TPG board: Australian Shareholders Association to oppose Jack Teoh’s re-election

Tensions are building before TPG Telecom’s annual meeting next week with a major shareholder opposing the re-election of founder David Teoh’s son – the only family nominee at the top table.

TPG founder David Teoh, pictured, is facing opposition to the only family member on the telecom giant’s board. Picture: David Geraghty

The Australian Shareholders’ Association will oppose the re-election of Jack Teoh, the son of TPG founder David Teoh, at the annual meeting of ASX-listed TPG Telecom next Friday.

The association says it is opposing Jack Teoh’s re-election because of his “minimal experience” in the telecommunications industry and “minimal” experience on listed company boards.

The ASA has also warned that it is undecided on its support for the re-election of Frank Sixt, the group financial director of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, which owns 25 per cent of the company.

In its report to members before next week’s meeting, the ASA says there is “insufficient information provided about Jack Teoh to support his re-election.”

Teoh is one of four sons of TPG founder, the reclusive Malaysian-born David Teoh and his wife Vicky, and has been actively involved in some of the couples’ family business interests.

Jack Teoh, who joined the board of TPG Telecom on March 26, 2021, is a nominee of his parents on the board. The family own 14.2 per cent of the company.

While the ASA’s position is unlikely to thwart his re-election, given the fact that the company has very few small shareholders, its stance throws a spotlight on internal workings of the very private Teoh family.

David Teoh founded TPG, which started off as a computer retail company, expanding it into one of Australia’s largest mobile phone companies before merging it with Hong Kong-owned Vodafone in a $15bn deal in 2020 – despite an earlier rejection by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The Teohs have four sons – Shane, Jack, John and Bob – who have been actively involved in a range of start-up businesses in clothing, furniture, eyeglasses and technology, including pharmaceutical and healthcare company, Vita Life Sciences.

Jack Teoh is a former director of Tuas Limited, which owns Singapore telecommunications company, Simba Telecom.

He has been a board member of Vita Life Sciences since September 2022 and a director of private software company, Total Forms Pty Ltd.

Proposing him for re-election at the AGM, the company said he had experience in telecommunications and digital technology as well as providing “valuable financial, business and corporate history” of the original TPG Telecom company founded by his father.

The ASA says it will be asking him at the meeting to “expand” on his corporate background.

The Association says it is uncertain about whether to support Mr Sixt’s re-election to the board given his extensive workload in other businesses.

While it says he has a long history of experience in the telecommunications sector, it argues that it is “concerned about the extent of his workload and therefore his ability to be sufficiently focused on the TPG business.”

The ASA notes that TPG increased its revenue in the financial year to the end of December 2023 by $118m to $5.5bn, mainly due to an increase in mobile phone subscribers.

But it says the competitive nature of the telecommunications industry in Australia has made it difficult for the company to pass on cost increases, with its growth in revenue offset by an increase in operating costs and higher financing costs as a result of the increase in interest rates.

“To retain its market position and to capitalise on changes in the industry and customer expectations, TPG continues to invest in network and acquisition of new spectrum which will improve and extend 5G coverage across Australia,” it says in its report to members about the company.

The ASA has criticised the lack of public disclosure about its strategy.

“While the company describes its general strategy, it needs to be more forthcoming to gain shareholder confidence,” the ASA says. But it notes that individual shareholders currently only own around six per cent of the share register with the former TPG and Vodafone being the major shareholders.