City Index’s Peter Esho says many shareholders have been with Whitehaven for a long time, and would have viewed what Tinkler is trying to achieve “with a little bit of suspicion.”
“To me it wasn’t as aggressively planned or targeted like [Crown chairman] James Packer’s attack on [rival casino] Echo, for example, where he targeted it for a long time and made it very clear why the chairman should be changed.
“Tinkler’s bid seemed to lack that intensity, and didn’t make its case as clearly.”
This wasn’t helped by Tinkler not attending yesterday’s AGM, as it meant he couldn’t forcefully put his case again before shareholders.
While other magnate shareholders, like Packer and Rinehart, haven’t attended AGMs, their positions have been made public and made a lot clearer than Tinkler’s, meaning representatives were able to more easily make their arguments for them.
Experience and reputation
Tinkler’s rise has been meteoric. The former electrician became a multi-millionaire in two years after he risked everything in 2006 to acquire the Middlemount coal deposit. He raised $30 million in debt that came good when he sold his holdings to Macarthur Coal in 2008 for $441 million.
While his ascension is staggering, it’s also been marked by periods of failure. While Tinkler has bounced back in the past, his rival at Whitehaven, Tony Haggarty, is no pushover.
Haggarty is another Rich Lister, with an estimated fortune of $470 million and over 30 years’ experience in the mining industry, a fact he was happy to draw attention to at yesterday’s AGM. “I am happy to have the track record and reputation of me and the Whitehaven team compared to that of Tinkler Group at any time,” he said.
Esho says that having apparently defeated Tinkler, Whitehaven’s board have to deliver to their shareholders. “Returns over the past few years haven’t been fantastic, in fact they’ve been negative,” he says. “The onus is on the board to deliver some better news this year, and communicate that to the market.”
Only then can the board be sure shareholders won’t change their mind and vote with Tinkler, who remains the company’s biggest shareholder, in the future.
Myriam Robin is a reporter for SmartCompany and its sister site LeadingCompany. She has degrees in economics, international studies and journalism. She likes writing about businesses taking risks and doing new things.
