Gold Coast business: LandMark White, ASX-listed company’s shares suspended after data breach

A Gold Coast company listed as the nation’s biggest property valuation group has been left battered after a hacker targeted the business. Now its shares have been suspended.

GLEN White, Mermaid Beach resident, knows all about battering — he’s just experienced a double dose.

One culprit was Cyclone Oma, which unleashed some furious waves on the beach in front of his longstanding home.

The second culprit was a hacker who effectively battered the value of a company which has been Glen’s pride and joy.

It’s the nation’s largest listed property valuation group, LandMark White, in which a White entity is the second biggest shareholder.

Glen White at the Landmark White's then HQ at Bundall on the day Landmark White listed in 2003.

The company, in its latest year, valued $81 billion worth of property.

Back in 2003 Glen, who joined the valuation game nearly 50 years ago, took the then Bundall-based company on to the ASX.

He stepped down as chairman 10 months ago after seeing LMW, as it’s tagged, mushroom into a company with 44 offices across Australia.

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Things were going reasonably swimmingly for LMW as 2019 started to unfold, although a falling property market was impacting revenue and forecast profit.

The hacker stole information in a data breach.

Then, four weeks ago and out of left field, a bombshell hit the company.

LMW revealed that it had been the target of a ‘data breach’.

It was some breach — information on about 100,000 home-loan customers was stolen and posted on the dark web for 10 days.

The ‘info’ was the sort of detail that appears on any property data website and did not include credit-card or birth-date details.

The LMW shares fell and ultimately were suspended, but the really bad news was delivered by the major banks, already gun-shy as a result of the banking royal commission.

They suspended their use of LMW, a move that could have a major financial impact on the company, its staff, and shareholders.

The LMW shares fell and ultimately were suspended, but the really bad news was delivered by the major banks, already gun-shy as a result of the banking royal commission. Hollie Adams/The Australian

Those banks provide a big slice of the company’s business — LMW undertook more than 100,000 valuations in the 2017-18 year.

The company’s been out trying to satisfy the banks that its data security problem is remedied and that there’s no longer a risk.

Meanwhile, its shares remain suspended and might not re-list for a fortnight or so.

LMW is working to determine the financial impact of the ‘hack’ and what affect it will have on its cashflow.

There might be a ray of sunshine if the company, like many others, is covered by cyber insurance.

It seems certain that because of the banks pausing their association with LMW, many of the residential valuers among the company’s near 400 staff, including some in the Gold Coast office, have been having some quieter days.

This year might well be a dividend wipe-out for the beachfront dweller. Hollie Adams/The Australian

Last financial year the company earned more than $40 million in fees.

Shareholders received a franked payout of 4.6c a share, continuing an LMW record of rewarding them every year since it listed.

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The hacker seems to have made it highly questionable whether that record will stay intact.

Glen, who effectively owns 14 per cent of the company, last year received close to $500,000 in dividends.

This year might well be a dividend wipe-out for the beachfront dweller.

THE penthouse in boutique tower SEA at Main Beach has sold in an $8.25 million deal that is believed to set a record for an absolute beachfront Gold Coast apartment.

The agents involved in the transaction describe the buyer as a riverfront domiciled developer and say he looked at the new two-level apartment seven times before a price was agreed.

His persistence paid off — the price is $1.5 million below the tag originally put on the property.

FRASERS Property, which bought the Australand group in 2014, is the hot tip as the likely buyer of the balance of Hope Island’s Serenity Cove estate.

The listed Singaporean group fast is running out of waterfront land at its nearby Cova estate, which fronts the Hope Island canal.

A replenishment option would be offered by acquiring the lakefront Serenity Cove, owned by Malaysian groups Sime Darby and Brunsfield and which quietly has been offered around the market for several months.

A CHINESE fellow has emerged as the buyer who has paid a Sovereign Islands record $11.05 million for a mansion that was the one-time home of developer John Fish.

Zewei Wu took possession of the 2000 sqm Sir Lancelot Close home four months after selling a property in Brisbane’s Chapel Hill for $2.5 million.

Receivers in 2010 sold the then Fish home to Brian Peat for $7 million, who in 2017 was chasing close to $15 million.