Pubs billionaire Mathieson says margin loan is no handbrake
Pubs billionaire Bruce Mathieson snr says a margin loan against his 15 per cent stake in Endeavour Group has not constrained his family’s capacity to do other deals, including buying more shares in The Star Entertainment Group.
Mr Mathieson added that he and many other shareholders passed on the last Star capital raising, but “to suggest that relates to our financial capacity is frankly ludicrous and untrue”.
Billionaire Bruce Mathieson is livid with what he says is the abysmal performance of the hotel, pokies and retail liquor group Endeavour. Arsineh Houspian
“Let me be crystal clear, my disdain with the Endeavour chairman and CEO is about value destruction. A once great business is being damaged by poor leadership, and every single shareholder is hurting,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“To suggest otherwise and link this with other non-related interests, including Star, would be categorically wrong. When will this lot on the board stop blaming everyone and searching for distractions? They need to fix the company.”
But three sources with knowledge of the matter, who were unauthorised to speak publicly, said the Mathieson Group took out a margin loan of more than $100 million in December as the family prepared to build its Star stake.
On December 22, Endeavour published its updated trading policy to include a new clearance process, “for certain persons covered under the policy to request permission to use Endeavour securities as collateral”.
Sources said the loan was provided by ANZ, which has since sold its investment lending portfolio to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. ANZ declined to comment.Endeavour shares have fallen more than 17 per cent since December.
The margin loan adds to the intrigue around the
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