Coca-Cola Amatil boss Alison Watkins’ $20m payday
Coca-Cola Amatil’s likely sale to its European associate has put the future of the bottler’s boss, Alison Watkins, up in the air, but for all her executive options she has almost 20 million reasons to pursue an early retirement.
As the company’s shareholders on Friday vote on the $9.8bn deal, there’s a lot riding on it for the Tassie-born exec.
After leading the organisation for the past six years, Watkins has amassed quite the holdings in the stock, as well as her fair share of incentives — all of which have been green-lit by the European buyer CCEP so long as shareholders give them the thumbs-up.
In shares alone, Watkins will net more than $8.6m if the scheme is passed.
On top of that, the bidder has set out that the managing director will be entitled to $9.9m in relation to the early vesting of her long-term incentives from the past two years and early release of her restricted shares.
All up, about $19m isn’t bad for a golden handshake of sorts, given her likely exit from the firm after the implementation of the scheme — slated for early next month.
Watkins was tight-lipped on any movements post-sale, noting that her focus was solely on the transaction at hand, but the question can’t be far from her mind given her future was largely at the new owner’s discretion.
Notes in the scheme booklet sent to shareholders detail that the bidder “intends to work with Amatil’s leadership team … nevertheless CCEP does intend to explore potential efficiencies across the CCEP and Amatil businesses where it is commercially appropriate to do so”.
That would give the 59-year-old more time to focus on her growing roster of board roles — including her most recent appointment by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to Philip Lowe’s RBA board after the exit of Allan Moss in December.
In addition, she works alongside former MYOB head Tim Reed on the Business Council of Australia board, and she is a director of think tank The Centre for Independent Studies, chaired by Nicholas Moore.
Plenty of heavy hitters among those colleagues to shore up another top job, though after commuting between her home and husband Rod in Melbourne’s Toorak and the firm’s head office in North Sydney perhaps a little R&R is in order.
Board hands out
While the future of the Amatil boss is uncertain, the European bidder has been much more cut and dry with the target’s board.
Ilana Atlas’s board, including the likes of former Virgin boss John Borghetti, and her ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan will all resign from their posts on the implementation date, severing ties from the bottler and cashing in their holdings, too.
Chairman Atlas has the most to gain, with just over $567,000 in shares at the prevailing offer price, while Borghetti and O’Sullivan should net $300,000 each.
Despite modest holdings, former PwC exec Mark Johnson and Penelope Winn get an extra $25,000 boost for their assistance on the deal — notably whether the transaction is passed or not.
Similarly, legal adviser Herbert Smith Freehills, financial adviser UBS, tax adviser Deloitte, independent expert Grant Samuel and Amatil share registry Link Market Services all will have their hand out for a piece in the roughly $60m in external transaction costs.
Another rooting for approval is chief financial officer Greg Barnes, who probably won’t even make 12 months at Amatil.
The top number cruncher was lured to Coke in June last year, after overseeing Nine’s $4bn acquisition of Fairfax in 2019 alongside now departed boss Hugh Marks.
His efforts at his current employer have been well recognised, however, with 60,498 share rights granted in the last financial year — all $816,000 of which are set to vest under the same rules applied to his managing director.
Nice work if you can get it.
Holgate in demand
Margin Call hears board role offers for former top postie Christine Holgate are coming in thick and fast after her show-stopping performance in Canberra this week.
So too are whispers about just where said roles may be.
After spearheading AFL club Collingwood’s process to appoint a replacement president, rumours were swirling on Thursday as to whether the former Blackmores exec would pull a Dick Cheney and put her own name on the ticket.
With a decision on the recruitment process imminent, word is the Magpies board is split on current directors Mark Korda and Peter Murphy for the time-intensive top job — Holgate emerging as a potential consensus candidate.
When quizzed on the matter, the former top CEO’s camp was staunch in their denial, saying she still had plenty of years left for executive roles before committing to any such presidential position.
The time constraints, they said, would be too much to juggle as an exec and president.
Except of course if you’re Eddie McGuire.
Digging deeper
You have to admire that Liberal senator Sarah Henderson hasn’t lost her journalistic tenacity from her days of hosting ABC’s 7.30 Report.
The Victorian senator attempted to reveal the great conspiracy that led to Christine Holgate’s departure from Australia Post during estimates on Tuesday — who told Labor about Holgate rewarding four senior executives Cartier watches in recognition of securing a banking deal worth several hundred million dollars to save post offices?
Faceless men, or women, have become an object of fascination inside the Canberra bubble in the past decade, and Henderson was determined to unmask the rat inside or outside the ranks at AusPost.
Rumours have been swirling for months how Victorian senator Kimberley Kitchingknew of the watch purchases. But on re-reading the Senate estimates transcript at the time, you will find that the senator merely asked if staff were rewarded over the Bank@Post deal.
It was Holgate who volunteered the value of $20,000 in October, and who on Tuesday blew any conspiracies around potential leaking of information out of the water.
“Everybody was very proud,” Holgate said. “It was a defining moment in our history. It was the largest capital investment into the company by an outside organisation.”
Henderson pressed on, seemingly still sniffing a conspiracy that would be a greater crime than her leader Scott Morrison’s thundering that Holgate stand aside or “go”.
“Do you have any idea or suspicion as to the identity of any current or former Australia Post employee who would have had access to information about the watches and might have provided that information to Senator Kitching?” Henderson asked.
Holgate wasn’t buying what she was selling, however.
“How many people would have known about the watches? Like thousands,” Holgate replied, adding it was common knowledge on level 19 of the firm’s Bourke Street headquarters.
“It was no secret, so I don’t feel it is fair to speculate.”
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