Canva relying on its backers

CEO of Canva Melanie Perkins.

Sydney-based tech unicorn Canva just last week shot the lights out with its latest capital raising, putting its valuation close to $20bn and enlarging the on-paper wealth of founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams.

On other paper, however, the group tells a somewhat different story.

The most recent accounts for the Australian-domiciled entity lodged with ASIC just this week show just over $187.5m in revenue, $134m in assets and 810 employees for the year to ­December 31, 2019 across their local operations and including their subsidiaries in The Philippines, Germany and Hong Kong.

Despite all that, the accounts also note that the KPMG-audited statements were prepared on a going concern basis.

Hefty loans to the tune of $25m from the group’s US-based parent are propping up the local entity, with deferred income of $36.3m also adding to its liabilities. Ignoring those, the seven-year-old company says, results in a net current asset position of $19m.

Good thing Canva has deep pockets and directors such as married pair Perkins and Obrecht who are willing to back the company no matter what.

“The directors of Canva Inc have provided a formal written letter of support to the company outlining its undertaking to provide financial and operational support for at least a period of 12 months from the date of signing the 2019 financial report,” the accounts read.

No matter its accounting position, the group’s latest investors don’t seem to mind. Kim Jackson and Scott Farquhar’s Skip Capital dipped in again for the latest offer, as well as new investors, the US-based investment management firm T Rowe Price and Dragoneer Investment Group.

Illustration: Rod Clement

Rev-up over pay

Australia’s largest car dealership group operator, Eagers Automotive, hasn’t ever done things conventionally when it comes to remuneration — you need only look at the shareholder backlash at its last annual meeting.

It was there that the then Martin Ward-led company received a first strike for its remuneration report, in part due to concerns of a lack of disclosure and several one-off bonuses, among other things like a cool $250m in impairments.

Ahead of its next meeting in May, and with the threat of a second strike and spill of the board hanging over its head, chairman Tim Crommelin, also chairman at Brisbane-based Morgans, has set out a few changes, but not before releasing the final rem report under the previous framework.

The lion’s share of alterations, signed off by remuneration committee head Gregory Duncan, were largely levelled at Ward, now an adviser to the board and new CEO Keith Thornton.

Ward’s pay was effectively slashed by half, with Ward taking home “just” $1.3m for the year after a three-month period of half pay during COVID, and with his short-term incentives taken off the table.

His newly installed replacement, former chief operating officer Thornton, meanwhile, got a tidy $1.1m commission for his work in the year — derived as a percentage of net profit — to eclipse his senior manager with a total annual package of $1.5m for the year.

Head of finance Sophie Moore also scored a $1m retention grant for her work on the merger with Automotive Holdings Group, a $150,000 cash bonus, and was the only one to net any performance rights during the period.

Stellar results in the first quarter set the scene for a more subdued AGM this time around, but with his colleagues’ pay packets eclipsing his own, suddenly Ward’s withdrawal from the company is making a little more sense.

Watchdog drags feet

Government regulators are hardly known for their expediency, but when it comes to corporate regulator ASIC it seems the proverbial dragging of feet is extending across several aspects of its operations.

On Friday, the for-now James Shipton-led operation was touting its latest six-month scorecard, revealing $160m in civil penalties by taking on the likes of Ross McEwan’s NAB subsidiaries or over-the-counter derivatives provider AGM Markets.

One such matter it hadn’t resolved, however, was the case of celebrity financial planner Sam Henderson, once a regular figure on Nine’s Today and Sky Business.

Financial planner Sam Henderson. Picture: Monique Harmer

After Henderson had misrepresented his qualifications for years, magistrate Jennifer Atkinson of the NSW District Court in December imposed a $10,000 fine and two-year good behaviour bond, noting a likely financial penalty from ASIC as well.

ASIC, she noted, was intending to recover more than $126,000 in costs connected to its investigation.

Several months on and Margin Call hears those intentions are still yet to be actioned, with no letter to Henderson yet sent and the process still held up in internal legal protocols.

Of course, the regulator has had other things on its plate aside from, well, regulating.

The probe into its outgoing boss Shipton and his deputy Daniel Crennan sparked a reshuffle of the group’s internal protocols and corporate structures, on top of the keenly awaited decision on the chair’s replacement.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg set out a three-month time frame for the recruitment process in late January — that deadline now looms large at the end of this month.

Johns’ shares slip-up

For all his board experience, it seems Stephen Johns, chair of property powerhouse Goodman Group, is in need of a refresher.

Late on Friday the Gregory Goodman-led listed group told the market Johns — also ex-Brambles and who served on the Westfield board for almost 30 years — had inadvertently purchased shares in the company during a blackout period before the group’s half-year results in February, when it revealed a 16 per cent profit lift.

Company secretary Carl Bicego explained that the chair, with his Morgan Stanley Wealth Management advisers, had appointed an external investment manager to create a model share portfolio earlier this year.

Stephen Johns.

Unbeknown to him, such a portfolio included the purchase of 1182 shares in his own company worth about $21,000, and the offload of 39.

All just a misunderstanding according to Goodman, as “Johns had not appreciated that Goodman securities fell within the model’s parameters for underlying investments”.

Nothing that couldn’t be solved with a slap on the wrist and an updated change of director’s interest form, plus a commitment it wouldn’t happen again.