An investor roadshow across the US does not come cheaply. Especially when you charter a brand new Gulfstream 450 jet owned by your former managing director.
The ports and rail operator Asciano Group disclosed yesterday that it paid $613,259 in corporate jet chartering fees last financial year to a company owned by its former chief executive Mark Rowsthorn.
This was well up on the $268,202 Asciano paid Rowsthorn's jet chartering business, Marcplan, in the 2010 financial year (and $104,905 the year before that).
The elevated corporate jet costs were especially high given Rowsthorn left Asciano in February, just seven months into the financial year.
One wonders if the increased corporate jet costs might be related to Asciano using Rowsthorn's new $30 million Gulfstream 450 for a US roadshow last year, just after it was picked up from the Gulfstream factory in Florida.
Maybe Gulfstreams are just more expensive to run than Hawker 800s (the jet Asciano previously chartered off Rowsthorn).
It should be interesting to see whether the Asciano chairman, Malcolm Broomhead, still reckons chartering private jets represents better value than airline tickets.
At last year's annual meeting, Broomhead argued: ''The use of chartered aircraft occasionally is necessary when you have a large number of people travelling around on a visit to a multiple of locations in a short period of time, where you obviously can't cover that by using commercial flights.''
''So it actually saves money in that regard,'' Broomhead said, noting the private jet was hired below commercial rates.
The private jet fees to Rowsthorn's jet leasing company were on top of the $1.8 million termination payment, $1.5 million cash bonus, $1.64 million in fixed pay and $803,717 in share payments he received for the year - a total of $5.8 million.
http://www.smh.com.au
http://www.smh.com.au
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