Continued.........If up for the challenge, McCann could demand a...

Continued.........

If up for the challenge, McCann could demand a pretty penny. Some influential investors have already made it known that they would consider it money well spent. The investor push is on.
Star’s board is aware of the push, so too are politicians. When McCann’s name was mentioned in the Star inquiry 10 days ago as an ideal CEO candidate, some of those involved feared the game was up. Fortunately, the conversation quickly moved on. Why McCann? He’s done it before. He stabilised rival casinos owner Crown Resorts when it was under extreme regulatory pressure of its own, before cutting a deal to sell the company to private equity giant Blackstone. Crown’s former shareholders are still crowing.That job, which lasted only nine months, salvaged McCann’s reputation as a CEO as much as it did Crown’s shareholders’ money. The former ABN Amro investment banker ran Lendlease for more than a decade, strengthening a global legacy that is now subject to shareholder pressure and under review by the company. Lendlease’s share price has halved in the past five years.Is McCann up for the Star job? From what we hear, he is available and assessing his options. One source said he was even spotted at Star’s Queens Wharf development in Brisbane a few weeks ago, suggesting he is also thinking about it.He’s seen as one person who can placate the three big stakeholder groups – shareholders, politicians and regulators. He knows what each group’s road to recovery looks like.But he likely wouldn’t come cheap. Star is not exactly flush with cash, so it would have to think about equity incentives. Crown gave him 400,000 performance rights, worth $5.2 million when Blackstone came knocking. Once again, none of Crown’s shareholders are complaining about that payment today.And how much does McCann need the challenge and/or the money?That’s for him to decide. Lightning did strike once for him at Crown, and there is no certainty it will strike again. While Blackstone was sitting on Crown’s register and a logical acquirer, Star is in a serious bind.This inquiry has shown that Star is at serious risk of losing its licence in NSW, home of its flagship Star Sydney casino, and revealed a complete hollowing out of its management team in recent months.‘Someone like Steve McCann’At a corporate level, Star is expected to report earnings are down 50 per cent this year, has debt, and some at-times prickly stakeholders, including on its share register, and a likely big fine from regulator AUSTRAC still hanging over its head. Its future is far from certain.Star’s management team also needs rebuilding. That job alone will take months, according to evidence from Star’s new chairman Anne Ward to the inquiry on Monday morning. She was appointed Star chairman over the weekend.Interestingly, Ward was also part of Crown’s great escape. She was on the company’s board for its final months while it negotiated with Blackstone, and then sold the deal to shareholders. She saw McCann’s salvage job first-hand.Someone else involved at Crown, ethics consultant Attracta Lagan, put McCann’s name up in lights at the inquiry 10 days ago. She said Star didn’t have the internal capabilities to turn around its culture, but they could be recruited.“I think they are great opportunities to actually bring in the right experience now,” she said.“So, if we just got the right person as the top CEO, we could bring about change in six months. Someone like Steve McCann at Crown, he coveredtremendous ground in six months.”Star’s board kicked off its CEO search in March, seeking an executive to take the reins from Robbie Cooke. Then-chairman David Foster stepped in as interim executive chairman, although he’s also in the departures lounge, on the books only until Star firms up the new CEO’s appointment.Ward suggested that would be another six to eight weeks in her evidence to the inquiry on Monday.Probity approvals take much longer than that. If Star is looking at someone from outside the sector, someone unknown to its regulators in NSW and Queensland, it is more likely to be six to eight months before they can start.While investors should be all for playing the long game, if Star is to have any chance of fighting back and restoring value for shareholders, it needs someone to get cracking now. That’s why the push is on for McCann.Perhaps Star’s board will surprise those investors – and us – with news of another recruit that is probity cleared and can lead the salvage job. If so, good on them, but it would be the first good surprise from Star’s boardroom in years.