Mulcahy misses all his marks

LET'S hope the former Suncorp Metway chief executive John Mulcahy got better restaurant reviews than analyst reviews.

Credit Suisse's chief insurance analyst, Arjan van Veen, and his team pulled no punches yesterday when they issued a "scorecard" on the relationship between Mulcahy's pay packet and performance at the limping bank and insurance group.

"We highlight [a] lack of alignment between Mulcahy's remuneration and the group's performance, noting double-digit increase in his total remuneration where group earnings growth was negative in 2008," the note said.

It said Mulcahy "did not deliver on any performance criteria originally set out in 2003" when he started at Suncorp. Credit Suisse also gave an unflattering scorecard to the soon-to-depart interim chief executive, Chris Skilton. Mulcahy declined to provide any feedback on his "scorecard".

"That's all very interesting, but I'd rather make no comment," said the former chief executive, who collected a $2.1 million severance cheque on top of his $1.3 million pay packet last financial year.

Mulcahy was coy on whether he would return to the corporate sector. "At the moment I'm just spending time with the family and looking to see what I'll do in future, thanks very much," he confided to CBD.

Mulcahy, however, has ruled out a return to the restaurant sector.

He used to own and manage the Rocks Push restaurant and jazz venue on George Street during the 1970s that is now the site of the swanky Neil Perry eatery Rockpool.

Mulcahy's jazz joint was named after the brutal street gang that used to occupy the area in the 1800s, the Push. It opened in 1969, just when the sexually liberated and alcohol-fuelled movement in Sydney by the same name was in full swing.

Corruption drawcard

It probably does not come as a surprise that today's NSW Corruption Prevention Network annual workshop has sold out.

"I don't think the sell-out has anything to do with recent events," the network's vice chairman, Stephen Horne, assured CBD. He said the event sold out in February.

"It has just been a healthy year for corruption," said Horne, who is also the managing director of the NSW Government's Internal Audit Bureau.

This year's workshop is titled: "Heroes and Champions: The Good News on Corruption Prevention."

Exit speeds

The secrets of high finance at Commonwealth Bank are fiercely protected when it comes to putting staff on gardening leave before they join a rival institution.

Tim Gunning, the head of Commonwealth Financial Planning and an executive committee member of Colonial First State, announced his resignation on Monday. Yesterday it was announced he would be joining Ord Minnett as chief executive on October 1.

That is, in a little more than three weeks, he will be covering private wealth, portfolio services, funds management and corporate finance for a rival firm.

It's a far cry from the former St George chief Gail Kelly, who cooled her heels for five months before she took over at Westpac.

Obviously the knowledge gained from the inner workings of the Commonwealth Bank just aren't that interesting.

Ramelius plugs on

You cannot knock the gold explorer Ramelius Resources for not having chutzpah. Yesterday the Adelaide company again blurted it would press ahead with its planned scrip "$92 million" takeover bid for Dioro Exploration. This is despite its takeover target already being 45 per cent owned by another suitor, Avoca Resources, which also secured three of the company's eight board seats yesterday.

"We're still going full steam ahead. We still believe we can get a substantial interest in the company," explained Ramelius's executive director, Ian Gordon.

"Dioro have a good asset and when we launch our bid we are intending to get as much of it as possible," reasoned Gordon. Mind you, Ramelius is legally required to proceed with its takeover bid after already declaring its intentions in late July when it attempted to derail Avoca's bid. Ramelius announced its planned bid a day after Avoca's hostile bid turned friendly  after lifting its bid to get a few stubborn Dioro shareholders over the line.

Ramelius said it plans to offer Dioro shareholders two of its shares for each one of theirs. Going by Ramelius's share price yesterday, that would translate to a $64 million takeover bid.

Dioro's chairman, Ted Grobicki, put on his best corporate governance hat yesterday. "The Ramelius offer is still under consideration," he told CBD. But it appears one of Dioro's new directors, Avoca's chief executive, Rohan Williams, will not need the help of any independent expert's report. "I don't think it's in the best interests of Dioro shareholders," he said.

Williams said he had concerns about the "operational and financial veracity" of Ramelius's Wattle Dam goldmine, which he said was yet to provide a statement on its reserves.

Too much moonshine

Apologies to Steve Earle fans, including Cudeco's boss, Wayne McCrae. This column wrongly titled the Steve Earle tune Copperhead Road yesterday as just Copper Road. CBD regrets any trauma caused to the alternative country music community and Cudeco shareholders.

Round they go

An update on the musical chairs in investment banking and analysis.

The ex-head of Sydney sales from JPMorgan, the appropriately named Glenn Morgan, has been signed up by Deutsche Bank.

Morgan will be roughing it with his five kids on what he terms his "Uluru safari" (aka desert leave) before taking up his new job in November. "It's a bit like the Griswold's vacation," he informed CBD yesterday. It seems Morgan and his clan are still getting used to living in tents.

No word yet if he will be joined by any other JPMorganers. When he quit as CommSec's head of institutional sales in 2003 he was followed by several CommSec operatives, including the plane-spotting analyst, Matt Crowe.

Crowe was "busy in meetings" yesterday when CBD put in a few calls. But there were no hints from his colleagues that anything could be afoot.

Credit Suisse's property analyst Andrew Rosivach, meanwhile, cut a lonely figure yesterday, one week after jetting into Sydney to stop his team defecting to the financial institution without an umbrella, Citigroup. Rosivach put out a lone earnings update on Goodman Group.

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