Raphael Geminder’s Pact Group issues profit warning as court battle begins
Pact Group has issued a rare December trading update just days before billionaire Raphael Geminder faces the Supreme Court showdown with the duo who blocked his privatisation move.
Raphael Geminder’s Pact Group has warned of a profit slump just days before the beginning of his Supreme Court showdown against David Harris and Mark Gandur – the pair who thwarted the billionaire’s attempt to take the company private last year.
In its 12 years as a public company, Pact has never released a trading update to the market in December.
Mr Geminder, the brother-in-law of one of Australia’s richest men, Anthony Pratt, will face off against Mr Harris and Mr Gandur on Monday after four years of legal squabbles linked to the sale of a coat hanger and accessories re-use business to Pact.
Court documents showed Pact tried to block Mr Harris and Mr Gandur from collecting a $30m earn-out fee related to the financial performance of the business they sold to Pact in 2018, with Pact calculating the earn out amount as zero and refusing to hand over the cash.
In 2024 – three years after the business dispute ignited – Mr Geminder attempted to privatise Pact in a $289m off-market buyout, but he was stymied just short of the finish line by Mr Harris and Mr Gandur swooping in to buy Pact stock and effectively block the bid.
Mr Geminder’s Bennamon Industries, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kin Group, which is his family office, almost hit a 90 per cent stake (triggering compulsory acquisition of all remaining issued shares) after investors rushed the takeover bid following years of underperformance by Pact.
But it was then as Mr Geminder had built his stake to just over 88 per cent that the aggrieved businessmen grabbed a 6.7 per cent stake.
It halted Mr Geminder’s attempts to compulsory acquire shares from minority investors and despite 13 extensions of the takeover offer, as well as lifting it from its original price of 68c per share to 84c, the billionaire ultimately failed to take Pact fully private.
It is believed Mr Harris and Mr Gandur’s only motivation for spending an estimated $10m to buy the blocking stake in Pact and stalling Mr Geminder’s privatisation plans was because of their separate legal dispute involving the contested $30m earn-out fee.
But Mr Geminder could claim a small victory when he was able to delist Pact from the ASX in July this year, taking away from Mr Harris and Mr Gandur – as well as other investors – the ability to obtain daily values for the stock and to trade them on the exchange.
Pact remains an unlisted public company with around 1600 shareholders and continues to issue key corporate announcements, such as profit results as well as holding annual general meetings.
In a trading update on Friday issued to those investors – including Mr Harris and Mr Gandur – Pact revealed its trading performance for the first five months of the 2026 financial year, up to November 30.
It showed Pact’s unaudited revenue was down 7.2 per cent on the prior comparable period, to $726.8m. Underlying earnings were down 28.8 per cent to $42.1m.
Pact, which has operations across Australia, New Zealand and Asia, manufactures packaging for beverages, health, personal care, household items and food. It blamed tougher economic conditions for the deteriorating sales and profitability.
“Trading for the first five months of the financial year has been challenging due to subdued market demand across all segments and geographies,” the company said in its rare December trading update.
It said total group net debt for the first five months of fiscal 2026 had increased by 10.3 per cent to $608.5m due to its ongoing capital asset program and the acquisition of Linpac Packaging Australia from Klöckner Pentaplast for $8m in October.
It has been a bad year for Mr Geminder’s sprawling packaging empire. In November, ASX-listed Pro-Pac Packaging, a major Australian manufacturer of flexible and industrial packaging that was 66.52 per cent owned by Mr Geminder, was plunged into administration. Mr Geminder also loaned Pro-Pac around $13m in short-term financing as the company attempted to stave off its demise.
Meanwhile, on Monday another headache will confront Mr Geminder as he faces off against Mr Harris and Mr Gandur in the Supreme Court in Victoria. It is believed the first two days of the trial will consist of opening statements followed by five days of testimony from witnesses including Mr Geminder, Mr Harris and Mr Gandur. Other witnesses will include packaging executives, some of who have been flown in from overseas for the trial.
Originally published as Raphael Geminder’s Pact Group issues profit warning as court battle begins
