Qube shaping up nicely with Moorebank sale

The boss of Qube Holdings will step down after a decade in the role as the logistics operator sealed the $1.65bn sale of its Moorebank warehouses to Logos Property Group

Picture: AAP

The boss of Qube Holdings will step down after a decade in the role as the logistics operator sealed the $1.65bn sale of its Moorebank warehouses to Logos Property Group.

Maurice James, who became managing director in 2011, will step down on June 30 and retire at the end of 2021, to be replaced by Qube’s chief operating officer Paul Digney.

“Maurice indicated his desire to retire early last year but agreed to stay on to lead Qube through the COVID-19 pandemic and to the conclusion of the Moorebank monetisation process,” Qube chairman Allan Davies said.

“Paul, is in our view, unquestionably the right person for the job of leading Qube.”

Qube is selling its stake in the warehousing and property unit of the Moorebank Logistics Park to Logos with Qube to retain its 100 per cent interest in the intermodal rail terminals.

The deal is worth $1.65bn with total property proceeds of $1.86bn including Minto Properties.

Logos counts the Warburg Pincus-backed ARA Asset Management as a major shareholder, which has $88bn in gross assets under management globally, with the operator beating competitors including Dexus Property Group, Charter Hall and Blackstone.

Qube’s interim net profit after tax rose 9.3 per cent to $74.3m despite revenue slipping 1.7 per cent to $953m with the company handing back just under $17m in JobKeeper payments due to a strong rebound in business activity.

“The board decided it was the right thing to do to return those subsidies given that unexpected rebound in volumes and the forecast for the remainder of this business year,” Mr James told analysts.

Qube had copped a first strike against its remuneration report at the logistic services provider’s annual general meeting in November, after leading proxy firms used a grab bag of complaints, ranging from alterations made to short-term bonuses to the company accepting JobKeeper, to push for a “no” vote.

Qube estimates it would have cut between 250 to 270 jobs if JobKeeper was not available to the company.

“Had we not had JobKeeper we would have been more aggressive with our job cuts and that would have run the risk of losing key resources in regional ports,” Mr James said.

Its bulk shipping business has been largely unaffected by the pandemic and Qube said its container terminal volumes — including its Patricks port handling business — made a strong contribution.

Its dividend fell 13.8 per cent to 2.5c.

Qube also revealed it had dropped out of the race for Japan Post‘s $3.5bn Toll Holdings Global Express unit with the company thought to have been looking at Toll’s domestic warehousing network.

Japan Post moved to a second round for the sale with buyers including Allegro Funds Management still in the hunt.

Qube said it was notified on Monday it had not made the cut.

“We‘ve participated in that process and were effectively told on Monday this week that we won’t be proceeding to the next stage,” Mr James told analysts after its interim results on Thursday.

Qube is watching whether other Toll divisions are subsequently put up for sale with Japan Post retaining ownership of Toll’s logistics and forwarding divisions.

Japan Post bought Toll for $6.5bn in 2015 but the deal has proved disastrous with giant writedowns and losses.

Qube shares rose 1.6 per cent on Thursday to $3.14.