Federal MP Stuart Robert a shareholder in Smiles Inclusive despite his register of interests saying “all shares have been sold”

An unexpected player has emerged in the decay of troubled Gold Coast listed dental group Smiles Inclusive - a Federal MP who’s lost a swag of cash.

Shareholders in Smiles Inclusive have struggled to extract value from their investments.

FEDERAL MP Stuart Robert has a million shares in decaying Gold Coast dental group Smiles Inclusive - and his investment has shrunk by hundreds of thousands as the company battles a boardroom showdown and rotten results.

Assistant Treasurer Mr Robert, who invested in the company before it listed on the ASX last May, is still on its share registry, a statement from the company has revealed.

This is despite his parliamentary register of interests declaring on November 25 last year that “all shares held in mine, my wife’s or my children’s personal names have been sold”.

Mr Robert yesterday said his shares in Smiles had either been sold or “pre-sold” in November and said he knew nothing about the current situation of the company, to which he loaned money ahead of its ASX listing.

Smiles Inclusive shareholders have been drilled more than 90 per cent since the company listed at $1 per share for total market value of more than $90 million - it ended yesterday at 14.5c for a total of $8.4 million.

Stuart Robert with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the election campaign in Brisbane earlier this month. Picture: Gary Ramage

DENTAL GROUP BRACES FOR DRAMA — SMILES INCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT

The company yesterday announced it was releasing some shares that had been held in escrow since it listed, meaning they could previously not be transferred or sold.

It revealed Mr Robert and wife Chantelle still held one million escrowed shares between them.

The escrowed Robert shares at market close yesterday were worth $145,000 but at the issue price of $1 per share would have been worth $1 million.

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The Roberts were the company’s 10th largest shareholders as of August 22 last year, when the annual report had them listed as holding 668,000, then worth $637,940. That holding would be worth $96,860 today.

Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert. Photo: Glenn Hunt.

Mr Robert’s register of interests declared on October 23 he held escrowed shares in Smiles both personally and through his Robert Superannuation Fund.

A month later, he declared he had transferred the bulk of his family’s investments into blind trust structures, and that “all shares held in mine, my wife’s or my children’s personal names have been sold”.

However, Mr Robert yesterday confirmed the shares had not been sold because they’re in escrow, but had been “pre-sold” to his family trust.

“To meet the requirements for ministerial accountability I and my wife signed an agreement on November 22, 2018 (four days prior to my declaration you referred to) that when the shares in our personal name come out of escrow … they are immediately sold to my family trust (which is not controlled by me and is in a blind trust arrangement),” he said.

“This way all shares I owned were either sold on the open market in November 2018, or pre-sold by signed contract in November 2018.”

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Smiles Inclusive share register that shows the Fadden MP as a current shareholder. Photo: Supplied

Part of Stuart Robert's register of interests. Photo: Supplied

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Mr Robert said he was not aware he and his wife were still named as individual shareholders of Smiles, and the shares were “ all in the process of being transferred into the blind trust arrangement”.

“All that paperwork has all gone in and the ASX just takes their good time.”

However the ASX said it was not processing any such transfers.

“ASX does not deal directly with shareholders in relation to escrow,” a spokesman said.

“The request for approval to transfer the escrowed shares would have had to have come from the company and we have no record of receiving such a request from the company.”

A spokesman for Smiles said some shares held by Mr Robert and his entities had been transferred to a blind trust on February 25, but that he still held the one million shares in escrow, some “on behalf of his children”.

Upon further questioning, the company said it had “just received” documentation to transfer the remainder of the Roberts’ shares to the family’s blind trust.

Smiles Inclusive founder and managing director Mike Timoney pictured outside of the Southport Yacht Club after it listed.

Mr Robert said everything he’d done had been approved by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

“There’s not a story there … journalists are always looking for the gotcha moment, but this one is not there,” he said.

Mr Robert has been caught up in several scandals involving his personal dealings, including involvement with a Chinese businessman which saw him disclipined and shunted from Malcolm Turnbull’s Ministry in 2016.

In October last year he was chastised for slugging taxpayers $2000 a month for his home internet bill, which the Department of Finance had inquired about since 2016, and he paid back the excess charges after they were publicised.

Last year he also joined a cryotherapy business which was co-owned by a convicted rapist, and Mr Robert denied knowing about the man’s criminal history.

Just over 30 per cent of Smiles Inclusive shares are held in escrow by the company, but holders of the escrowed shares are still eligible to vote at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting, where founder Mike Timoney and former chairman David Herlihy are seeking to oust three fellow directors, who are in turn trying to oust them.