High profile stockbroker Angus Aitken says there will be no economy to come back to

People are “completely over lockdowns, work from home, border closures and everything else”.

People are “completely over lockdowns, work from home, border closures and everything else”. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

High profile stockbroker Angus Aitken has suggested people are “completely over lockdowns, work from home, border closures and everything else” in a strongly worded email highly critical of ongoing coronavirus restrictions.

As pressure mounts on Victoria to ease restrictions ahead of achieving its target of fewer than five new coronavirus cases a day on average over 14 days, Mr Aitken, partner at Aitken Murray Capital Partners, said it was “hard to believe in a city of five million people we are worried about 10 to 15 cases of this thing”.

“ICUs are empty, not full, what are these Premiers waiting for: no economy to come back to?” he asked.

Victoria’s Andrews government has come under pressure this week to jettison its “roadmap” after the daily case count average over two weeks rose above 10, making it difficult to achieve an average of five by 19 October, when some lifting of restrictions had been planned.

Mr Aitken, who left Bell Potter in 2016 after critical comments about ANZ that resulted in a confidential settlement, said private equity would be “picking off” listed companies at “nice premiums” as part of “one of the great M&A booms”.

He also questioned productivity gains from working from home.

“What a load of absolute rubbish that is. You need proper interaction between people to have a genuine team in any organisation no zoom meeting can ever replace that,” he said in an email to clients and colleagues.

New survey evidence released on Tuesday by the ABS found around one in three Australians with a job worked from home most days in September compared with 12 per cent before COVID-19 restrictions started in March.

Melbourne-based stockbroker Bell Potter has also been highly critical of Victoria’s stage 4 lockdown, suggesting in a note to its clients last month that the “five new cases” target “placed Victoria at risk of permanent lockdown, or yo-yoing in and out of lockdowns as cases likely rise once restrictions are loosened”.

“The approach will leave lasting damage, irrespective of whether initial targets are hit, as businesses know they could be shut down at any moment at the slightest sight of an outbreak,” Bell Potter analysts said.

“State politicians need to have a big cup of ‘wake the f*** up’, open up their economies, get people off JobKeeper and back doing their normal jobs (assuming they still exist),” Mr Aitken said in an email.