New Century snapped up while the boss was schmoozing investors and a former director was selling

Former New Century director Tolga Kumova was among those cashing in his chips. Picture: Nikki Short

Mining and metals outfit Sibanye-Stillwater nudged itself into a majority stake of New Century Resources on Wednesday, less than 48 hours after launching a stunning takeover bid for the company. It all went down while New Century’s managing director was on another continent meeting investors, some of whom appear to have been selling out of the business between the gladhanding.

Market observers were astonished by the speed of Sibanye’s hostile manoeuvring. By lunchtime on Tuesday Sibanye, aided by Citi and Ashurst, had lifted its ownership of New Century from 19.9 per cent to 40.5 per cent through a blitz of on-market trading.

New Century’s feeble attempt to stop the rush included an ASX announcement begging shareholders, in capital letters, not to be seduced by Sibanye’s $1.10-a-share offer. That barely worked – about 10 per cent of the company changed hands in 40 minutes.

That was on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning the South African major acquired another 13.6 million shares in New Century, enough to hit 51 per cent ownership and start issuing dictates; if it’s a vuvuzela they want in every office, at this point they can make it happen.

Margin Call hears mining investor and former New Century director Tolga Kumova, fresh from winning a Federal Court defamation action against Twitter troll Alan Davison, was among those cashing in his chips.

Call it a throwback to the corporate raiding of yore, such that even finance journalist Alan Kohler trumpeted the news on the ABC that night – on a day when Coles and BHP were reporting their half-year earnings – saying: “I haven’t seen a hostile bid in years and it’s a bit thrilling, really.”

Might be time for a holiday, then.

We can only suggest this swoop on the company was made even more chaotic at New Century owing to the fact its managing director, Robert Cooper, was out of the country for the entire ordeal.

Margin Call understands Sibanye’s strike on the share register was launched while Cooper was in the US meeting with investors and, according to one source, trying to raise capital. An official at New Century disputed that account.

How New Century will respond from here remains uncertain. Margin Call attempted to ask questions of its frazzled chair, Kerry Gleeson, but she shooed us away late on Wednesday afternoon having just emerged from a board meeting. Clearly it had been a long day. “I haven’t had breakfast yet,” she said.

Shooting the messenger?

Banks the world over are tightening their belts. At Goldman Sachs they’re slashing jobs by the thousands. At Credit Suisse they’re trimming bonuses, while Macquarie and ANZ are capping travel and entertainment spending.

Citi is no different, with bonus cheques on track to shrink this month. Still, we were saddened to hear that a victim of the cutbacks are the beloved Journalism Awards for Excellence, which after three decades’ running have abruptly been put on hiatus.

As banks tighten belts, ANZ is reining in spending and Citi has put its journalism awards on hold Picture: Bloomberg

“I’m writing to let you know a global decision has been made to pause the Citi Journalism Awards for Excellence this year,” wrote Louise Lindsay, Citi Australia and New Zealand’s head of corporate affairs, on Wednesday.

No mention why, of course, but we imagine the cost of production has something to do with it. When will they return? Hopefully next year, bottom line permitting.

“In Australia we are hoping to continue the awards in 2024, most likely with a new look and a new prize. We will keep you updated.”

Is this what they call shooting the messenger?

Scentre of attention

Former Scentre Group boss Peter Allen is making off with armfuls of loot when he leaves the company later this year, exiting with treasure totalling $11m, according to documents made public on Wednesday.

That’s surely one of the better kiss-off packages we’ve seen for some time; the company operates a bunch of shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand – it’s not an airline or a bank.

This, too, while the country skids into a recession. Or maybe it’s a mortgage cliff? Whatever you term it, the outcome is hardly going to help Scentre’s profits; they’re already down $300m for the 12 months to December. In any case, Allen is slated to retire completely from the group in September with a $2m severance package. That’s on top of his base salary of $1.4m and an at-risk bonus of the same amount.

Former Scentre chief Peter Allen and his successor Elliott Rusanow.

Add another $6.5m in equity and it’s no wonder he’s calling time. The rest of the smart money (read: the Lowy family) left the building years ago! We’d have far less to say on the matter if he’d doubled the share price. And while Scentre’s recovery hasn’t been all that bad, its share price is hardly where it was just before the collapse of March 2020. Back then the company was trading around $4. On Wednesday it closed at $2.99.

A long commute

A case of terrible timing for preselected Liberal Roshena Campbell, who will be contesting the outer Melbourne seat of Aston at the forthcoming by-election.

In November the budding politician bought a $1.68m family home in Brunswick with her husband, James Campbell, a political journalist at the Herald Sun newspaper.

Liberal candidate for Aston Roshena Campbell. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

Trouble is the new pile is a 40-minute drive to Alan Tudge’s old seat. There’s another home in Moonee Ponds, in Bill Shorten’s electorate, although Campbell insists she’ll be moving to Aston very shortly. The Libs hold it by a margin of 2.8 per cent.

And if elected, there’s always that other issue of political pillow-talk that might need to be managed between the Campbells. That said, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his journalist wife Laura seem to be handling the Chinese Walls of journalism and politics just fine.