PAUL Choiselat is getting pretty good at fighting battles, especially in the wake of the collapse of Opes Prime.
Choiselat's private company, Beconwood Securities, is in the midst of a legal wrangle with ANZ over $7 million of shares the bank sold after Opes fell.
Beconwood exploited a margin loan facility with Opes and gave the broker $7 million of shares in return for
$1.35 million of funds to buy more shares. When ANZ seized and sold the lot, Choiselat sued the bank in the Federal Court. A trial has been tentatively scheduled for August.
But Choiselat is facing a fight on another front — from shareholders in Jumbuck Entertainment, which provides mobile phone content and services.
Choiselat was managing director of Jumbuck until the Opes Prime fiasco, but has since stepped down to become a non-executive director.
Leading an anti-Choiselat faction is James Kennedy, whom Choiselat ousted as managing director of
Q Multimedium about five years ago. Jumbuck was spun out of Q Multimedium.
Choiselat's holding in Jumbuck has slipped from 13% to 5% after losing a chunk to ANZ, and Kennedy and his company, Quad Holdings, have moved to sack him from the board. No replacement has been nominated — Kennedy just wants Choiselat out.
Two weeks ago Kennedy wrote to Jumbuck shareholders asking them to vote out Choiselat at an extraordinary meeting slated for Monday, June 23. Kennedy says the Opes Prime "debacle" and ensuing legal battle with ANZ had affected Jumbuck.
Choiselat has since hit back and enlisted the help of some very powerful mates, including the present board.
His letter to shareholders is blunt: "Independent
non-executive directors, our chairman, Kevin Campbell, AM, the Hon Jeffrey Kennett, AC, and Bruce Bennie have stated that they 'consider it of considerable value to the future growth of Jumbuck that Paul Choiselat continue as an independent director'.
"An extraordinary general meeting has been specifically called by a shareholder, Quad Holdings, to remove me as a director of Jumbuck.
"I believe that the EGM has been convened as part of a broader strategy which will see broader changes being made to the board and management in the near term."
Choiselat also attacks Kennedy's performance with listed companies, pointing out that he has been a director of just one listed company in the past decade, Q Multimedium.
Choiselat claims that while Kennedy was managing director it lost $6 million. "This is not the type of influence I want over Jumbuck and I'm sure it's not what you want either," Choiselat writes.
Jumbuck has about 1100 shareholders, so it's going to be a close call. "You wouldn't mount an EGM like this unless you thought you had the numbers," Choiselat says. "It's going to be a very interesting day next Monday."
Winners all
Free coffee, a healthy media contingent, and not a politician in sight to steal the limelight from the story of the day — that the company will actually deliver on the July 1 deadline by getting its lottery games and machinery into outlets across the state.
Then came the unveiling of the games Intralot plans to introduce on July 1, when it takes over from Tatts, providing Keno and instant "scratchie" tickets to punters. For the big unveiling, a group of models stood beside a row of giant posters draped in black sheets.
"The first is called Lucky Keno 70," announced marketing manager Jennifer Bridges. Continued…
