Full itinerary for Corporate Travel's Tony Bellas 21 November 2018 Last week we marvelled at the interconnectedness of Corporate Travel Management chairman Tony Bellas' manifold professional obligations. Who knew Brisbane's Eagle Street mafia resembled one of those amateur Shakespeare productions where a cast of five or six plays every character?! Oh, hang on, we all did.Not only is Bellas also chairman of class action shop Shine Lawyers, on whose board also sits Corporate Travel director Greg Moynihan, but of energy storage minnow Novonix, where he serves alongside another Corporate Travel director, Robert Natter. Corporate Travel's founder and CEO Jamie Pherous is a major Novonix investor, with 1.2 million shares to his name. In the past year, Novonix shares have fallen 65 per cent from $1.42 to 50¢.But wait, there's more! While Bellas' brother-in-law Andrew Liveris, of DowDuPont fame, is also a Novonix director, his son Nick Liveris is employed by the listed battery manufacturer as a vice-president, paid a handsome $646,287 for the 11 months to June 30. Nice to have both your uncle and your old man signing off your remuneration report. So far, that's only two of the six public companies Bellas chairs. Six. No joke. He is also chairman of State Gas, the fourth largest shareholder of which is Novonix CEO Phil St Baker, who's also a director of ERM Power, its chairman being none other than… yep, Bellas.ERM's chief executive is Jon Stretch, who until recently was another of Novonix's Top 20 shareholders. Novonix's ninth largest shareholder is a former ERM Power director, Martin Greenberg. Unambiguously problematic And we thought former CPA Australia president Tyrone Carlin was busy, holding that gig whose time commitment was in "reality … 3-4 days per week" plus a full-time job as Sydney University's deputy vice-chancellor and a non-executive directorship of Teachers Mutual.The Australian Shareholders' Association considers each chairmanship of a public company to represent 40 per cent of a full-time workload. Thus by its standards, Bellas is paid by six different sets of shareholders a collective $860,860 annually for 12 days of work each week, or 624 days of quality output each year. A productive fellow, indeed. Not even The Beatles imagined that kind of schedule.In his down time, Bellas then also sits on the board of private entity Colonial Goldfields with Greg Baynton, who, by no coincidence, is a director of Novonix, State Gas and IntelliHR Holdings. Naturally. ERM and Shine are both clients of Corporate Travel, yet neither of their annual reports contain any related-party disclosures as to the chairman's (and other directors') conflict of interest in this regard. This goes beyond nepotism, transcending the curious to stand now as unambiguously problematic.Through global statesman Liveris the Elder, the BrisVegas method of corporate governance has permeated the world's second-largest chemical company, and through it, the White House and Saudi's royal court. An export the Sunshine State can be truly proud of!So when we said Bellas was keeping it in the Liveris family, we were unintentionally pulling our punches. We should've said he was building a capital structure based on the family tree of Utah Mormons. We therefore apologise unreservedly for this error.
Corporate Travel's Tony Bellas in $4.5m (court-ordered) blackout trade 14 March 2019 Corporate Travel Management is hoisting red flags faster than the frontline heraldry of a medieval cavalry charge. At 7:37pm on Wednesday, long after the market's close, the under-fire Brisbane roll-up lodged a sensational change of director's interest notice for chairman Tony Bellas. On February 14, he disposed of 180,836 shares, 82 per cent of his stake, worth $4.5 million (at an implied average share price of around $24.90). A month ago! ASX Guidance Note 22 stipulates that "a listed entity must notify ASX [if]… changes occur in a director's relevant interests… within five business days." Bellas's exotic justification? "Off-market transfer under a Family Court order." From that we infer that Bellas and wife Maria (sister of legendary Dow Chemical expenses rorter Andrew Liveris) have divorced, and she's taken ownership of Corporate Travel shares under the division of their assets. Importantly, the company isn't required to tell the market if they're sold under new ownership, as she isn't a director. She could've sold them already.And we note that Bellas has not sold a single share in the other four listed companies he chairs (don't start us on that preposterous over-commitment): Shine Lawyers, Novonix, State Gas and IntelliHR Holdings. Funny the court didn't order Tony to give Maria any of those. But even that presumption depends upon Mr Bellas's compliance here – his failure to elsewhere demonstrable – with his fundamental director's duties of disclosure.
Being very positive I just wonder what to expect in the near future... Greenenergy, any ideas? Not that we do not believe the management.
NVX Price at posting:
64.0¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Held
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