE ROUGH?

A CEASEFIRE of sorts has descended on the well-manicured lawns of the 95-year-old Southport Golf Club after a tumultuous week that saw divots flying in the august body’s boardroom. City Beat reported on Thursday that director Adrian Rowney and the club treasurer resigned after concerns about certain employment benefits enjoyed by former general manager Nik Robinson, which we hear had not been approved by the entire board. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Robinson.

Soon after, club president Bryan Wiig also handed in his resignation and was replaced by local legal eagle Michael Kyle.

As a reward for raising the issue, Rowney was hauled before a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday night to face possible expulsion.

But the powers that be had a rethink, possibly because Rowney harnessed the support of hundreds of his fellow members outraged at his treatment. Yesterday, Kyle told members that Wednesday’s hearing had been converted into a “mediation.”

“Negotiations are now being undertaken with a view to achieving a satisfactory outcome and putting all of the divisiveness behind us,” Kyle said. “Hopefully, we will be successful.” Drinks on the 19th hole everyone!

MR FIX IT?

WILL it be lawyers at 10 paces in the increasingly bitter battle between Corporate Travel Management and short-sellers VGI?

We hear Jamie “Working Class Man” Pherous is seeking legal aid in his fight with VGI but not the walk-in off-the-street, free variety.

City Beat spies tell us that Leon Zwier, a legal eagle with fancy-pants Melbourne firm Arnold Bloch Leibler has been engaged and has already requested VGI turn over documents used in preparing its reports criticising Corporate Travel Management’s accounting.

You might recall CTM shares slumped almost 30 per cent last October after VGI raised a series of “red flags” about the company’s performance.

Zwier, who has been dubbed “Mr Fix It” and has an estimated hourly charge-out rate of $1500, has had dealings with the boys from VGI before. He is the very same lawyer used by Slater & Gordon, a stock successfully shorted down over 90 per cent by VGI after it claimed it had “cockroaches in its kitchen”.

City Beat understands that proceedings haven’t started, but it seems the action will be grounded in an alleged conspiracy to hurt CTM and market manipulation.

CTM is considering seeking an order for pre-trial discovery to get access to all of VGI’s material. CTM declined to comment and Zwier did not respond to a request for comment.

WE HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE

CTM joins an exclusive club of companies that have called in the lawyers in an attempt to turn the tables on short sellers.

Blue Sky was quick to fire off legal letters when research outfit Glaucus first raised questions about its business model, and maligned sandalwood grower Quintis (then known as TFS Corporation) got thrown out of the West Australian Supreme Court in 2015 when it tried to unmask who had provided broker Taylor Collison with information that contributed to a damning presentation titled “A Foray into Sandalwood Accounting.”

That was two years before the company flamed out in a spectacular corporate collapse which saw equity wiped to zero, albeit re-emerging from receivership as a private company last year after a recapitalisation.

LEADERS CALLING

QUT’s excellent Business Leaders’ Forum series begins on March 12 with Incitec Pivot chief executive officer Jeanne Johns, who no doubt will discuss how energy prices are affecting big manufacturers.

Sponsors of the forum series, including The Courier-Mail, attended a lunch at Old Government House at QUT Gardens Point on Thursday to hear about upcoming speakers. Over lunch, Professor Rachel Parker discussed adoption of technology by business and barriers to such adoption.