CBA’s reputation and boss’s pay on the line

THE Commonwealth Bank’s head teller, Ian Narev, faced a panel of reporters yesterday to talk about the institution’s financial planning crisis — in private. Well, as private as an intimate get-together in the Hilton Sydney’s Grand Ballroom can be.

Narev was chit-chatting with the media elite as part of the bank’s leadership forum, an annual shindig that brings about 300 CBA movers and shakers together for a festival of back-slapping.

Margin Call wasn’t invited but understands topics included whether the financial planning scandal has done damage to the bank’s image as a solid and trustworthy institution, built up in part through decades of schoolkids opening their first account with what was once a state-owned organisation.

Last week, the first evidence emerged that the financial planning scandal may have damaged the bank’s standing and — horrors — could cause shrinkage of Narev’s $8 million-a-year pay packet. According to the crucial Roy Morgan customer satisfaction survey, the bank is close to losing its No 1 position — and staying No 1 overall is worth 25 per cent of Narev’s long-term bonus.

Not so swell for Globe

SURFWEAR company Globe’s remuneration report has wiped out for the fourth time in a row after billionaire ragtrader Solomon Lew again voted against the report at yesterday’s AGM.

Margin Call believes Lew, who holds 5.88 per cent, was joined in the thumbs-down Globe campaign by investment banker David Williams of Kidder Williams, who holds 2.32 per cent. The move means Globe will now have to hold a meeting to spill the board, the second in the past four years.

Directors Matt, Peter and Stephen Hill together control close to 70 per cent of the company, which they’re not allowed to vote on the rem report question.

Also on the register is Chemical Trustee, a company registered in Britain that is at the heart of a long-running stoush between the ATO and Sydney businessman Vanda Gould, and Melbourne QC Norman O’Bryan. O’Bryan, who owns 0.59 per cent of Globe and once rejected a takeover bid by writing “F… OFF YOU MORONS” on the acceptance form, told Margin Call he voted for the rem report “because I have confidence in the management — I don’t believe they’re overpaid”. He said the vote was “being used as a pressure point by Mr Lew”.

Karoon clash

WHILE the much-anticipated Karoon AGM yesterday failed to generate the flames many had been waiting for, it was nonetheless a heated affair — mainly because 150 people were crammed into Crown Casino’s garden room.

There was barely standing room left to hear Pegasus Global Wealth partner Erwin Weinzinger go toe-to-toe with Karoon executive chairman Bob Hosking, whom he personally blames for losing Pegasus and its investors a stack of dough.

Weinzinger was the lone voice of angst at the meeting, with most of the shareholders backing the company’s direction. Apart from a 75 per cent drop in market value since 2009, Weinzinger was upset Hosking purported to be unaware of who was behind Pegasus, saying they’d been out to dinner and played golf together.

Hosking didn’t bite publicly and the voting went against Weinzinger. But Weinzinger swore Pegasus will fly again. “I am surprised with the outcome of the votes, Pegasus will not go away until Karoon has a clean, independent and experienced board.”

Food for thought

SUPERMARKET giant Woolworths was backing the meat truck up Capital Circuit yesterday in preparation for its annual barbecue for pollies and staffers, to be held in the early evening by chief executive Grant O’Brien with help from Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker. The carcass charring carnival couldn’t come at a better time for Woolies, which needs all the help it can get in the nation’s capital to battle competition regulator Rod Sims, who has taken exception to the way the big supermarkets treat their suppliers.