Mike Smith’s fond farewell to fundies, analysts

CEO’s farewell to fundies, analysts

The Mike Smith Farewell Tour rolled on yesterday with the outgoing ANZ boss fronting his final meeting with analysts ahead of new boss Shayne Elliott taking over in January.

Prosecuting the theme of “feeding the fat and starving the thin” couldn’t have been more apt as the new guard Elliott and old guard Smith took questions and comments from gathered market types.

Neck ties and jackets are apparently no longer de rigeur for such events.

Smith was given the chance at the end of the results dissection to address gathered analysts and fundies, declaring with conviction, “Many thanks, I’ll really miss this,” to which the disciples responded with peals of laughter.

“I’ve sometimes had my disagreements with some of you, but you’ve always been extremely interested and I’d like to thank you all for your support and it’s been great fun.

“I wish Shayne all the very best of luck going forward.”

Comfy AmBank view

The new boss is clearly a glass-half-full kind of banker.

He optimistically reckons the political turmoil in Malaysia around AmBank, which is quarter-owned by ANZ, is “short term”.

AmBank is at the centre of a gigantic political storm involving alleged corruption at sovereign fund 1MDB and the alleged arrival of $US700 million in accounts held by Malaysian PM Najib Razak at the Kuala Lumpur-based institution.

Well, at least deposits are up.

The new boss is no longer on the board of AmBank, while its former chief executive Ashok Ramamurthy, who took a break from ANZ to run AmBank, is back in Melbourne working on “special projects” at ANZ’s Docklands bunker.

Elliott didn’t really answer why if ANZ reckons AmBank is undervalued it doesn’t buy more, merely saying he was “comfortable” with the present stake — although no mention of “relaxed”.

Little wonder experienced Asia campaigner Smith warned him to “be careful” ahead of tackling questions on the topic.

Betting on Nobu

There appears no limit to James Packer’s love affair with Hollywood.

From Tom Cruise in Packer’s Scientology days through to Robert De Niro’s Nobu and his RatPac buddies led by producer Brett Ratner, Packer seeks friends and associates with glitz and glam.

So can we expect a Nobu vibe when it comes to the development of the fourth Crown hotel on the Queensbridge Hotel site in Melbourne as the Nobu hospitality group mushrooms new hotel and restaurant sites all over the world?

Crown and its partners are working full-tilt to lodge their development application for the site to the City of Melbourne by mid-November, with the Victorian government, which has the final say on the project, waiting for council’s view before it makes a call on Packer’s plans.

The development deal with the Schiavello Group includes a commitment for the combined hotel and residential tower to bear the Crown brand, a la the existing Crown Towers, Crown Promenade and Crown Metropol, but that wouldn’t rule out a Nobu Hotel within a Crown facility.

Nobu, which Crown reckons is worth a lofty $US500m ($703m), already has nine hotels worldwide and a proposed residential development in Mexico.

And it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. Nobu developed Nobu Manila at City of Dreams, which is a Melco Crown (Philippines) property.

Camps insecurity

Transfield — sorry, Broadspectrum — can’t quite seem to ink that all-important new multi-billion-dollar contract to run Immigration Department camps at Nauru and Manus Island, instead relying on a temporary extension that takes it through to late February.

With sentiment in Canberra firming that Malcolm Turnbull will visit Yarralumla to ask Peter Cosgrove for an election in March, that could make signing any longer-term deal before the caretaker period starts rather tricky.

That’s assuming Transbroad, which officially changed its name yesterday, wins the deal. At Wednesday’s AGM, chairman Diane Smith-Gander again said it was the “preferred tenderer”. But when announcing the extension Fieldspectrum’s language was far more subdued, with talk of “transition to any new contract” signed by the feds indicating it might not be quite as confident as before.

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