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Steve McCann’s big London trip

Myriam RobinRear Window editor

Jul 25, 2024 – 5.14pm

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The stupendous generosity of the Star Entertainment board towards would-be saviour Steve McCann has been duly noted.

This is a man receiving a $2.5 million cash salary, a $7.5 million sign-on bonus, a $2.5 million retention bonus (paid in FY26), and a no-hurdle, short-term incentive bonus worth $5 million at today’s (rock-bottom) prices. Even better, when Star invariably raises more capital, he has dilution protection.

If only Robbie Cooke thought to negotiate that! McCann’s predecessor raised $1.55 billion for the company and the only party ultimately profiting were the bankers at Barrenjoey, up $21 million (last year’s biggest ASX disappointments ended up being the most lucrative companies for their bankers, which just shows everyone else is in the wrong line of work).

How did McCann get all that? Leverage! Star was desperate to have him, and as soon as possible. We know that because, as it turns out, he wanted to start in August, due to a long-standing offshore appointment. He didn’t get everything he wanted, but was no doubt duly compensated for the inconvenience of a quick start.

As it was, McCann took the reins of Star Entertainment on July 8. And on July 15, he was off to London for the week on a prior arrangement he had long flagged to the board. We’re vehemently told it was not a holiday: seems he worked the whole time.

Steve McCann: well-rested, before his London trip. Dominic Lorrimer

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His absence from HQ was duly and widely noted. It would be. Star doesn’t have good weeks lately, but this one wasn’t uneventful.

As McCann boarded his flight, the casino company had just switched off poker machines in three venues after identifying a “system performance issue”, in an outage that ended up lasting four days. By the end of the week, Star was bracing for the public release of a report, from last October, by Star special manager Nick Weeks, which lashed the company for “modest” progress on cultural reform, and its then-board for its “passive” approach and absence of “deep casino industry operating experience”.

Such concerns, now vividly and widely available, are what prompted Star’s chairman and CEO to plot to oust the special manager. The revelation of that scheme felled both Cooke and then-chairman David Foster, who was replaced by his (non-woke) board colleague Anne Ward.

The point is, there was a bit going on, and McCann couldn’t well opt out. We’re told he attended 10 internal meetings, had multiple external catch-ups, and even interviewed candidates for the vacant general counsel position. And in the midst of all that, he surely made inescapable London commitments, sleep-deprived, having also kept antipodean hours for the sake of the company paying him a king’s ransom to save it.

We thought, upon his appointment, that McCann looked the perfect picture of health: trim, happy, rested. No wonder he did The Australian Financial Review photoshoot before his trip. Even flying first class; imagine how exhausted he is now.