Bubs saga turns to farce

In their proclaimed bid to move on from Bubs Australia (legal action, extraordinary general meeting battle, and public relations campaign aside), ousted chiefs Kristy Carr and Dennis Lin have launched a new corporate advisory business.

Photographed wearing multicoloured Doc Martens below the casual attire so characteristic of start-up founders, the duo are “more interested in advisory than acrimony”. At least, by Business News Australia’s verdict.

According to Carr and Lin, their new firm, TAKE Global, was a natural extension of the fact that so many people ask them for business advice. Three clients are already on the books. Bubs Australia, obviously, isn’t one of them. At least, not yet. The requisition notice for a shareholder meeting submitted to the Bubs Australia board states that should the resolutions succeed, “Kristy Carr and Dennis Lin will facilitate a seamless transition of their business intelligence and strategy relationships”. Further, Lin and Carr “will support the business in a strategic advisory capacity if required in the future”.

It’s a slightly more procedural formulation of the sentiment Carr – Bubs’ co-founder – expresses in a video on the Save Our Bubs website, where she states that, “Bubs has grown up, and I am OK to let it fly the nest”. Before adding, “I will be there to support the Bubs family whenever I am needed”.

In The Australian on Tuesday, Carr accused the board (led by Katrina Rathie) of targeting for removal anyone with “a brain, a voice and a vagina”, after the departures of three female executives, two as part of a restructure of the US business. It then bears noting that the board candidates being supported by the dissidents – ex-A2 executive Peter Nathan, ex-investment banker turned corporate director James Jackson, and dairy veteran Rupert Soar – are not female.

An incongruity perhaps obvious to Carr, who says in the aforementioned video that one of the “dream team’s” first acts would be to “identify and recruit two additional female independent directors”. And geez, after being “identified”, won’t they be flattered to be asked?!

The pitch draws heavily on the experience and track record of those involved in the EGM push, and the perceived lack of experience of the board. Though his shares are involved in reaching the 5 per cent requisitioning threshold, Lin isn’t one of the directors put up to potentially rejoin the board.

He’s presumably all in on the overrun TAKE Global with Carr, who recently wrote on LinkedIn that he’s “the smartest, most strategic person” she’s ever met. Still, any would-be clients examining Lin’s record may find it, well, spotty.While the ex-BDO consultant’s nous as a strategic adviser is hard to gauge, the verdicts of ASX investors, when viewed in isolation, paint a mixed picture.In the period at which he oversaw things as Bubs chairman (beginning in August 2017), Lin also ran his own private equity shop in Cortina Capital and was also involved in no fewer than three other ASX-listed companies.

From 2017 to 2022, Lin has served as first a director, executive director then executive chairman of ASX-listed Health and Plant Protein Group. During his time at the company, the share price plunged from 27¢ to 7¢.Lin’s time as a non-executive director of eCargo Holdings just before the pandemic is no more auspicious.

During his 18 months on the board (which ended in October 2019) the company’s share price dropped 75 per cent.He saw more success at Synertec, where he’s been non-executive chairman since 2019. Its share price is up nearly four-fold.Share prices are rarely the sole result of even a whole board’s influence, and remain vulnerable to factors outside management’s control. Still, they understandably remain front-of-mind for investors.

At Bubs, the share price traded as high as $1.39 four years ago. It was 23¢ when Lin was ousted in April, and is now trading at an even lower 17¢.