No more excuses for QBE, says analyst

Illustration: Peter Nicholson

MEMO QBE boss John Neal: you’re no ironman. That’s the verdict from veteran insurance and banking analyst Brett Le Mesurier of brokerage BBY.

In a note to clients, Le Mesurier recounts his experience supporting an Australian athlete at last weekend’s gruelling Ironman contest at Kona in Hawaii amid “blistering heat, oppressive humidity and wind gusts which sent many competitors skidding across the road”.

But despite the terrible conditions, “not one competitor was heard to complain” or use the difficulties as an excuse for poor performance on the day.

Not so QBE: excuses Le Mesurier has compiled for the struggling insurer’s string of poor results over the years include it being too wet (2010 and 2014), too stormy (2010 and 2014), earthquakes and tsunamis (2011), a fall in crop prices (2013), a fall in interest rates (2008 to 2012), an increase in credit spreads (2011), too much competition (2014) and premium rates being lower than planned (2008 and 2014).

Le Mesurier points out that he wasn’t among the 11 analysts QBE recently took on a tour of its European operations. He says that unlike the lucky invitees, he has a sell recommendation on the stock. This coincidence he calculates had a probability of 0.3 per cent of occurring by chance.

A QBE spokesman said the company invited the top 12 analysts by market share “and BBY was well outside of that group”. Also not welcome: Bell Potter, Shaw Stockbroking, Wilson HTM, EL&C Baillieu, Ord Minnett, Patersons and Nomura. Apparently CBA was invited but didn’t go.

Binetters’ tax bill

THE taxman is considering whether it might lay claim to the proceeds of any sale of the Nudie juice group reaped by Sydney’s Binetter family, a court heard yesterday.

UBS is seeking to squeeze up to $60 million out of a buyer in a sale process that started in August. The Binetters, who are the targets of an investigation run by the ATO’s Operation Wickenby over assets allegedly kept offshore, hold a chunk of the Nudie business through family companies.

Details of the ATO’s potential claim emerged in the Federal Court in Sydney, where Andrew Binetter was giving evidence in a public examination into the collapse of one of the family’s many companies, BCI Finances.

BCI collapsed after being hit with a $14m tax bill and is now in the hands of liquidator John Sheahan of Sheahan Lock.

Sheahan’s lawyer, James Cudmore told the court his client was considering pursuing BCI’s directors for breach of their duties and needed to know what assets would be available in the event of a legal victory.

He said that in addition to the whopping tax bill, the ATO also wanted some $2m to cover its legal costs in pursuing BCI.

Trial tip for lawsuit

A DEFAMATION lawsuit brought by Melbourne PR guru Charlie Goldsmith against community broadcaster Triple R and musician/law student Raph Brous over a late-night broadcast in which Goldsmith was allegedly called a “knob jockey”, an “A1 turd burglar” and — according to the statement of claim — an “Aryan ubermensch”, seems set to go all the way to trial if whispers from around the city’s William Street legal district are correct.

Goldsmith, the boss of fashion focused flackhouse AMPR and the brother of Chantoozie Tottie, was earlier this year the subject of tabloid speculation postulating a romantic connection between him and hypermodel Miranda Kerr following her breakup with Hollywood star Orlando Bloom.

Goldsmith laughed off the suggestion and these days Kerr is reportedly stepping out with James Packer while Bloom has reportedly been linked to the casino magnate’s ex, Erica.

However it seems Goldsmith found Triple R’s interview with Brous, broadcast in August, far less amusing, lodging the statement of claim with the Victorian Supreme Court last month. Margin Call understands Triple R and Brous have both offered to settle the case, but Goldsmith has so far rejected their offers. Goldsmith’s lawyer, top defamation specialist Stuart Gibson, couldn’t be reached last night.

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