October 30, 2024 • 16 mins
As shareholders await the outcomes of probes at WiseTech and Mineral Resources in the wake of damaging allegations about their founder CEOs, Rebecca Jones asks Bloomberg reporter Angus Whitley: how much do these types of scandals actually matter to investors in the long run?
In this week’s podcast, we also ask what controversies like these mean for a country fast losing its reputation as a tightly-regulated market with strict governance standards.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The share price today has taken a massive knock and
that is why it's now no longer just a private matter.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I have a healthy disrespect for the status quo.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
How does scandals involving bosses affect the share price at
some of the biggest companies that many Australians own. Hello,
I'm Rebecca Jones and welcome to the Bloomberg Australia Podcast Today.
On the show, Australian ceo scandals can cost shareholders and
in some cases the CEOs themselves millions?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Or do they?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Angus Whitley covers big business for Bloomberg News and he's
based in Sydney. Angus, could you have ever imagined that
wise tech Global would become such a source of reader
interest before its boss hit the headlines recently for all
the wrong reasons?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hi, Beck, it's good to be here. I've got to
say I did not expect to be writing about wistech
every day for a week. It's not a company I
cover in huge detail every day. But boy did it
come back with a vengeance last week.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
So let's start there. What is wise tech Global and
who is its founder? Richard White?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Wis tech Global is as a freight aiding software company.
So its software sort of underpins the movement of rate
and logistics around the world. And it's a global company
that was founded by Richard White. He's run it since
nineteen ninety four, and it sort of underpins it's the
grease that if you like, for the logistics that flows
(01:32):
around the world. And so this customers include like DHL
or the big freight companies. And before last week it
was worth forty one billion dollars, so it's a giant
Richard White is pretty much the centerpiece of this company.
He's the biggest shareholder, he's the co founder, and he was,
at least until last week, the chief executive officer.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
What are these allegations that Whites found himself in the
crosshairs of.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
There were so many last week it was almost by
the end of the week was almost difficult to remember
them all. But I suppose the first one that really
set things in motion was Richard White's attempt to force
an alleged formal lover and a wellness entrepreneur named Linda
Rogan into bankruptcy. And we know that Rogan alleged that
(02:22):
White expected her to have sex with him in return
for an investment in her company. Now they've subsequently settled
this claim, but that's really put White in the crosshairs
and literally on the front pages. But since then there
have been another, I guess a flow of allegations and
I'll just go through them strictly in no order. But
(02:45):
there was firstly allegations that he had paid several million
dollars to an alleged formal lover to settle allegations of
inappropriate behavior. Now the key thing about this was only
some of the board was aware of the allegations. Then
there were further allegations that White had a relationship lasting
(03:07):
several years with an employee at wise Tech and had
subsequently bought her a house on Melbourne's waterfront worth seven
million dollars, and that transaction, again was not disclosed to
the board. And lastly, perhaps the most damagingly was the
allegation that from a formal Wise Tech director that White
had been intimidating and bullying in his behavior.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
And how's the board responded to that.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Interestingly, White's law, as I should say, did not respond
to any of these allegations that I put to them
in emails, and that the response from wise Tech was
to start an investigation and to move Richard White into
another position. So by the end of the week, after
force multuous days, Richard White found himself stepping aside as
(03:57):
chief executive into a new role as a full time consultant.
And the board has subsequently started an investigation into the
meat of these allegations, if you like, and we'll yet
to hear the results of that, and if.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
They jump someone else up to the interim CEO posting
in the meantime.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's right. Yeah, So there's an interim CEO, that's the
CFO is now the interim CEO, and they've started a
search for a permanent replacement to White.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
But the point here is that White's still at wise
TECH in a different position, Isn't that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, it's a curious arrangement. It's not one that I've
come across before. White is not leaving the company by
any stretch of the imagination. He has a would you
believe that, a ten year contract as a full time consultant,
and he has a two year notice period, which wouldn't
we all have that a two year notice period, and
he's he keeps his annual salary as it was before
(04:53):
one million Australian dollars. So it's really it's a significant
in the detail of this new contract in that it's
he's telling investors and the wy Sex is telling investors
that Richard White is still very much at this company,
even keeps former CEO in his job title.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Interesting and what has this done to the share price
of wise Tech angus?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It wiped almost eight billion dollars off the market value
of wise Tech over the course of these four days
when these series of allegations were aired, and then remarkably,
when Richard White stepped aside, the share price almost recovered
all its losses. So by the end of the week,
(05:33):
wis Tec was back to almost the closing price that
it was when all this bad media coverage started at
the end some four days before. So it's almost worth
some forty billion dollars again. And I think that tells
us one key thing that the concern amongst investors was
not the allegations, the substance of the deal, allegations, what
(05:55):
White may have done or what he may not have done.
It was the concern that Wysteate might lose this central
central figure in the company that knew everything about the product,
knew everything about the customers and was the figure and
the biggest shareholder after all. So the fact that he
was remaining on a ten year contract was enough to
(06:17):
appease investors. The investigation will come later, but the most
important thing to the market was that Richard White was
not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And how did the street respond to this? What was
their advice to investors in wis Tech after this reimagining,
if you like, of Richard White's position at the company.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
The Street concluded that there was no suggesting that White
was going to leave the company anytime soon, and so
we saw upgrades from Goldman Sachs Group, City Group Inc.
They were telling investors by the stock again, this is
a growth story. Remember this company has gone from one
billion dollars since it's IPO two on the forty billion dollars.
(07:01):
This is one of Australia's best tech growth stories, at
least before this scandal. So it was the conclusion of
those brokers it's safe to buy because White was on
board again.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So that's what's happening with Wise Tech. Angus. I want
to now take a more broader look at troubles at
the executive level in Australia. What are the people you're
talking to for your reporting saying about it, like, what
reasons do they give for these sorts of things happening
and do they have any solutions of how to fix it?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
There have been a few explanations. I'm not sure if
we have many solutions. But if you look at the
kind of reasons that have suggested here, one of them
is Australia's geographical remoteness. So we're far from any of
the kind of financial and corporate governance hubs where you'd
you'd be much easier to it would be much easier
(07:50):
to notice the kind of developments and trends and standards
and thresholds for good and bad behavior and the torrancis
and how those evolve over time. Words, we can find
ourselves operating in a corporate governance bubble where we have
nothing to bench ourselves against. Very difficult to know what
is accepted and what isn't and how things changing. So
(08:12):
that's one reason. Another reason is you just if you
look at us, we're a developed market. We have some
of the biggest companies in the world. We're wealthy because
we have a huge resources industry in particular, so at
the same time we're a small country. We only have
twenty seven million people, so from that population we have
(08:32):
to largely find the people to oversee these companies, the
non execut directors, the boards, the chairs, and that is
a small group of people and quite often they find
themselves doing several jobs at different companies, so they're directors
at different companies. That makes it hard to rock the
boat for some people because directors, if they speak up
at one company, they may find themselves missing an opportunity
(08:54):
or even losing a job at another company. If you're
a chair, would you are a director who's famous for
blowing the whistle for calling out for corporate governance, you'd
be a brave chair. So that's one reason shareholder activism
has long been criticized in Australia that they don't tend
to do it like they do in America, where they
(09:15):
speak about problems on the outside, they tend to do
things on the inside. Arguably that doesn't seem to be
working here as it should. For instance, after the Wise
Tech scan and we saw that play out over for
tumultuous days. Only afterwards have we heard that some of
the shareholders have been calling for transparency and the succession
planning transparency in the review is a bit late for.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
That, I think, you know, I definitely want to ask
you about the regulatory environment that we're operating here in
Australia a little later, but I think you do touch
on an important point there around good governance and the
responsibility of directors and chairmen of boards. They're personally liable
(10:00):
when things go wrong too.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
They are that that can make it a particularly hard
job and an particularly appealing job as well, there sent
to some pleasant job. One other point that has come
up as well is you have to look at the
regulators of these particular industries that the companies are operating
in to what degree is that regulator resourced? Does it
have the powers, does it have the teeth, does it
(10:23):
have the investigative powers? Is it handing out fines that
can really act as a deterrent? And you know, arguably
in some cases you could say that that's not the case.
Star Entertainment was fined fifteen million dollars one five million
dollars for four breaches of its contract, still unfit to
run at Sydney Casino Quantus came to a one hundred
(10:46):
and twenty million dollar agreement with the AHABLEC that's less
than half the figure of the atrople C was after.
So you know, you have to look at those powers
and legislative powers as well, and the regulatory bodies.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And when we come back, we'll take a look at
another CEO making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
We've got a Philly long term management team, none the
least of myself. I've been through all of the downturns.
It's not a fun time. I mean, this is the
shittiest time.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
To be the MD of the company.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I mean, you've got to really cap the costs out
of everything you're doing. You look at every single person.
We're doing that. We're throwing everything off the deck just
to make sure we can serve cash.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
And Welcome back to the Bloomberg Australia Podcast. I'm Rebecca
Jones here with Angus Whitley. We just heard there from
Mineral Resources or MinRes as we say, managing director Chris Allison,
talking at the company's four year results in August. Angus,
he does have a point. It is a hard job
being a CEO, it really is. Now, Look, do not
(11:49):
get out your tiny violin. I want to talk to
you about what's been happening lately at MinRes because they're
also in the headlines recently. Can you tell me a
little bit about what's been happening.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, Mineral Resources, which has been a company which has
been in the headlines for a whole load of other reasons.
Chris Allison is quite a colorful guy. He's the kind
of guy who speaks quite candidly about issues like working
from home. He doesn't particularly like it. He wants people
in the office, and he's willing to go quite some
(12:20):
way to get them to stay in the office. Like
free childcare doesn't want you going out for a coffee,
He'll give you the coffee to stay in the office.
But he has also landed in some kind of trouble
because Mineral Resources investigating undeclared payments made to companies linked
to Allison, and that investigation should be completed by next week.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
And what's that done to the share price?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well not unlike Wise, Tech Minras shares lost twenty six
percent in the space of a week, and we don't
yet have the outcome of that investigation.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
It is interesting, though, right, to consider how reactive the
share price is to these their allegations. At this stage,
so it would look at it be interesting to see
whether or not it does have a similar bounce to
what we saw at Wisetech. You know, obviously completely different
set of circumstances here, but two events keeping you quite busy,
(13:17):
you know, in the matter of weeks. Back to what
we were talking about just briefly on governance, I was
looking at the Board Diversity Index and that's actually a
co production of the Governance Institute of Australia, and it
found a significant decline among younger directors that's you know,
those under fifty. But what was staggering was that chairs
(13:38):
with ten years, twenty years and beyond are on the rise.
Doesn't seem right, does it? But look check me on it.
How do ossie companies sit within the broader global context?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah? Twenty year, ten years, that doesn't make sense to that.
That goes against everything I've ever learned about corporate governance
and refreshing the board. Yes, that's going the wrong way. Yeah.
And if you look at it like there's been a
couple of rankings that suggest that Australia is ranked okay,
And if you look at sort of the perception of
(14:12):
Australia among investors for its oversight, its regulations, its corporate governance.
Foreign of us as often say, Australia is a regulated country.
It's got good sound legislation, corporate governance and industry watchdogs
and all those things that make it a good place
to park your money if you're a foreign investor. That
(14:33):
may be true, but according to least some rankings, Australia
is not actually improving. For instance, there was an Australian
Corporate Governance Association ranking for twenty twenty three and that
put Australia on top with a score of seventy five percent,
So that's above Japan and Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong.
(14:57):
You'd expect that given the history in Hong Kong. But
what this report highlighted was it's not these the rankings
that are as important as the direction of travel. And
they pointed out that Australia has really not gone anywhere
and not made any advances since twenty twenty while other
countries haven't been gone down or significantly other countries have improved,
(15:21):
so which suggests that Australia is not actually making any progress.
And equally, that diversity report you mentioned, the twenty twenty
four Board Diversity Index also says there's concerns about stagnating
diversity on Australian board. It's like the incredible rise in
twenty year plus ten years as chair, which doesn't sound
(15:42):
good for anybody apart from the chair. So you know,
there's questions. I think about how long Australia can hold
on to this perceptions as a great destination, as a
safe destination to park your mine as a foreign investor
because of this kind of ranking, because well, for lots
of reasons to look at all the scandals we've had
(16:02):
in the last few months. So that's not a coincidence.
It may be a cominced I suppose, but you have
to take notice of these things that seem to go
against or at odds with the perception of Australia as
a safe and regulated market.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's been an interesting week one share price taking a
dive and then coming back up again. Who knows what
will happen with min res, but but we'll be watching closely.
Thank you for joining me, Angus, Thanks mag and thank
you for listening to the Bloomberg Australia Podcast. I'm Rebecca Jones.
This episode was recorded on the lands of the Rangerie
and Gadigal people of the kulan Anuran nation. It was
(16:41):
produced by Paul Allen and edited by Chris Burke and
Ainsley Chandler. Don't forget to follow and review the show
wherever you get your podcasts, and sign out for Bloomberg's
free daily Newstter Australia Briefing. Go to bloomberg dot com
to subscribe.
The share price today has taken a massive knock and
that is why it's now no longer just a private matter.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I have a healthy disrespect for the status quo.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
How does scandals involving bosses affect the share price at
some of the biggest companies that many Australians own. Hello,
I'm Rebecca Jones and welcome to the Bloomberg Australia Podcast Today.
On the show, Australian ceo scandals can cost shareholders and
in some cases the CEOs themselves millions?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Or do they?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Angus Whitley covers big business for Bloomberg News and he's
based in Sydney. Angus, could you have ever imagined that
wise tech Global would become such a source of reader
interest before its boss hit the headlines recently for all
the wrong reasons?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hi, Beck, it's good to be here. I've got to
say I did not expect to be writing about wistech
every day for a week. It's not a company I
cover in huge detail every day. But boy did it
come back with a vengeance last week.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
So let's start there. What is wise tech Global and
who is its founder? Richard White?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Wis tech Global is as a freight aiding software company.
So its software sort of underpins the movement of rate
and logistics around the world. And it's a global company
that was founded by Richard White. He's run it since
nineteen ninety four, and it sort of underpins it's the
grease that if you like, for the logistics that flows
(01:32):
around the world. And so this customers include like DHL
or the big freight companies. And before last week it
was worth forty one billion dollars, so it's a giant
Richard White is pretty much the centerpiece of this company.
He's the biggest shareholder, he's the co founder, and he was,
at least until last week, the chief executive officer.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
What are these allegations that Whites found himself in the
crosshairs of.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
There were so many last week it was almost by
the end of the week was almost difficult to remember
them all. But I suppose the first one that really
set things in motion was Richard White's attempt to force
an alleged formal lover and a wellness entrepreneur named Linda
Rogan into bankruptcy. And we know that Rogan alleged that
(02:22):
White expected her to have sex with him in return
for an investment in her company. Now they've subsequently settled
this claim, but that's really put White in the crosshairs
and literally on the front pages. But since then there
have been another, I guess a flow of allegations and
I'll just go through them strictly in no order. But
(02:45):
there was firstly allegations that he had paid several million
dollars to an alleged formal lover to settle allegations of
inappropriate behavior. Now the key thing about this was only
some of the board was aware of the allegations. Then
there were further allegations that White had a relationship lasting
(03:07):
several years with an employee at wise Tech and had
subsequently bought her a house on Melbourne's waterfront worth seven
million dollars, and that transaction, again was not disclosed to
the board. And lastly, perhaps the most damagingly was the
allegation that from a formal Wise Tech director that White
had been intimidating and bullying in his behavior.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
And how's the board responded to that.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Interestingly, White's law, as I should say, did not respond
to any of these allegations that I put to them
in emails, and that the response from wise Tech was
to start an investigation and to move Richard White into
another position. So by the end of the week, after
force multuous days, Richard White found himself stepping aside as
(03:57):
chief executive into a new role as a full time consultant.
And the board has subsequently started an investigation into the
meat of these allegations, if you like, and we'll yet
to hear the results of that, and if.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
They jump someone else up to the interim CEO posting
in the meantime.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's right. Yeah, So there's an interim CEO, that's the
CFO is now the interim CEO, and they've started a
search for a permanent replacement to White.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
But the point here is that White's still at wise
TECH in a different position, Isn't that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, it's a curious arrangement. It's not one that I've
come across before. White is not leaving the company by
any stretch of the imagination. He has a would you
believe that, a ten year contract as a full time consultant,
and he has a two year notice period, which wouldn't
we all have that a two year notice period, and
he's he keeps his annual salary as it was before
(04:53):
one million Australian dollars. So it's really it's a significant
in the detail of this new contract in that it's
he's telling investors and the wy Sex is telling investors
that Richard White is still very much at this company,
even keeps former CEO in his job title.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Interesting and what has this done to the share price
of wise Tech angus?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It wiped almost eight billion dollars off the market value
of wise Tech over the course of these four days
when these series of allegations were aired, and then remarkably,
when Richard White stepped aside, the share price almost recovered
all its losses. So by the end of the week,
(05:33):
wis Tec was back to almost the closing price that
it was when all this bad media coverage started at
the end some four days before. So it's almost worth
some forty billion dollars again. And I think that tells
us one key thing that the concern amongst investors was
not the allegations, the substance of the deal, allegations, what
(05:55):
White may have done or what he may not have done.
It was the concern that Wysteate might lose this central
central figure in the company that knew everything about the product,
knew everything about the customers and was the figure and
the biggest shareholder after all. So the fact that he
was remaining on a ten year contract was enough to
(06:17):
appease investors. The investigation will come later, but the most
important thing to the market was that Richard White was
not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And how did the street respond to this? What was
their advice to investors in wis Tech after this reimagining,
if you like, of Richard White's position at the company.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
The Street concluded that there was no suggesting that White
was going to leave the company anytime soon, and so
we saw upgrades from Goldman Sachs Group, City Group Inc.
They were telling investors by the stock again, this is
a growth story. Remember this company has gone from one
billion dollars since it's IPO two on the forty billion dollars.
(07:01):
This is one of Australia's best tech growth stories, at
least before this scandal. So it was the conclusion of
those brokers it's safe to buy because White was on
board again.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So that's what's happening with Wise Tech. Angus. I want
to now take a more broader look at troubles at
the executive level in Australia. What are the people you're
talking to for your reporting saying about it, like, what
reasons do they give for these sorts of things happening
and do they have any solutions of how to fix it?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
There have been a few explanations. I'm not sure if
we have many solutions. But if you look at the
kind of reasons that have suggested here, one of them
is Australia's geographical remoteness. So we're far from any of
the kind of financial and corporate governance hubs where you'd
you'd be much easier to it would be much easier
(07:50):
to notice the kind of developments and trends and standards
and thresholds for good and bad behavior and the torrancis
and how those evolve over time. Words, we can find
ourselves operating in a corporate governance bubble where we have
nothing to bench ourselves against. Very difficult to know what
is accepted and what isn't and how things changing. So
(08:12):
that's one reason. Another reason is you just if you
look at us, we're a developed market. We have some
of the biggest companies in the world. We're wealthy because
we have a huge resources industry in particular, so at
the same time we're a small country. We only have
twenty seven million people, so from that population we have
(08:32):
to largely find the people to oversee these companies, the
non execut directors, the boards, the chairs, and that is
a small group of people and quite often they find
themselves doing several jobs at different companies, so they're directors
at different companies. That makes it hard to rock the
boat for some people because directors, if they speak up
at one company, they may find themselves missing an opportunity
(08:54):
or even losing a job at another company. If you're
a chair, would you are a director who's famous for
blowing the whistle for calling out for corporate governance, you'd
be a brave chair. So that's one reason shareholder activism
has long been criticized in Australia that they don't tend
to do it like they do in America, where they
(09:15):
speak about problems on the outside, they tend to do
things on the inside. Arguably that doesn't seem to be
working here as it should. For instance, after the Wise
Tech scan and we saw that play out over for
tumultuous days. Only afterwards have we heard that some of
the shareholders have been calling for transparency and the succession
planning transparency in the review is a bit late for.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
That, I think, you know, I definitely want to ask
you about the regulatory environment that we're operating here in
Australia a little later, but I think you do touch
on an important point there around good governance and the
responsibility of directors and chairmen of boards. They're personally liable
(10:00):
when things go wrong too.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
They are that that can make it a particularly hard
job and an particularly appealing job as well, there sent
to some pleasant job. One other point that has come
up as well is you have to look at the
regulators of these particular industries that the companies are operating
in to what degree is that regulator resourced? Does it
have the powers, does it have the teeth, does it
(10:23):
have the investigative powers? Is it handing out fines that
can really act as a deterrent? And you know, arguably
in some cases you could say that that's not the case.
Star Entertainment was fined fifteen million dollars one five million
dollars for four breaches of its contract, still unfit to
run at Sydney Casino Quantus came to a one hundred
(10:46):
and twenty million dollar agreement with the AHABLEC that's less
than half the figure of the atrople C was after.
So you know, you have to look at those powers
and legislative powers as well, and the regulatory bodies.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And when we come back, we'll take a look at
another CEO making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
We've got a Philly long term management team, none the
least of myself. I've been through all of the downturns.
It's not a fun time. I mean, this is the
shittiest time.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
To be the MD of the company.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I mean, you've got to really cap the costs out
of everything you're doing. You look at every single person.
We're doing that. We're throwing everything off the deck just
to make sure we can serve cash.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
And Welcome back to the Bloomberg Australia Podcast. I'm Rebecca
Jones here with Angus Whitley. We just heard there from
Mineral Resources or MinRes as we say, managing director Chris Allison,
talking at the company's four year results in August. Angus,
he does have a point. It is a hard job
being a CEO, it really is. Now, Look, do not
(11:49):
get out your tiny violin. I want to talk to
you about what's been happening lately at MinRes because they're
also in the headlines recently. Can you tell me a
little bit about what's been happening.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, Mineral Resources, which has been a company which has
been in the headlines for a whole load of other reasons.
Chris Allison is quite a colorful guy. He's the kind
of guy who speaks quite candidly about issues like working
from home. He doesn't particularly like it. He wants people
in the office, and he's willing to go quite some
(12:20):
way to get them to stay in the office. Like
free childcare doesn't want you going out for a coffee,
He'll give you the coffee to stay in the office.
But he has also landed in some kind of trouble
because Mineral Resources investigating undeclared payments made to companies linked
to Allison, and that investigation should be completed by next week.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
And what's that done to the share price?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well not unlike Wise, Tech Minras shares lost twenty six
percent in the space of a week, and we don't
yet have the outcome of that investigation.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
It is interesting, though, right, to consider how reactive the
share price is to these their allegations. At this stage,
so it would look at it be interesting to see
whether or not it does have a similar bounce to
what we saw at Wisetech. You know, obviously completely different
set of circumstances here, but two events keeping you quite busy,
(13:17):
you know, in the matter of weeks. Back to what
we were talking about just briefly on governance, I was
looking at the Board Diversity Index and that's actually a
co production of the Governance Institute of Australia, and it
found a significant decline among younger directors that's you know,
those under fifty. But what was staggering was that chairs
(13:38):
with ten years, twenty years and beyond are on the rise.
Doesn't seem right, does it? But look check me on it.
How do ossie companies sit within the broader global context?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah? Twenty year, ten years, that doesn't make sense to that.
That goes against everything I've ever learned about corporate governance
and refreshing the board. Yes, that's going the wrong way. Yeah.
And if you look at it like there's been a
couple of rankings that suggest that Australia is ranked okay,
And if you look at sort of the perception of
(14:12):
Australia among investors for its oversight, its regulations, its corporate governance.
Foreign of us as often say, Australia is a regulated country.
It's got good sound legislation, corporate governance and industry watchdogs
and all those things that make it a good place
to park your money if you're a foreign investor. That
(14:33):
may be true, but according to least some rankings, Australia
is not actually improving. For instance, there was an Australian
Corporate Governance Association ranking for twenty twenty three and that
put Australia on top with a score of seventy five percent,
So that's above Japan and Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong.
(14:57):
You'd expect that given the history in Hong Kong. But
what this report highlighted was it's not these the rankings
that are as important as the direction of travel. And
they pointed out that Australia has really not gone anywhere
and not made any advances since twenty twenty while other
countries haven't been gone down or significantly other countries have improved,
(15:21):
so which suggests that Australia is not actually making any progress.
And equally, that diversity report you mentioned, the twenty twenty
four Board Diversity Index also says there's concerns about stagnating
diversity on Australian board. It's like the incredible rise in
twenty year plus ten years as chair, which doesn't sound
(15:42):
good for anybody apart from the chair. So you know,
there's questions. I think about how long Australia can hold
on to this perceptions as a great destination, as a
safe destination to park your mine as a foreign investor
because of this kind of ranking, because well, for lots
of reasons to look at all the scandals we've had
(16:02):
in the last few months. So that's not a coincidence.
It may be a cominced I suppose, but you have
to take notice of these things that seem to go
against or at odds with the perception of Australia as
a safe and regulated market.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's been an interesting week one share price taking a
dive and then coming back up again. Who knows what
will happen with min res, but but we'll be watching closely.
Thank you for joining me, Angus, Thanks mag and thank
you for listening to the Bloomberg Australia Podcast. I'm Rebecca Jones.
This episode was recorded on the lands of the Rangerie
and Gadigal people of the kulan Anuran nation. It was
(16:41):
produced by Paul Allen and edited by Chris Burke and
Ainsley Chandler. Don't forget to follow and review the show
wherever you get your podcasts, and sign out for Bloomberg's
free daily Newstter Australia Briefing. Go to bloomberg dot com
to subscribe.
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