bart cummings sage advice

Guess most people saw this.

As The Maestro was exiting base camp to celebrate yet another Cup victory, he was beseiged by reporters. One said, "That's twelve now, Bart. A dozen, got a nice ring about it."

Bart replied, with a cheeky grin, "It'll be a baker's dozen next year. Always look ahead, boys."

I'd like to suggest we do the same. Seems to me there are several important issues being missed here, deliberately or not, I can't say.

1. Egan Associates, one of the oldest and most respected advisors on Executive Remuneration and Corporate Governance in Australia, advised on, negotiated, and signed off on this package as being fair and reasonable in view of industry standards, Alan's work done to date and the future benefits to flow from these achievements. Egan clients include BHP and many other heavyweights of Autralian Industry. Check their website. Their reputation is fiercely held and dependent on being seen to be getting things right and negotiating fair market deals in accordance with current market standards. To suggest otherwise would be putting yourself on dangerous ground. This deal was not something put together by the CEO in the hope that he could slip it past a compliant board/shareholders or Egan themselves. That is one reason why this package is in fact 1 million shares less than that first proposed in July.

2. The licensing deal Alan Shortall personally negotiated with Sanofi was in Euros. There was a very good reason for that. Given the weakening dollar, we have already gained several millions in A$. This was deliberate and smart deal-making that benefits all shareholders.

3. The shares and options are escrowed for 1, 2, and in the case of the options, mostly 3 years. Anyone who thinks Alan Shortall would voluntarily depart the company and let someone else run it while his shares were still held in escrow, is seriously mistaken. The package is structured so that he is effectively locked in for three years and (yes, VERY HIGHLY) motivated to increase shareholder wealth.

4. With regard to entering the US market, both as a trading company and prospective listing, anybody dealing with Unilife from customers to suppliers to advisors and investors, expect the Executive and CEO to be locked in. This ensures stability, continuity and that the company is kept on track by those who are best qualified to do so.

Given what has thus far been achieved with Sanofi, and what is about to be set in stone in December, (if receipt of the first milestone payment is anything to go by), and the enormous financial benefits that will be returned to company in due course as a result, any doubts or uncertainty in this area would have an extremely negative if not fatal impact on our prospective listing on NASDAQ or elsewhere, especially in the current environment. Certainly in the timeframe we are talking about, being next year.

5. Nobody knows Unilife better than Alan Shortall. He has spent five years of his life building trust-based relationships with the people with whom we are now doing serious business. In that time, he has taken a concept and delivered to us shareholders ongoing financial stability via an exclusive partnership with the 4th largest Pharma Group in the world. I have said many times, we are not there yet, but the future is bright.

For those who say he has not yet achieved anything, if a $45 million dollar licensing and funding deal, the largest ever in Australain biotech history, is nothing, what is something? Had this deal not been inked when it was, we would not have a company. We would be gone, dead in the water.

So, as Bart Cummings said, boys and girls we should all be looking ahead because our CEO certainly is.

TDA, Nom de Jeu indeed! Hope you had a good time and backed the first four?