Youfoodz takeover by HelloFresh cements $27m loss
Youfoodz founder Lance Giles and his clutch of multi-millionaire family investors have put an end to the bloodletting that has followed the food group’s $202m float on the local sharemarket a short seven months ago.
Giles, 33, and his chairman, former Goodman Fielder exec Neil Kearney, have called it quits and accepted a $125m takeover offer from $23bn German giant HelloFresh.
The offer crystallises a loss of almost $27m on the $70m in fresh capital tipped in by investors at $1.50 a share to the pre-prepared food company’s $202m IPO in December last year.
Youfoodz’ largest shareholder is multi-family office investment vehicle RGT Capital, which controls 57.4 per cent of the group’s shares.
Investors in RGT comprise 46-year-old heir to the prominent Sydney chicken breeding and horse racing empire Ben Ingham, as well as mining mogul Travers Duncan, worth more than half a billion dollars and whose son Campbell Duncan, 34, represents the family on the RGT board.
The RGT private investment vehicle’s shareholders also include bookmaker, Centrebet and Civic Video founder and property developer Con Kafataris, 62, as well as ex-Caliburn banker Adam Wilson.
HelloFresh is offering 93c a share for Youfoodz stock, which debuted disastrously on the market at $1.05 a share compared with the $1.50-a-share issue price.
In May, the stock was trading as low as 38c.
Interests associated with Queensland-based founder Giles hold 14.1 per cent of the company, or 19 million shares, which will see him cash out at $18m. At the float price, Giles’s shares were worth $28.5m.
But as is ever the case in float flops like this, there are clear winners – namely the advisers to the initial offer as well as those advising the loss-making company on the way out.
On the way in, advisers including joint lead managers Bell Potter and Morgans received $5.6m in fees, with about $1m of that going to financial adviser Greenhill, led in Australia by Roger Feletto.
In classic investment banking style, Greenhill is there to lend a hand on the way out, too, advising Youfoodz on the scheme of arrangement that will bring an end its short, listed life.
What a ride.
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What next for Silk?
After building Australia’s largest industry super fund over 15 years, what is left to do for AustralianSuper chief Ian Silk.
Certainly not sit back, or so we hear.
The 64-year-old on Tuesday called time at the $235bn superannuation behemoth – capping service of almost 30 years if you count his time at AusSuper’s predecessor, Australian Retirement Fund.
While there’s no doubt Silk’s phone was ringing hot with offers considering the fund’s stellar returns, Margin Call hears his track record and links to Victoria’s union set suggest perhaps there’s still time for a career pivot of sorts, and there’s no ruling out another chief executive role.
Recall it was former ACTU official Bill Kelty who recommended him to the job in the first place, while former workers union secretary Paul Howes, now national managing partner at KPMG, also spent a time as deputy chairman with Silk as well.
Surely they could put a good word in with Dan Andrews’ crew? The Premier and Treasurer Tim Pallas are pursuing their own investment strategy with the $2bn Breakthrough Victoria Fund – though the starting capital pales in comparison to Silk’s usual remit. Come to think of it, Silk’s no-frills approach to remuneration would no doubt be a drawcard for any public department – the veteran super employee is well documented as having one of the more conservative comparable salaries in the industry.
Last financial year Silk took home *just* his $1.1m base salary, eclipsed by his deputy and long-time 2IC Mark Delaney, who scored $1.7m inclusive of bonuses.
No word on whether replacement boss Paul Schroder will take the same approach, though his time as chief risk officer would have so far put him in the frame for a fair whack of incentives already.
One thing is for sure, this won’t be the last we see of that trademark silver mo.
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Empty Crown table
If you think the Helen Coonan-led board of the troubled Crown Resorts is slim, have a look at the skeletal corporate governance framework that’s holding up the casino group’s Crown Resorts Foundation.
Along with herself, executive chair Coonan’s main board comprises just three other directors – non-executives Jane Halton, Antonia Korsanos and last in the door Nigel Morrison, with each of the directors sitting on each of Crown’s five board subcommittees.
Coonan last week agreed that her workload was “extraordinary”.
Former Aristocrat finance exec Korsanos told Ray Finkelstein’s commission in its final week of hearings she thought the optimal number of Crown directors was about 12, leaving some work for Coonan to do towards filling the empty chairs by what she hopes will be October.
Given their track record, it’s not certain that Catherine Myers and her Victorian gaming regulator staff can work that fast on prospective directors’ probity checks anyway.
But back to the foundation.
Former Howard government minister Coonan also chairs what is the philanthropic arm of Crown.
But for now she shares the board table with just one other director, that being former Crown Resorts director Rowena Danziger, the one-time principal of independent girls school Ashcam in Sydney’s eastern suburbs Edgecliff.
Danziger left the Crown Resorts board almost four years ago, remains on the board of the Melbourne entity but has indicated her intention to cut ties, except when it comes to her overseeing the foundation with Coonan.
Unfolding recent events at the group, however, have meant the exit of foundation directors John Horvath, Harold Mitchell and Ken Barton, with foundation company secretaries Mary Manos and Lauren Harris also exiting, so that enduring directors Coonan and Danziger’s meetings must be very efficient affairs.
Margin Call hears it is Coonan’s intention to formally appoint more directors and a company secretary at the next meeting, whenever she finds time for that.
There is a Packer connection for the women to consider also, after Patricia Bergin concluded in her report that 36 per cent Crown Resorts shareholder James Packer should no longer be considered suitable to be a close associate of the casino operator.
The Crown foundation is deeply entwined with the Gretel Packer-chaired Packer Family Foundation. Together, the organisations deliver the $200m National Philanthropic Fund, to which they have contributed $100m each.
Oversight of the foundation rests with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.
Plenty for ACNC commissioner Gary Johns to go on with there.
Cranbrook old boys clash over Luxe Listings deal
A court stoush featuring two private school boys, a hit TV show and an old gangster? Throw in some fast cars and rhyming slang and you’ve surely got the makings of a major movie.
Wesfarmers’ Catch killed off as boss swans in Switzerland
Rob Scott was conspicuous by his absence as yet another of Wesfarmers’ dud investments was put to the sword but why he was schmoozing at the Davos world forum is a head scratcher.