Corrigan a man with Midas touch

Chris Corrigan will end his time chairing listed public companies with a reputation as one of the country’s most prescient investors.

Webster chairman Chris Corrigan. Picture: Hollie Adams

Businessman and entrepreneur Chris Corrigan will end his career chairing listed public companies with a reputation as one of the country’s most prescient investors, who showed a knack for generating outsize returns across diverse industries.

The Webster chairman, who was perhaps mistakenly described as semi-retired almost a decade ago before he went on to play a major role as chairman of ports and logistics group Qube, has ­focused on finding and capitalising on businesses opportunities in relatively unglamorous industries in need of reform.

While he rose to fame as the head of stevedore Patrick Corp when it challenged unionised ­work practices at Australian ports, he went on to success in several other fields.

The contentious waterfront dispute of the 1990s was followed about a decade later by a hard fought takeover battle against Toll Holdings. The Toll takeover of Patrick Corp in 2006 saw him walk away with a reported $130 million in cash and Toll shares.

Mr Corrigan went on to build up Qube into a logistics giant with a series of deals, including winning control of Asciano in a $9bn acquisition, in a consortium with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, and backed by a group of global investment funds in 2016.

He stepped down as chairman of the group that year and later fired a salvo against expanding corporate governance rules, particularly in relation to achieving gender balance on listed company boards. Now, another Canadian group, PSP Investments, is poised to take over the Corrigan-chaired Webster at a price showing a large premium to its recent trading and with the businessman likely to take up an interest in a new water-focused portfolio alongside the Canadian suitor.

Mr Corrigan may have won recognition for his role in driving an overhaul of industrial relations on the waterfront. But his careful selection of industries ripe for consolidation and ability to marshall both listed and unlisted capital to get behind his plans marked him out from rivals.

Mr Corrigan kept a careful watch as PSP Investments began steadily creeping up the Webster share register and has engineered a profitable exit for investors in the thinly traded stock. The Canadian group has an appetite for local assets and this year it paid about $200m for a majority stake in grain grower BFB. It also owns a stake in Daybreak Cropping and has an interest in Stahmann Farms.

Webster’s annual meetings are something of a family affair, with Mr Corrigan’s son, Joe, an alternate director. But they are also known for the forthright updates the chairman has provided to his loyal investors.

If the takeover scheme is approved these get-togethers will become a thing of the past but the former BT investment banker, who has spent two years batting off criticism about Webster’s involvement in government water buybacks in 2017, is sure to remain active in the sector.