Bellamy’s ‘has turned the corner’, says Rob Woolley Bellamy’s...

Bellamy’s ‘has turned the corner’, says Rob Woolley
Bellamy’s chairman - Rob Woolley.

The Australian12:00AM February 13, 2017


Bellamy’s chairman Rob Woolley believes the organic infant formula company has “turned the corner” and that its interim financial results to be delivered next week will restore some confidence in the stressed business.
Mr Woolley is also confident he has the support of his four fellow Bellamy’s directors despite its crisis of the past two months and that a challenge by former Kathmandu clothing empire founder and Tasmanian investor Jan Cameron to roll the board and sack him as chairman in two weeks will fail.
“The board has robust discussions and (we are) always challenging of each other — both before and after the end of November — so I can understand (a lack of board confidence in my chairmanship) being speculated on,” Mr Woolley told The Australian yesterday.
“I’m a person that reviews my position constantly; I don’t want to just be warming the seat.
“But the message I am getting from shareholders broadly, and from others, is to stay and that’s what I am doing; hopefully we have turned the corner.”
More than $800 million was wiped from the value of Bellamy’s Australia in early December when its shares collapsed from $12.13 to $3.73 in just four days after disclosure of a shock sales collapse in China, an overloaded stock inventory worth $110 million, cash crisis and major profit downgrade, before being placed in a three-week trading halt.
Chief executive Laura McBain was ousted in January to be replaced by chief operating officer Andrew Cohen, as Ms Cameron — who controls more than 17 per cent of the company through her own direct investment and control of Bellamy’s biggest single shareholder, the shadowy Black Prince Foundation and its 14.5 per cent holding — launched her bid to dump the Bellamy’s board.
Ms Cameron has lodged resolutions calling for shareholders to oust existing Bellamy’s directors Patria Mann, Launa Inman, Michael Wadley and Charles Sitch, and to then vote to replace them with her own rival board team of Hong Kong dairy consultant Chan Wai-Chan, Bell Potter stockbroker Vaughan Webber, Black Prince legal representative Rodd Peters and herself.
But Mr Woolley said yesterday that the decision by Ms Cameron’s key team member Vaughan Webber to quit the Bellamy’s board spill team late last Friday, had significantly weakened the chances of the Black Prince coup bid succeeding.
He claimed Mr Webber, who helped float Bellamy’s on the ASX, was the only prospective new director on the Cameron ticket with ASX company experience and the capability to head its key audit, risk and finance committee.
He also questioned the proffered Cameron team explanation that Mr Webber had quit because he was concerned about potential director liability linked to two potential shareholder class actions against the Bellamy’s board over alleged late disclosure of its poor trading position on December 2.
Mr Woolley will today issue a chairman’s letter to shareholders through the ASX, urging them to vote against four resolutions to be moved by the Cameron challenge group at Bellamy’s scheduled extraordinary general meeting on February 28.
“Despite all this mud thrown at our (current) board, we have a strong, robust, balanced, good mix of executive and ASX non-executive director experience; we’ve spent a lot of time working thoroughly on getting it right,” Mr Woolley said.
“We are very comfortable with the way we have handled this (crisis).”
Mr Woolley said a directors’ blackout ahead of the release of Bellamy’s eagerly awaited latest half-yearly financial results next week prevented him from discussing how the company and its sales are now faring financially.
“But the whole speculation going on in the press constantly is damaging the company; it’s not the sort of thing you want to happen,” Mr Woolley said.
“Hopefully everything will be squared away after February 28. I think the issue has been done to death; I just want to get on running the company.”
Ms Cameron, who claims with the support of other major local shareholders in the former Tasmanian baby food company to control 35 per cent of its votes, yesterday said the loss of Mr Webber from her team would not affect the chances of its bid to seize control of Bellamy’s board.
Her spokesman said that since the requisition request by Ms Cameron had included one resolution to oust the existing directors and four separate resolutions to appoint each of her nominees as new replacement directors, Mr Webber’s exit would now simply see the single resolution pertaining to his appointment not put to the vote.
If her remaining three-person team is successful in its board takeover, the spokesman said a board meeting would immediately be held to announce the filing of a casual director’s vacancy.
Ms Cameron’s spokesman said the Black Prince team will tomorrow announce the “ideal” replacement director.