Is this the one?;) GLTA Paul Oneile, Simon Kelly reunite at...

Is this the one? GLTA
Paul Oneile, Simon Kelly reunite at Intecq
THE AUSTRALIANMARCH 28, 2016 12:00AM
Sarah-Jane Tasker
Reporter
Sydney

Paul Oneile and Simon Kelly, the architects behind a turnaround in the once-struggling Artistocrat, are back together again and this time they have set their sights on offshore markets for gaming-services business Intecq.
Oneile, chairman of Australian-listed Intecq, says he and Kelly kept in regular contact after serving a five-year partnership at Aristocrat between 2003 and 2008. When he heard Kelly’s time as chief operating officer at Nine Entertainment was nearing an end, he jumped to get him on-board his latest venture.
“Simon left Nine on February 29 and I talked him into it on March 1,” Oneile says.
Kelly, who has taken on a non-executive director role at Intecq, was already a shareholder of the company and says he was of the view it had significant potential.
“It has got a strong position in its niche part of the gaming sector and we want to use those relationships and capabilities to become a broader technology business,” he adds.
Kelly says he and Oneile didn’t always see eye to eye during the Aristocrat days but that meant they always had a broader discussion about decisions.
“That kind of relationship means you get better outcomes and decisions,” he says.
The Aristocrat experiment, where Oneile served as CEO and Kelly as chief financial officer, proved to be a rollercoaster ride.
“We had to change the culture (at Artistocrat) and win back the confidence of all stakeholders and the market,” Oneile says.
He recalls that Aristocrat suffered a series of downgrades in 2003 and its share price plummeted to a low of 85c, having previously enjoyed a price around $6.
Both say they were attracted to the turnaround challenge at Aristocrat given they both had previous experience in transformational roles and change management.
“We didn’t know each other before we joined Aristocrat. It was a company that had lots of potential but it had continued to be run as a family company,” Kelly says.
Pokies billionaire Len Ainsworth founded the company but by the time Kelly and Oneile joined, Ainsworth’s family were no longer involved in management roles but were still investors.
Kelly says Aristocrat had a “cultural legacy” of a family business. “There was limited governance, it didn’t really have a strategy. It just operated day to day. We brought discipline, sensible decision making and a strategy,” he says.
Oneile adds that given neither of them had a gaming background they had to ascertain quickly who at the company had knowledge in gaming, who they could trust and who wasn’t tarnished by the old culture.
“Simon and I gradually got on top of the cultural issues and then looked at where the growth would come from,” Oneile says.
“When we started at Aristocrat, Australia contributed about 75 to 80 per cent of profit and we determined real growth would come from offshore. By the time we had finished that figure was almost reversed.”
A focus on offshore opportunities is also a strategy the two are hoping to bring to Intecq. The company’s core business is to supply software technology to the gaming industry and its key expertise, says Oneile, is developing that software and technology. That expertise is where he sees great potential in broader technology fields.
Intecq, formerly known as eBet, provides player loyalty and tracking systems, cashless gaming systems and back-office productivity tools for pubs, clubs and casinos.
The company already has a small offshore presence in Southeast Asia, which Oneile says will grow.
“We also see further expansion in Australia in our core business but see great opportunity in aligned fields. We also see opportunities using technology in broader industries,” he says.
“There are exciting technology opportunities floating around at the moment ... using our technology on a broader industry base beyond clubs and gaming.”
The company already has suitors circling and in December Intecq’s board knocked back a near $100 million bid from Spain’s WIN Systems.
“The recent approach to us is an indication of the strong interest in Intecq’s leading edge technology and growth trajectory. We are moving towards being a far reaching technology group with applications across a wider range of industry sectors and geographic areas,” adds Oneile.
Kelly says Intecq is well placed to execute its growth plans and adds it also has cash on the balance sheet, strong cashflows and consistent and growing earnings.
“It’s got all the ingredients to step outside its core competency and morph itself into a broader based business,” he says.
Oneile adds that when he was first approached in 2012 to join Intecq he wasn’t sure if he wanted to get back into the mainstream side of business.
“I didn’t know the company particularly well but I had a good look, met the manager and was happy with how they were going,” he says. “I could see enormous potential. I thought they just needed a little more focus in certain areas and felt I could bring that to the table.
“I also saw real opportunity for the company to expand its product offering and to expand the technology that it had and was developing.”