CEO Rick Francis a winner in Spark Infrastructure deal

Spark infrastructure chief executive Rick Francis. Picture: Jane Dempster

One of the major beneficiaries of the $5.2bn acquisition of Spark Infrastructure by an Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan-led consortium is the company’s chief executive, Rick Francis.

Mr Francis stands to cash in with a windfall in the order of between $5m and $7m, say sources, after OTTP, with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and The Public Sector Pension Investment Board out of Canada (PSP), agreed to a deal to buy the electricity asset owner.

The agreed sale via a scheme of arrangement was announced on Monday and came after the consortium was granted due diligence by offering $2.95 a share.

That bid had followed a number of other earlier offers.

Mr Francis has been chief executive of Spark since 2012. Last year his total remuneration package was $2.38m.

According to the latest directors’ interest notice lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange, Mr Francis had 912,039 securities in Spark and 1.25 million performance rights, which are collectively valued at about $6.4m at the offer price.

Shareholders have been impressed with the way the company has conducted talks with the suitors and some say Mr Francis “steadied the ship” after the global financial crisis.

Spark owns a 15 per cent stake in NSW electricity transmission company TransGrid, South Australia Power and Victoria’s largest electricity suppliers CitiPower and Powercor.

Its share price was lagging pre-pandemic levels before the bid, which comes as unlisted investors chase hard assets as interest rates remain low.

Spark’s top shareholders include Lazard Asset Management, Franklin Resources, Legg Mason Asset Management and Maple Brown-Abbott.