Baillieu Returns Cover Training Expenses

The Age

Friday February 11, 2005

CHRISTOPHER WEBB

ALONG with just about every other stockbroking outfit in the country, The House of Baillieu came good last year.

Figures for the privately owned concern showed that the group - which boasts such board members as Georgie Varlamos and Ronny Hay, while not forgetting spec mining stock aficionado Richard Damon Morrow - managed to improve brokerage revenue and earnings very nicely indeed.

Earnings before tax increased from $196,342 to $3,367,706 and the 19-man board - a veritable brains trust if ever there was one - reckoned that the first full-year contribution from the Sydney office, coupled with improved global economic conditions and higher stockmarket volumes, were responsible for the higher earnings.

The result was booked on brokerage, commission and trading revenue that moved ahead from $12,725,372 to $22,234,930.

The Baillieu crew - not that there are any Baillieus on the board nowadays - enjoyed more moolah on a personal front, which of course would assist with the racehorse training bills that some in the firm are known to receive.

And what a difference a good market made.

The highest-paid board member collected about $675,000; and from there down it looked like this:

?$535,000

?$525,000

?$465,000

?$415,000

?$385,000

?$375,000

That's as convenient a place to stop as any as it illustrates just how satisfactory a year it was. In the previous year, the highest-paid director collected a mere $350,000.

Directors also spent more on broking transactions; between them they did nearly $45 million of business, up from $39 million, and the brokerage rate was 0.6 per cent.

The company paid a $911,500 dividend, well up from $35,000 previously.

Elsewhere, salaries and employee benefits were up from nearly $8 million to nearly $14 million, although employee numbers were kept on a tight rein, with 105 employees on the books, up from 99 one year earlier.

NAB hands ride off into the sunset with moolah

Richard Ernest McKinnon, one-time chief financial officer of National Australia Bank, will have a useful amount in his saddlebags, thanks to his stint as numbers man at the institution.

While termination payments for various other bank heavies who cleared their desks last year were disclosed in the annual report, McKinnon's entitlements were not disclosed as he was still with the bank.

Figures just to hand reveal that the bank would pay McKinnon a gross lump-sum severance payment of $2,311,608.

As well, other amounts were mentioned in an agreement between the parties.

There was a further $146,000, described as a deferred incentive payment, and $374,000, described as a payment under the EVA Incentive Scheme.

McKinnon effectively ceased his role as numbers man on August 31 on the commencement of Michael Ullmer.

Ullmer and managing director John Stewart asked McKinnon to remain with the bank to assist with the preparation and filing of the accounts and to assist in a smooth transition.

Meanwhile, an agreement between the bank and McKinnon stated he would provide assistance as and when required by the bank and that from January 1 he would be paid a compensation package of $750,000 in fortnightly instalments.

Meanwhile, former National staffer Ian Scholes collected $2,242,700 in termination benefits.

The bank agreed to reimburse Scholes' legal expenses incurred in relation to the termination of his employment.

The amount was $22,721.93 and reflected the fees of motorbike-riding lawyer Nathan Kuperholz, his associate firm Kliger Partners, and m'learned friend Mark Dreyfus, QC.

Nathan Kuperholz also appears to have been involved in the deed of settlement between the bank and Christopher Lewis, the bank's former risk management heavy, who collected termination benefits of $1 million.

© 2005 The Age

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