Pankaj and Radhika Oswal say ANZ bungled share sale

Senior ANZ banker Chris Page planned to leave Pankaj Oswal with only “a bus fare home”, a court has heard.

Indian businessman Pankaj Oswal leaves court. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Senior ANZ banker Chris Page planned to leave Pankaj Oswal with only “a bus fare home” after selling the shares in Burrup Fertiliser the bank had seized from the Indian businessman and his wife, a court has heard.

Pankaj and Radhika Oswal, who are suing the ANZ and receivers PPB for at least $1.5 billion over the 2011 sale of their 65 per cent stake in Burrup, have already accused Mr Page of “racial bigotry” over an email he sent to the bank’s then-chief executive, Mike Smith, that described the couple as “Indians with no moral compass”.

Mr Page was chief risk officer at the time but left the bank in late 2011. The Oswals claim ANZ sold their shares in Burrup, which had been seized by the bank after a dispute over $US540 million ($744m) in personal loans, for far less than they were worth.

ANZ denies the claim and accuses the Oswals of misappropriating $150m from Burrup, part of which allegedly went on a Gulfstream jet, an as-yet unfinished mansion in Perth known as “Taj Mahal on the Swan”, luxury cars and Radhika Oswal’s Otarian vegetarian restaurant chain.

Counsel for the couple, Tony Bannon SC, yesterday told the Victorian Supreme Court that before PPB was appointed, Wesfarmers “was looking at offering somewhere between $US710m and $US770m” for the Oswals’ stake.

“Obviously an amount in that region would have produced at least a couple of hundred million for the Oswals’ benefit,” Mr Bannon said.

The bank allegedly instead pushed for a deal in which Norwegian company Yara International, which owned the rest of the fertiliser business, would buy the shares for $US550m.

Mr Bannon quoted from notes of a conversation between the boss of Wesfarmers chemical and energy division, Tom O’Leary, and Tony Burgess, the chief executive of ANZ’s adviser, Flagstaff Partners.

Mr O’Leary reported Chris Page said that under the proposed Yara deal, “Oswal gets a bus fare home of $50m”.

“We can probably all assume correctly what Mr Page regarded as Mr Oswal’s home,” Mr Bannon said.

He said that in the event the Oswals got nothing.

The Oswals’ stake was eventually sold to Yara and the fertiliser plant’s gas supplier, Apache, for $560m.

Mr Bannon has this week criticised the outcome as a “sweetheart deal” because Apache also got a new deal to supply gas at a higher price, the benefit of which was not shared with the Oswals.

He has also repeatedly attacked the allegedly cosy relationship between ANZ and Flagstaff, which is chaired by former ANZ chairman Charles B. Goode and was paid a success fee of $5m for selling the Burrup stake.

PPB was given “no choice” but to use Flagstaff. “Don’t think for a moment, your Honour, that the receivers agreed to appoint Flagstaff, Charles Goode, ex-chairman’s firm, because they had this expertise, Flagstaff wasn’t even on their list,” he said.