Electricity prices soar as AGL boss works on promoting image with spin doctor
FAT cat electricity boss Andy Vesey hired a spin doctor to massage his image ahead of announcing AGL’s 91 per cent jump in profits.
NSW
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FAT cat electricity boss Andy Vesey hired a spin doctor to massage his image ahead of announcing AGL’s 91 per cent jump in profits.
Close inspection of the half-yearly results, which show the company on target to clear $1 billion by the end of the financial year, reveal fewer customers are paying much bigger bills.
“No wonder he needs a spin doctor. Customers should be outraged they are paying for this huge profit,” Australia Institute energy expert David Richardson said.
Mr Vesey hired self-styled “media consigliere” Paul Blanchard to help manage his profile.
The spin doctor’s website says he only works with CEOs and high net-worth individuals. American Mr Vesey qualifies as both with an annual salary of almost $7 million.
Neither Mr Vesey nor his “consigliere” would comment on whether AGL was paying for the Britain-based media manager, who also has offices in New York and Los Angeles but not in Australia.
The jetsetting CEO would have plenty of opportunities to meet with Mr Blanchard on his trips back to the US.
It was on one jaunt to New York that he said “consumers really aren’t interested in the electricity bill”.
But many NSW customers opening their eye-watering bills would beg to differ.
Mr Richardson “drilled down” into the fine detail of yesterday’s results, finding that profit per electricity customer was $415 — up 20 per cent on last year.
“AGL’s profit from its electricity customers amounts to 33 per cent of its revenue so if your bill is $1000, AGL is taking $330 as profit,” Mr Richardson said.
AGL’s half-yearly after-tax profit is almost double the same time last year at $622 million. “This is an incredible rip-off,” Mr Richardson said.
Advocacy body Australian Power Project CEO Nathan Vass said AGL was making more money despite having fewer customers. And bad debts from customers who could not pay soaring bills was up by almost 30 per cent.
Mr Vass said price rises were driven by the closure of power plants.
“How can the federal government approve the closure of Liddell and maintain with a straight face that power prices will not go up even more?” he asked.
Coalition energy committee chair Craig Kelly said electricity in Mr Vesey’s US home state of Virginia was less than a third of the price in NSW because “only 1 per cent of their electricity comes from renewable power”.
“This guy is just gouging us blind,” he said.
Mr Vesey also took the opportunity to brag that AGL’s “leadership pipeline” comprised 40 per cent women.
But The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a raft of senior women are among the exodus of people leaving the company.