Former Tabcorp exec sued over share loans
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 29, 2009
TABCORP'S staff share plan is pursuing the wagering giant's former general counsel and company secretary for more than $1 million in unpaid loans for a series of share parcels he received as one of the company's most powerful and highly paid senior executives.Peter Caillard, a former boss of Tabcorp's media division who played a leading role in Tabcorp's billion-dollar takeovers of Star City casino, Jupiters casino, Queensland, and NSW TAB, is being sued in the Supreme Court for the return of the money plus interest.In a writ obtained by the Herald, Tabcorp Employee Share Administration says that three months after Mr Caillard ceased employment with Tabcorp in February last year he executed a transfer of 100,000 Tabcorp shares to his wife, Belinda Louise Caillard, who at the time was a trustee for the Caillard Family Trust. The writ says that under the terms of the Tabcorp employee share plan once Mr Caillard left the company any loans not settled within 90 days must be repaid to discharge his obligations to the share administrators.In March the administrators requested he repay the balance of the loans which, at April 9, 2008, was $990,802.62. That bill has since risen to $1,005,269.67, comprising the initial loan plus interest costs of just under $15,000.Tabcorp Employee Share Administration is claiming it has suffered loss and damage. A search of Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents shows the current directors of the staff share fund are Tabcorp's executive general manager, corporate and legal, Kerry Willcock, and the chief financial officer, Matt Bekier. Tabcorp has a 33.3 per cent stake in the share administration.According to court documents, Mr Caillard was issued four tranches of 25,000 Tabcorp shares between November 2000 and August 2003. The shares had an issue price of between $9.30 and $12.74 and in 2003 had an attaching loan value to Mr Caillard of $1.1 million.Tabcorp shares have since fallen sharply, and the parcel of 100,000 shares would now be worth only $700,000.When Tabcorp sacked the former chief executive Matthew Slatter in March 2007 he had to pay back a share-purchase loan of $5.9 million, plus interest, within 90 days. In defence documents, lawyers for Mr Caillard say there were additional terms of the share plan between the executive and Tabcorp as an agent of Tabcorp Employee Share Administration. These include letters to Mr Caillard from the former Tabcorp chief executives Ross Wilson and Mr Slatter."Not later than 21 February, 2008, the defendant [Mr Caillard] was entitled to the unconditional delivery to him of amongst other shares, the plan shares the subject of the loans, without any further action or conduct by the defendant and free of any lien, charge, encumbrance or condition."Mr Caillard's final role before leaving Tabcorp was manager of strategy and development, but a decision by the new chief, Elmer Funke Kupper, to shed its overseas assets and focus on consolidating its domestic businesses meant the scope of his work was greatly curtailed.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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