‘Skyway robbery’ toll road purchase all about extending portfolio’s life

Toll road operator Atlas Arteria’s $2.9bn deal to gain control of the Chicago Skyway has been a tour de force for all the wrong reasons. The company’s largest shareholder, IFM Investors, is already off-side; the share price is down 15 per cent since the acquisition was made public; and ­brokers have described it as everything from “expensive” to “skyway robbery”.

And yet, the Atlas board – led by chairwoman Debbie Goodin, formerly of Network Ten, and chief executive Graeme Bevans, once a senior figure at IFM himself – persists.

This is despite, as The Australian has reported, Atlas warning investors it can’t be certain “around the exact age and condition” of parts of the 12.5km toll road in which it is purchasing a 66.6 per cent share.

“There is a risk that these post-completion audits may identify the need for capex expenditure beyond what has been budgeted,” investor documents state.

No wonder IFM is unhappy.

With a price tag that represents a multiple of 43.2 times the Chicago Skyway’s earnings in the last financial year, surely there is one upside.

The Chicago Skyway crossing of the Calumet River, Chicago.

And there is. The rest of the Atlas portfolio of toll road concessions are quickly running down. Between the APRR (13 years) in France, the Warnow Tunnel (31 years) in Germany, Dulles Greenway (33 years) and the ADELAC (38 years), the Atlas portfolio has an average concession life of just 18.3 years.

Adding in the Skyway would blow that out to 37.3 years – giving the company some breathing room as its other concessions end.

It would also represent a boon for Bevans and other senior Atlas executives.

Among changes to the remuneration structure announced in the fine print of the company’s FY2021 annual report was the introduction of significant long-term incentives based on increasing the average concession life of the Atlas portfolio. “The new strategic LTI will have a three-year performance period and will vest based on delivery of two strategic metrics (including) improving the average concession life of the Atlas Arteria portfolio,” the remuneration report reads.

A perfect alignment – until someone is stuck with the bill.

Legal encore

Sydney music promoter Mark Filby is set to grace the courts again after wrapping up his six-day court stoush with ticketing and touring business TEG, with the former Westfield marketing guru launching a fresh action against the Nine Network over a 2014 episode of A Current Affair.

Readers will recall Filby’s courtroom drama with TEG boss Geoff Jones over allegations the former boss of Nine Live “stole” Filby’s idea to promote British boy band sensation One Direction in 2013.

But the NSW Supreme Court is soon set to be treated to another round of legal manoeuvring with Filby’s case against Nine set to land at Philip St, claiming false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Court documents show Filby alleges he was misled by ACA journo Dan Nolan, who allegedly masqueraded as “marketing director at Channel 9 (Dan Green)”.

Filby claims Nolan enticed him to front up at Nine’s Willoughby studios on October 15, 2014 before he was ambushed by a camera crew and the son of Aussie rocker Bernard “Doc” Neeson, Kieran Neeson, who has also been named in the case.

The statement of claim alleges Nolan called Filby “a fraud” and “professional conman and or a swindler”, and “despicable scum of the earth”.

Kieran Neeson, the son of legendary Australian rocker Doc Neeson. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Filby claims “two security guards blocked the plaintiff’s exit” and camera crews began filming him in the office without first obtaining his permission or informing “the plaintiff of the correct basis he had been asked to attend Channel 9”.

Nolan, the Kennedy Award-winning journalist who joined ACA in 2013, allegedly claimed the music promoter had “knowingly evaded the Neeson family to avoid repayment of a just debt” before Filby was served papers by “a baldheaded male” acting for Neeson.

Filby claims the actions caused him “injury, loss and damage” and “without lawful justification” prevented him from leaving the office or Channel 9.

“It was foreseeable the first defendant’s conduct was reasonably likely to cause psychiatric harm in a normal person of normal fortitude,” Filby claims.

Filby also claims Nolan and Nine engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct to get him there in the first place and should be found to be “vicariously liable for the acts and omissions of its servant and agents”.

Nine admits as much that Filby turned up at its office and was led to the room, but claims the music promoter’s allegations are “embarrassing” or otherwise denies them.

The broadcaster also claims Filby’s delay in filing the case years after the incident means the whole shebang should be chucked out.

We’re all keen to see how this episode plays out.

Bad timing? Yes

The timing of a gathering in Sydney this week of the SingTel board of directors to visit Aussie subsidiary Optus and meet with its chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin couldn’t be worse as the fallout continues from the disastrous cyber attack on the $8bn-a-year telco.

Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil is going to town on the No.2 telco over its disclosures, thrusting several of corporate Australia’s leaders into the cut and thrust of crisis management and government relations.

Margin Call notes Optus paid only $1m in tax last financial year on its $118m in pre-tax earnings.

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin. Picture: Britta Campion

Optus chairman Paul O’Sullivan, who is a former CFO and CEO of the carrier, is also chairman of ANZ. Terrey Hills-based former Westpac boss Gail Kelly is a director of SingTel, whose ultimate parent is the Singaporean government’s global investment vehicle Temasek.

Kelly is also chair of the Uniting Church’s Ravenswood School for Girls at Gordon on Sydney’s North Shore, where she sits on the board alongside former Optus exec and now Telstra chief Vicki Brady.

You might say there but for the grace of God.