4 Corners 29 Jun 2020 Aviation
 

Seeing a few tasters for tonight’s 4 corners which seems to be mostly about Virgin with a little of Qantas and politics chucked in. From what I can see so far it looks like the Chairperson tries to throw one JB under the bus. As much as JB cops heat for where VA ended up, it is the Board who ‘control’ the CEO and the company. I for one have always thought much more scrutiny should have been placed on the board for where VA ended up. So far from what I have read about the story tonight a lot of people are going to come out not looking so flash but the buck stops at the top (Or it should anyway) and you begin to see in this story where it fell apart.

Liz will be using the virus to cover her arse.

I will fall off my chair if she throws him under the bus. She is the chairperson!!!

ex ABC- Four Corners:Top bosses at Virgin Australia give insiders' account of .......
 

Link here to promo article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-...ation/12392730

Rgds
S28- BE

The board has to collectively accept responsibility for this cluster f**k - COVID was just the final straw, not the original cause. That can be laid fairly and squarely at the former CEO and the board.:mad:

For whatever reason the board seemed to have escaped scrutiny, perhaps this will lay bare some facts about what’s really gone on at the top. Borghetti’s Vs Scurrah’s plans have been vastly different yet have presumably received approval from the board in both cases, talk about having an each way bet.

Rumour on the legal street is that the Board and Scurrah are being lined up over the November bond raising for misleading and deceptive conduct over the financial representations they made to investors. The real situation of the accounts was not properly disclosed. Watch this space...

Any recent board transactions can be examined and dealt with. There may be criminal or civil liability implications. It seems the time period from November to April would fit within the context of "recent" transactions.

In fairness though, no one could have predicted COVID, which was the final issue that drove VAH into administration.

Time will tell if there are aspects that would otherwise attract the interest of the regulator.

That's surprising. The prospectus for that notes issue was pretty straight up and down. 20 pages of it were dedicated to outlining risks.

What I would like to see is the business case and Board minutes for the acquisition and debt raising. Even with optimistic growth of Velocity the deal had at best a 5 year payback period, likely longer. Most importantly, the debt tanked net equity into the red. Debts exceeded assets by over $100 million and that didn't include the AASB 16 treatment of leases. By trashing the business's net equity it removed any resilience to shocks that the business had. EB is the chair at IAG; if she doesn't understand business risk I don't know who on that Board would.

They should have removed jv much sooner.

I don't believe the "board" were being paid millions to build their own mini qantas whilst running the airline into a dodgy financial position with more smoke and mirrors than a David Copperfield show ("we're not making profit but we have plenty of cash" wait a minute..........)
The buck has to stop somewhere and it might as well be with the one that got paid the most :rolleyes:

A less impressive group of individuals would be hard to find. Lizzy seriously has the charisma of a garden gnome. The “it’s not my fault” attitude has been the village idiots modus operandi for years.

Mossimo taking calls from the media today. First time since he left. Trying to lessen the blow I assume that is inbound.

Hey, keep Veitchy out of this! 😉

This Rex and Nationals under the rug deal is probably another whole episode in itself.

McCormack what a defensive ****.

Just cannot believe what I just saw... Elizabeth Bryan talked as if she was an innocent bystander and took no responsibility for her appalling lack of oversight... Disgraceful

Wow..... so it was everybody elses fault.

That would have whipped em all up into a frenzy I reckon

McCormack was quick to shut down any suggestion of favouritism to Rex. Cronyism at its finest!

I thought that Alan Joyce presented and prosecuted his case vey well, ditto Paul Scurrah, but Virgin chair EB was a doddering disaster!

A bunch of self serving crooks, nothing less.
Shameful, and should be criminal behaviour in a publicly listed company.

Story pulled by ABC?

Don’t think so, just watched it on Iview - this was at 292155.

Ex- Minister John Sharp
 

John Sharp’s claim that he privatised the airports just shows again what the Nationals think of aviation in Australia🤦‍♂️
The worst decision ever made and the real effects are about to be felt with any new start up trying to deal with greedy ALCs and let’s not forget ASA.
Good grief!

Liz Bryan certainly displayed that she didn’t understand that the Board has to provide oversight of the CEO to ensure that the business is run in a sustainable manner - throwing JB under a bus is an attempt to cover up her own shortcomings.

The Qantas board isn’t any better, if someone takes Joyce to task over any issue, he spits the dummy and walks out - meeting adjourned.

I always thought that pretty much any board actually approves financial expenditure, albeit usually at the CEO/MD request/plan. Is that not correct?

Bryan only trying to cover her own backside considering Jayne may potentially replace her in the Chairpersons role.

Amazed me they interviewed EB who clearly stated the need to move on CEO's at times, JB says he remained another 3 years at "the board request".

No follow up to EB as to why he remained (as he claims) another three years at the board request....or was JB lying?

Seemed an obvious question to me as conflicting statements from the players.

Cheers

Interesting that the Chairperson absolved herself from the outcomes of the companies strategy. One of the primary duties of the board is to ensure that its enterprise is heading in the right direction (Tricker 2019). If strategy has been devolved to the CEO and executive, as is common with boards consisting predominantly of non executive directors, then the board should be approving the strategy proposals. Ultimately they are called directors because they set the organisation’s direction. If they don’t know this one would have to question why they were on the board.

I think it is pretty obvious who is not telling the truth here. It is not like the board didn’t know JB was still getting a pay cheque....

JB appointed JT in late 2016 with the express purpose of stepping down and handing the reigns over to JT, JT would have needed probably 18 months under his belt before then so that would peg JB's ideal retirement in early-mid 2018, and even after JT was fired, JB announced in something like late 2018 his intention to retire in mid-2019, so he was moving in that direction for some time. I think EB is just trying to make herself look good so that she can pick up more board appointments.

You only have to look at the banking fiascos in this country to see how much responsibility board members take.

Money for old rope, and a great gravy train to be on (if one of your friends can get you on).

Fair enough, I sort of forgot about the planned JT succession, suppose when that falls apart you have to keep the old until you find the "new" new CEO.
Thanks.

Head in the sand
 

ANZ CEO Luxon told the Board and EB in no uncertain terms that JB was running the place into the ground in 2017. The Chair and the Board went with JB, and ANZ exited. To now say that the board had no idea that the CEO was running a poor business, including 5 years of losses is chutzpah on steroids

Interesting to see what happens to their collective Directors insurance premiums, this year

JB would have been out years ago if he was a CEO. As a Director, it was impossible for the Board to have the conversation about getting rid of him, nor take steps to hire a replacement, without his consent. Managers should NOT be Board members.

Did anyone not notice that when EB was interviewed is stated 'Former VA Chair'? When did she leave?

I would suspect there may be some unsecured bondholders who'll be looking very closely at the performance of the Virgin board over the last 5 years……
It's one thing to lose your investment but entirely another if there's some suggestion of negligence.

Absolutely correct. Now look at the make-up of the Board. Who really new what running an airline was all about? Maybe the guy from Singapore and that's all. EB is a total disgrace who loved the limelight and title but knows sweet fanny adams about running a company let alone a complex business like Virgin...

I’m not sure the board exists anymore does it? They don’t deserve to if they do still exist. I don’t think there are to many fans of Jayne out there but the current board haven’t achieved anything in 10 years.

The Rex part of the story could have been an episode on its own. McCormack really had no answers to defend the treatment give to Rex.

While Borghetti was rightfully thrown under the bus, Bryan really came across poorly. Takes no responsibility but if the plan was a success, she would have taken a lot of credit

On her performance last night you would not let her run a choko vine over the sh#t house, and she is the Chair??

It doesn't. Voluntary administration means that the Board is dismissed and its duties are assumed by the Administrator. New owner, new board.