Donald McGauchie's crushing hand-shake at Nufarm
By Stephen Mayne
January 17, 2008
From a Mayne Report subscriber-only edition after the Nufarm AGM in December 2007.
The other amusing encounter was at last week's Nufarm AGM where I gave Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie a spray about Telstra's remuneration report. Donald was a member of the Nufarm remuneration committee which sailed through with 98% support after the top four executives all took a pay cut for failing to meet profit forecasts.
I told Donald to take note how these things should be handled and he came up for a chat afterward, giving me a bone-crushing hand-shake and asking what sparked the attack.
"Well, I was a guest of Phil Burgess and Telstra at the Walkleys last week so I thought it best to re-assert my independence Telstra by giving you a solid public spray today," came the reply, which didn't much impress Donald.
If you'd like to listen to the Nufarm exchanges, click here for the seven minute debate about the Chinese takeover and here for the remuneration report exchanges and a spray at Qantas director Gary Hounsell.
Interestingly, both Hounsell and Donald were re-elected with more than 99% support, re-affirming how institutions fail to punish directors for mistakes at other companies. Surely it would have made sense to send a shot across Donald's bows at Nufarm for his Telstra belligerence in the face of a two-thirds protest vote.
Nufarm has been all over the press since the Chinese Government-led consortium failed to lodge its binding $3.5 billion takeover offer before Monday's December 10 deadline.
Strangely, chairman Kerry Hoggard answered one question by revealing that ChinaChem comprised 60% of the buying consortium, with private equity firms Blackstone and Fox Paine each taking 20%, but this still hasn't been reported anywhere in the mainstream press.
One reason for the delay was that each bid partner was doing its own due diligence so there were teams flying all over the country, getting in each other's way.
Another oddity from the AGM was Allan McCallum, a director of rival fertilizer company Incitec Pivot, getting up and asking a question which basically accused Nufarm of ripping off farmers by making excessive profits.
Having sold five of my six Incitec Pivot shares at the lovely round figure of $100 each this week, McCallum is hardly in a position to be accusing his rivals at Nufarm of making too much money when his own company is now capitalised at more than $5 billion. Still, farmers like McCallum will often put their own interests first, even when serving on a commercial board that is meant to make money.
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