Psst! Walls don’t have ears at UBS Chinese Walls needed as UBS pursues different deals

Let’s hope the Chinese Walls are in good shape at UBS, the investment bank run by shopping centre owner Matthew Grounds (Margin Call, yesterday).

UBS was laying down Matthew’s Kitchen Rules yesterday, underwriting the capital raising billionaire Kerry Stokes’s listed Seven West Media announced yesterday to the tune of $150 million.

But just two weeks ago the Swiss bank was tuning into The Block over on Nine, flogging off touring business Nine Live to private equity mob Affinity Equity Partners.

And yesterday a tabloid newspaper also published a curious article claiming Grounds met with Telstra earlier this year to see if the telco was interested in buying Seven West.

Phew! Luckily, different teams work on the deals.

ASIC boss Greg Medcraft is already doing a health check on the Chinese Walls at UBS, calling in Grounds for a grilling over a report on electricity privatisation that was changed after a call from NSW Premier Mike Baird’s office.

No doubt Medcraft will find everything hunky dory.

Big stink over Link

Meanwhile, another UBS production, the $830m IPO of accounting software company MYOB, continues to be plagued by niggles (UBS is one of the float’s joint lead managers).

The latest is that MYOB has been forced to issue a supplementary prospectus to tell investors that BankLink, a business it bought for more than $110m in 2013, is under threat in a trademark lawsuit.

Sydney company Zanell, which trades as Secure eSolutions, reckons the BankLink name is too similar to its Bank*Link and last week asked the Federal Court to stop MYOB using it.

MYOB says its BankLink, a key company product, delivers small business banking transactions direct to an accountant so that financial accounts can be prepared.

Zanell’s Bank*Link, on the other hand, allows businesses to batch up payments like payrolls and put them into the bank payment system.

In court documents Zanell says users have confused the two products, pointing out that Suncorp offers its Bank*Link with a promise it is compatible with MYOB.

This snafu comes after ASIC forced MYOB to issue a replacement prospectus that provides more information about owner Bain Capital, and clarify figures about the accounting market.

MYOB spokesman Andrew Stokes said: “The IPO is going to settle and the listing will take place on Monday as planned.”

Addressing the issue

Wilderness Society activist Anna Christie accidentally released a vast number of media email addresses into the, er, wilderness yesterday after forgetting to BCC them into an email to an opponent of Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek coalmine. This in an email that reminds people: “Don’t forget to BCC the entire list.” Oops.

The missive was part of a campaign the Wildos are running against Whitehaven. While it’s no longer haunted by the ghost of Singapore bogainaire Nathan Tinkler, it and other miners in the area have a problem with dust, which is hanging around the area like a cloud of flies.

Greenies want an industry levy to monitor the dust, but this would hurt Whitehaven’s claim to be a lowest-cost producer — an important point given the still dire coal price.

Banker’s stash

Does international man of mystery and ANZ boss Mike Smith really have less than $900 in the bank?

The superstar banker unveiled his first tweet yesterday, a close-up of the Apple Watch running a prototype of ANZ’s go Money app (is that a Sea Island shirt?).

The balance displayed: $888.88. Not the kind of cash that enabled Smith to buy $10m Victorian estate Spray Farm.

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