Questions for VGI Partners’ AGM; Hrdlicka’s Hawaiian Airlines gig bears fruit; Rob Keldoulis’ support for The Guardian
Investors in two funds established by Rob Luciano’s VGI Partners will file into Sydney’s Governor Macquarie Tower on Wednesday for their annual general meeting, and we anticipate no shortage of questions, perhaps even heckling, for the mercurial Luciano.
For example, with so many staff departures, is it still prudent that he rent terrace offices on Phillip Street at a price of $250,000 a year? And is he still practising all that Krav Maga down in the basement with a trainer brandishing a black rubber truncheon – or what we think is a truncheon?
Leaving that aside, perhaps the more pertinent question could be how VGI’s Asian Investments fund VG8 came to be a substantial shareholder in an obscure AI microcap known as SenSen over the past two years, its share price utterly tanking since January.
VG8 is no longer controlled by Luciano but during the period it was, he signed away $5m to the tiny SenSen, and that’s despite the fund’s prospectus clearly nominating a preference for large and liquid companies, usually those trading above $US5m per day.
SenSen would struggle to hit that figure in a month.
On paper it seems highly irregular for VG8 to even consider investing in such a market minnow. So, would it have anything to do with its recently departed chief financial officer, Jonathan Cook, who happens to be Luciano’s brother-in-law?
Cook finished up with SenSen in September, but he was very much its CFO during the Christmas of 2020 when Luciano is said to have joined with him and others for the traditional family lunch.
It was either that day or very soon after when Luciano’s interest in SenSen seemed to crystallise, resulting in a missive to his team crowing about an exotic tip he’d uncovered that required their analysis. No mention of the familial link, of course.
We’d have less to say about this plunge if it didn’t turn out to be so howlingly unsuccessful. SenSen emerged from a trading halt days later on January 6, 2021, to announce that VG8 had cornerstoned a $7.1m capital raise for 40 million shares at $0.125. Predictably, the company’s share price rocketed as a consequence, but VG8 wasn’t nimble enough to capitalise on the gains; it’s been hoarding the stock ever since and selling it in bits as the price deflates and decays to the single digits. SenSen shares closed at just under 7c on Tuesday.
VGI’s merger with Regal Funds Management appears to have accelerated the on-market sales. We suspect Regal’s founder, Phil King, wants nothing to do with SenSen, which might explain why the sell-off has increased since July and continued into October.
A notice filed to the market that month confirmed VG8 no longer owns a substantial interest in SenSen, although it’s still carrying an appreciable amount of the stock, which is worth far less these days.
It’s for investors to wonder why Luciano strayed from VG8’s mandate, and whether that decision was informed, even slightly, by the existence of a family member in the SenSen stable. As for Luciano, he was contacted for comment.
Guardian of virtue
Rob Keldoulis was unmasked earlier this month as the mystery philanthropist who funded the Teal independents to win seats in parliament at the May election. Never mind that most of them are now nobly campaigning against the undue influence of money in politics and demanding caps on donations.
Keldoulis and his Keldoulis Investments Pty Ltd provided $1.2m to the Climate200 cause that funded the Teal campaigns, donations which were dutifully reported by our learned friends at The Guardian on November 7.
But unmentioned in their writing was that Keldoulis has been a fervent supporter of The Guardian’s journalism in both word and deed for some time, having bestowed ample largesse upon the brand through his non-profit entity, VivCourt.
Asked why the newspaper was silent on the VivCourt contributions in their reporting of Keldoulis, Guardian Australia managing director Dan Stinton told this column: “The VivCourt donations had no relevance or connection to this news story.”
We beg to differ. To even claim there’s no connection would be an assault on basic sanity. Keldoulis has slipped about $265,000 to The Guardian’s hungry and shambling scribes since 2019 when the former trader became a founding donor to its Civic Journalism Trust.
Most of that money – $200,000 – was provided in a 2020 donation at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, a payment The Guardian saw fit to welcome publicly. Of the total contributed by VivCourt we understand about $88,000 is said to be remaining.
One imagines that for his money Keldoulis would also be a subscriber to the publication. No word, however, on whether he’s donated to The Guardian under his own name instead of maintaining the use of a company. We asked but received no reply. So much for all that whanging on about transparency!
Airline allies
How cosy and opportunistic Jayne Hrdlicka’s enduring directorship with Hawaiian Airlines is proving to be.
The Virgin Australia boss moonlights on the board of the American carrier and has done so for just over two years, with the gig apparently starting to bear fruit as Virgin seeks fresh alliances with international partners.
As of this month Virgin has reignited its partnership with Singapore Airlines, resuming the sale of codeshare flights with the Asian carrier’s global network.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission authorised the link-up in a September determination, but it’s the fine print in Virgin’s submission alluding to further linkages with All Nippon Airways, Air Canada and Hrdlicka’s Hawaiian friends.
Her role with the carrier has also thrust the American-born executive into the orbit of outrageously wealthy Jeff Bezos after Amazon signed up for a 15 per cent stake in the carrier.
Hawaiian will provide flight operations and maintenance services for Amazon’s air cargo operation, which is contributing 10 planes to the deal in return.
Still, all this deal-making activity on the international stage compares with island-time action in Hrdlicka’s old home base of Melbourne, where there’s been trouble offloading her historic Hawthorn mansion, Crossakiel.
The pile has been on the market for more than six months with a price tag of between $18m and $19m.
At least if the process drags on then Hrdlicka, who is also chair of Tennis Australia, will have somewhere to hang her hat when she’s in town for the Australian Open.
Canva overhauls office policy after pro-Hamas event balls-up
Design firm Canva has been forced into a hasty overhaul of its office policy guidelines after hosting a Sydney event featuring pro-Hamas speakers.
Cup-winning trainers, an accountant and the missing $460k
What’s happened to hundreds of thousands of dollars in Melbourne Cup prize money? It’s a story of debt, bankruptcies, court battles, and disputes between friends and business partners.