If ever proof was needed that life as a professional director is no longer a leisurely, part-time sinecure, Peter Mansell provides it.
If ever proof was needed that life as a professional director is no longer a leisurely, part-time sinecure, Peter Mansell provides it.
He is chairman of four companies in Perth and Melbourne and a director of four others.
Two of his companies – grocery group Foodland and technology company JDV – are fending off hostile takeovers, a third, Ferngrove Vineyards Estate, is about to launch a major capital raising, and a fourth, manufacturer Alocit International, is moving towards a stock market float.
Mr Mansell, renowned for his sharp intellect and exceptionally high energy levels, clearly enjoys his involvement in all of these companies.
“Being involved I find very challenging and very exciting,” he said.
“A bit of that in your life adds a huge amount of value.”
Mr Mansell, described by a colleague as one of the last few remaining gentlemen in the business world, brings 34 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer in South Africa and Australia to his boards, which also include zinc and lead producer Zinifex and West Australian Newspapers Holdings.
With such wide experience Mr Mansell is better qualified than most to comment on trends in corporate governance, and in so doing he challenges some of the accepted wisdom.
That starts with the fact he is a director of so many companies, putting him at odds with the view that directors should limit the number of board positions they accept.
“I think this is quite a simple issue that has become overly complicated,” he said.
“You cannot be formulaic. There are some companies that take an enormous amount of time and others that take less. Also relevant is that there are some people with a huge appetite for work and others who like to work less.”
He is backed in this regard by another professional director, David Moore, who recently invited Mr Mansell to join him on the board of aspiring mining company Tethyan Copper.
Mr Moore thinks a large number of board positions can be a good thing.
“I think it’s excellent because it gives him a broad range of experience,” he said.
Mr Mansell said his experience showed that director positions could be more time consuming than chairman positions.
“At this point, a directorship of Foodland demands more of my time than the chair of Zinifex. You have just got to look at the circumstances of each company.”
Mr Mansell also believes that people advocating limits on board seats are mistaken in their focus on big companies.
“The reality is that because the top 200 companies are that well resourced and that well run, a director’s time is in less demand than at smaller companies, yet the rules don’t apply to those smaller companies,” he said.
“In my experience it is often the smaller companies that have more complicated issues and call more on directors than the larger companies.”
He warns that directors need to leave enough space in their working lives to respond to unexpected corporate activity – such as the hostile takeover bids for JDV and Foodland.
“You need to make sure your book isn’t too full because these things take time.”
It’s not the first time Mr Mansell has found himself in a demanding situation.
“JDV in its old days, as Hartley Poynton, when I took it on, it was a real challenge,” he said, adding that the company was now running smoothly following the sale of its stockbroking arm to management.
He believes the break-up of the old company, criticised by some as a fire sale, was the right move, evidenced by the success of the two businesses (Hartleys and JDV) under separate ownership.
“It tells me that a stockbroking firm must be managed by the stockbrokers, and not in a corporate structure,” Mr Mansell said.
Another challenge was the March 2004 float of Zinifex, which he describes as a “horrible” period.
Mr Mansell spent nearly a year on an advisory board helping to prepare for the float of Zinifex, which comprises the key mining and smelting assets of the failed Pasminco.
Despite preparing a carefully orchestrated plan with some of the country’s top corporate advisers, institutional support collapsed on the eve of the float.
Mr Mansell had to make an emergency trip to Sydney on the eve of the float, the banking syndicate that controlled the assets had to be convinced to allow the float to proceed, and the share price slumped further after the listing.
However, the subsequent rise in zinc and lead prices has made Zinifex far more profitable than anybody had expected and underpinned a strongly rising share price.
Mr Mansell said his other board positions had been more steady, none more so than Bunnings Property Management, which runs the Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust.
He added that even the WA Newspapers board, often criticised for its failure to close deals, has been busy at times, such as during its 2004 negotiations with John Fairfax and its recent deal to acquire a 50 per cent interest in the Hoyts cinema business.
ON BOARD
CHAIRMAN
- Zinifex
- JDV
- Ferngrove Vineyards Estate
- Alocit International
DIRECTOR
- Bunnings Property Management
- WA Newspapers
- Foodland
- Tethyan Copper
