Unsurprisingly burritos were literally on the menu at the ASX in Sydney as the powers that be behind the float of Guzman y Gomez gathered at lunchtime to see the fast food restaurant’s stock debut, not to mention calculate how much wealthier many of the gathered were, thanks to the long-anticipated day.
Some, as investors from early on, had used the opportunity of the float, which at the close valued the chain at more than $3bn, to take some money off the table.
GyG chairman and former local McDonald’s boss and Wesfarmers exec Guy Russo cashed in about 840,000 of his shares to pocket $18.5m. By the close of trading, Russo’s remaining 5.6 million share stake in the enterprise was worth about $183m. He remains a substantial shareholder and sits at No.5 on the share register by volume.
GyG major shareholder TDM Growth, led by founder Tom Cowan, who is also on the GyG board, pocketed about $100m for his fund by cashing in about 4.5 million shares. TDM is still GyG’s biggest shareholder with 28.6 million shares, or about 28 per cent of the company, now worth $858m. By anyone’s measure, a lot of nachos.
He was at the float festivities along with his former Test cricketer brother Ed Cowan, who is a member of the TDM investment team.
Long-time GyG director Bruce Buchanan, who founded tech company Rokt, in which TDM has also invested, cashed in $2.75m worth of his shares into the float, with his remaining shareholding now worth about $9m. Co-CEO Hilton Brett took some moolah off the table too, about $1m worth, with his remaining stake still worth about $10m.
Margin Call understands a chairman’s list was administered by the brokers for the offer, but that the exclusive bunch were scaled back by about 90 per cent.
Also at the ASX to watch it all unfold were co-executive chair at Barrenjoey Guy Fowler, with the firm’s stake now worth $315m as it sits as GyG’s second-biggest investor with a 10.4 per cent stake. Fowler’s colleague Matthew Grounds wasn’t there, instead in Melbourne on other business.
Barrenjoey’s co-head of equity capital markets Jade Jerram was also there, while Morgan Stanley was repped by its head of ECM Luke Boeg. GyG’s legal adviser to the float, Adam d’Andreti from Gilbert & Tobin, was also in the house.
Former GyG chair Steve Jermyn, who has a bit less than a 4 per cent stake now worth $115m, and GyG co-founder Robert Hazan, who has 4.5 per cent of the group worth $135m, were also at the exchange to see their baby fly, while GyG franchisees who participated in the offer at a discounted $18 a share were celebrating their 67 per cent stag on the day.
Happy days.
Eyes on an Emmy
Scott Farquhar, the billionaire co-founder but exiting co-chief executive of Atlassian, only has 10 or so weeks left in the top job, but he still has an eye for the detail around what’s unfolding at the $US40bn tech company.
Farquhar, who exits at the end of August, was this week hailing the achievement of his creative types after their Impossible Alone ad was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Commercial category.
We figure there is no award this guy doesn’t want to win.
Voting in the category closes on June 24, so Farquhar was keen to rustle up any contacts his followers on LinkedIn might have with members of the Television Academy, encouraging lobbying for votes for the Atlassian work.
“Massive kudos to everyone involved from the Atlassian brand and creative teams for this film,” Farquhar told his followers, before rallying support.
Apple won the gong for one of its ads last year, with the 2024 ceremony to unfold in September.
A quick look at the ballot for the academy vote, however, reveals there are in the order of 140 nominees in the category Farquhar’s crowing about.
Maybe he should wait until Team Atlassian actually wins?
Moans in the mail
So Aussie Post boss Paul Graham doesn’t think that three of the four pillars – Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac – are paying his government-owned enterprise enough to provide Bank@Post services at its post offices.
He wants more money from them and wants to get ANZ on the program too.
But the deals aren’t very old.
NAB is said to have announced a renewed 10-year deal with Post in June 2021. Westpac signed a fresh 10-year deal in October 2022, and CBA’s latest contract runs to 2034.
Graham started at Post in September 2021, so he’s seeking to restrike some deals that were done on his watch?
Speaking of watch, well, watches, recall that the previous round of Bank@Post deals were being hailed by his predecessor in the top job Christine Holgate, who’s now running Team Global Express for its private equity owners, as a super deal for the postal service.
So terrific in fact, that she went out and bought four Cartier watches as a thank you to the key execs who were responsible for negotiating the lucrative deals, which at the time she was thrilled with.
We all know how that reward for great work played out for Holgate, who was humiliated by then prime minister Scott Morrison, lost her job, but was ultimately vindicated by a financial settlement of her subsequent claims against the commonwealth.
Graham is complaining about deals he says are rubbish, but some of which he struck.
More wrongs than rights at the AHRC?
A case of curious priorities over at the Australian Human Rights Commission where hand-picked appointee Giridharan Sivaraman seems to prefer playing politics over action on anti-Semitism.
Freehills partner given notice over synagogue tweet
Herbert Smith Freehills leaders have voted to remove one of its longstanding partners, Damien Hazard, over a ‘deeply offensive’ tweet targeting Jeremy Leibler.