WAM Active’s application ‘not clear’ as to what was alleged to be unacceptable

Nicholas Bolton. Picture: David Geraghty

Like its previous rulings in the never-ending battle between Nicholas Bolton and Geoff Wilson, the 14th decision of the Takeovers Panel in relation to investment tiddler Keybridge was shaping up as a welcome balm for insomniacs.

And didn’t the panel deliver, right up until the 60th - or third last - paragraph.

Then, all of a sudden, kaboom!

Late last month, when WAM Active was stalking Keybridge, the panel comprehensively rejected Wilson’s argument that Keybridge CEO Bolton and one of his affiliates, Aurora, were acting in concert to frustrate the WAM takeover bid.

The panel released the reasons for its decision on Tuesday.

“Aurora submitted that WAM Active’s application was ‘far reaching and adopts a scattergun approach’. We agree,” it said ominously.

“The panel expects applicants to present a clear case as to why circumstances are unacceptable and not put forward a number of unsubstantiated allegations in the hope that some ‘mud’ might stick.

“We are concerned that WAM Active’s application, which exceeded the 10-page limit required by the procedural rules, was not clear as to what was alleged to be unacceptable.

“It also made what turned out to be unsubstantiated allegations of contraventions of Division 5A (of the Corporations Act, which protects investors from being misled into selling their interests at less than market value).”

As revealed in The Weekend Australian, Bolton and Wilson have not uttered a single word to each other since June 2016, when they broke bread at Rockpool in Sydney.

That’s despite multiple bids by Wilson for Keybridge, the aforementioned 14 related appearances before the panel, and co-investments in other listed companies.

Wilson knows how to deliver a barb.

Asked if it had become personal with Bolton, he responded: ““I just haven’t got time for it to be personal,” he said.

“I haven’t spoken to Nick for four to five years.

“For me, Keybridge is $6m out of the $3.5bn we manage, and it gets the same proportion of my time.”

Bolton, of course, is famous for his role in the 2009 Brisconnections saga.

As a 26-year-old, he outplayed Macquarie Bank, Leighton Holdings and Deutsche Bank, banking a $4.5m cheque from Leighton in return for handing over voting rights that could have held sway over the $4.8bn Airport Link toll-road in Brisbane.