IT'S not going to be a season to be merry for corporate fat cats.
Toll Holdings boss Paul Little is well and truly in the firing line, along with chairman Ray Horsburgh and the company's non-executive directors.
Corporate governance adviser RiskMetrics has run the numbers and found that, of $80 million in costs incurred by Toll in its demerger with Asciano, $55 million was used to buy out options from Toll executives.
In other words, $55 million in cash has been paid to 390 Toll executives for their now worthless options.
The board's decision was based on KPMG's assumptions that the shares would be worth between $30 and $40, and the company would enjoy earnings-per-share growth of 24% a year for the next three years. Both numbers are fantasies, so little wonder the annual meeting became a heated affair, with shareholder activist Stephen Mayne leading the charge.
Horsburgh defended the cash payments on the basis that the competition regulator demanded that Toll executives were not to hold shares in Asciano, and vice versa. But executives are finding that pay rises they could get away with during the bull run are coming under greater scrutiny from shareholders. If it wasn't for Little voting his own 5.7% stake in favour of the remuneration report, it would have been well and truly defeated.
Of course, even in these tough times, there are still a few troughs for snouts to settle into. Even a cursory perusal of the receivers reports from Opes Prime and associated entities is remarkable reading.
ANZ's debt is edging towards $150 million as the interest mounts — $147,890,037.04 at last count — but some hefty fees are being handed out.
For managing Opes Prime Stockbroking, receiver Salvatore Algieri and his team at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu have been paid $2.65 million so far. For Leveraged Capital, Deloitte has charged $527,624, plus $29,000 in expenses. Deacons received more than $90,000 in legal fees so far. Even a company called Glamorous Pools has received $61.50 owed for maintenance costs.
At Hawkswood Investments, another part of the Opes Prime mire, Algieri and his team at Deloitte have received a touch under $856,000 for the job done so far, plus another $62,000 in expenses.
Full Disclosure notes that a company called Piccola Scuderia was paid $1100 in "motor vehicle search fees", no doubt to try and find the elusive Ferraris and Maseratis so beloved by Opes directors.
But the receivers, and the pool boy, are having a happier time than the liquidators.
John Lindholm and the team at Ferrier Hodgson haven't been paid a cent so far for their work on Opes Prime, as there's nothing left in the kitty.
New MDs at GSJBW
The good news is the total number of new GSJBW managing directors appointed this year — analogous to becoming a partner in a law firm — has dipped by just one, from 13 to 12.
Of note is that all 13 of last year's new MDs came from the Securities or Investment Banking divisions. This year, just seven did.
Still, at least the bear market and woes over at 1 Macquarie Place have stemmed the flow of former JBWere staff heading for the door and departing for Macquarie Private Wealth.
