Who’s walking at Qld’s $80 billion investment powerhouse

It manages $80 billion in funds but City Beat hears some people have suddenly departed the Brisbane-based organisation after an investment in US shopping centres turned sour.

QIC chief executive Damian Frawley. Picture Mark Cranitch.

MONEY MADNESS

WHAT’S with the revolving doors at the $80 billion Queenland Investment Corporation? We hear a number of people have been marched out the door of QIC’s gilded tower in Eagle St reportedly after an investment in US shopping centres turned sour.

QIC told City Beat that “there have been a very small number of changes as a result of a strategic review.”

QIC, which began life looking after public servant nest eggs, these days has offices in New York, Paris, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Its 2016 investment in the Port of Melbourne capped a period of aggressive expansion into infrastructure, real estate and power assets by the state’s flagship money manager.

From its foundation in 1991, QIC is now one of the country’s top 10 fund managers, with investments that include ports in Europe, power stations in New Zealand, car parks in the US and a wind farm in Queensland.

QIC chief executive Damian Frawley.

But QIC’s role as a major player in the finance sector has not been without controversy.

The Newman government’s Commission of Audit in 2013 called for QIC to be privatised, arguing it was questionable whether taxpayers should bear the risk of managing private investment funds. QIC chief executive Damien Frawley has said continued government ownership reinforced support for QIC’s strategy to grow and diversify its business. Watch this space.

GREEN THUMB

CONGRATULATIONS to former Brisbane Botanic Gardens curator Ross McKinnon who will be picking up a shiny gong from the Consul General of Japan on Friday.

McKinnon will receive the Order of the Rising Sun Gold Rays with Rosette for his role in preserving the Japanese Gardens that featured at World Expo 88 in Brisbane.

Ross McKinnon at the Mt Coot-Tha Botanic Gardens. Photo Steve Pohlner

McKinnon played a big part in relocating the garden to the Mt Coot-tha site and since then has continued to support Japanese cultural groups and promote understanding of Japan in Australia. One of Japan’s leading landscape architects, the late Kenzo Ogata, designed the gardens with the theme ‘tsuki-yama-chisen’ or ‘mountain-pond-stream’. It features the key elements of stone, water, ornaments, arbours, paths and vegetation.

McKinnon, who stepped down as curator in 2014 after almost 30 years in the job, also made a name for himself as a gardening commentator on radio, TV and in print.

RINGS A BELL

WORLD-renown cystic fibrosis researcher Scott Bell has been appointed as the new CEO of Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute. Professor Bell replaces Professor Carolyn Mountford who has stepped down from the role after five years to concentrate on commercializing her research. He recently co-led the development of a new global blueprint for the care of people with cystic fibrosis, a fatal genetic disorder, expected to contribute to lengthening the lives of people with the disorder.

CHARGING UP

THE team from Ipswich-based Century Batteries are headed to Adelaide this week for the Superloop Adelaide 500. The company was last year named official battery of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championships along with securing naming rights for the Ipswich SuperSprint – the first time in 10 years a local company was given the rights.

And while the latter was short-lived when Queensland Raceway missed out on hosting an event in 2020, Australia’s only remaining battery manufacturer is upping the ante at all the other races across the country providing pre-race stats and chopper cam.

Not only will they be rubbing shoulders with Supercars racers in the pits, but sister company Yuasa Batteries is also the official battery for the crowd-pleasing Stadium Super Truck racing series. 2019 Dakar champion and off-road racing champion Toby Price and local racer Paul Morris ( the only driver to have won the Bathurst Triple Crown outright) will be hitting Battery World at Modbury for a meet and greet with fans.