KARL Paganin reckons the best thing he did after parting ways with Euroz a year ago was to avoid rushing back into the market.
Mr Paganin said he had been in a similar position earlier in his career when working to help the Holmes a Court family company to sell off its key assets, construction business John Holland and theatre group, Stoll Moss.
After successfully doing himself out of a job, Mr Paganin felt he should have taken a break, but instead leapt back into things, joining Brett Fogarty’s Churchill Capital before ultimately ending up at Euroz.
“You get a flurry of guys calling you when you leave,” Mr Paganin said.
“I wanted to take time off then (after Heytesbury) but it is easy to get seduced by approaches.
“I jumped straight back into work and regretted it.
He has, of course, not been entirely on holidays in the 12 months before announcing his decision to establish an Australian corporate finance presence in Perth for listed Canadian financial services group GMP.
For instance, Mr Paganin said contracting company Ocean to Outback consulted him regarding its backdoor listing via Emerson Stewart.
Having had time to dwell on the options, he believes he has made the right choice; moving to a firm that has a bigger capital base, a broader suite of products and yet is focused predominantly on resources.
Previously, GMP has been raising money for Australian companies out of its London office through Simon Catt, who heralds from Perth.
For its part, GMP repeats the mantra of many in the sector – that the starting point lies in the individuals recruited.
“We have assembled a select team of professionals that will provide investment banking and institutional equity services in Australia,” GMP said in its recent second quarter report.
“We believe this initiative is a logical next step in our international expansion, given Australia’s strong focus on natural resources and our reputation for leadership in the mid-market resource sector and history of working with Australian corporations seeking access to Canadian capital formation.”
Mr Paganin, managing director – head of corporate finance, and four others will take equity in the newly minted GMP Securities Australia. That includes Perth-based Geoff Reilly, formerly chief operating officer at Patersons, who is managing director – operations and finance, and former Euroz corporate finance team members Steven Harding and Alex Volante, who will be directors. In addition, Mark Wallace will be managing director – institutional sales, based in Sydney.
“The partners are all leveraged to the business,” Mr Paganin said.
“There is equity available to others,” he adds, describing it as a revolving equity model in which shareholdings are regularly reviewed and dependent on how much the individual brings to the business.
“It is there to incentivise everyone to roll up their sleeves.
“You don’t get fat cats that don’t contribute to the business because their equity will go down.”
Another Euroz employee, Ben Baker, is expected to join as an associate in coming months.
Mr Paganin is not that keen to dwell on the reasons for his departure from Euroz. In summary, he said there were philosophical differences about how to run a business and there was little likelihood of that changing.
Once that was obvious to all involved, he said, it was time to go their separate ways.
Mr Paganin remains one of the biggest shareholders of Euroz, which is listed.
While many in Perth will be unfamiliar with GMP, the growing number of local companies with a Canadian listing means there is a natural market for the Toronto-based group.
Mr Paganin points to companies such as Aurora Oil & Gas, which he raised funds for when he was at Euroz. GMP later listed Aurora on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
