Last Friday was a veritable dumping ground for disorganised companies that waited until the last possible day to lodge their annual reports with the ASX.
There were hundreds of June 30 balance-date-listed organisations. Buried in the rush was Australia’s only listed whisky company, Tasmania’s Lark Distillery, which dropped its 80-page annual report at 6.59pm.
Lark shot to fame in February when its CEO, Geoff Bainbridge, resigned after a video emerged of him via News Corp smoking meth and talking dirty while in his underpants.
It turned into a media war about a concocted alleged extortion which Media Watch wrapped up in its February 28 issue, pounding The Age and reporter Chip Le Grand for believing Bainbridge’s tall tales.
The report tells us Bainbridge was paid $301,443 in 2021-22 before his resignation took effect on February 16. What isn’t clear is whether he remains a large shareholder.
On page 28, Bainbridge is listed as having no shares in the company. But the top 20 shareholder list on page 78 gives him two entries for a combined 4.0115 million shares (5.33% of the company).
Clarification was sought from Lark but no explanation was forthcoming before deadline.
Lark shares peaked at $5.44 last October, valuing the Bainbridge stake at $21.8 million, but have since tumbled to last night’s close of $2.14. For his sake, let’s hope he got out before the recent downturn.
Also missing from the report was any mention of the circumstances which led to the CEO’s embarrassing departure. All they had previously said was the CEO had resigned to “enable him to manage a personal matter”.
Hopefully the Lark directors do a little bit better at the AGM on November 22. If anyone fancies a tilt at the board, nominations close on October 18.
There was a 30% protest vote last year against the granting of performance rights to then non-executive director Laura McBain. A key governance mantra is that independent non-executive directors should not be on the same incentive scheme as the senior executives they appoint and monitor. That’s why most are simply paid a fixed amount of cash, regardless of performance.
McBain, a former CEO for Maggie Beer Holdings, stepped in as acting CEO when Bainbridge walked the plank, where she remains as attempts to find a permanent CEO drag on.
