GILMORE BOYS
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Sticking with the Liberals,the party closed preselections for the South Coast seat of Gilmore,Labor’s most marginal federal electorate,on Wednesday afternoon.
CBD hears a familiar face is in the mix. That’s right dear reader,it’s former NSW transport ministerAndrew Constance,who at this point just seems like a sucker for punishment.
To recap,Constance announced he was running for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro in 2020,only to drop out 24 hours later.
At the last election,he was a captain’s pick for Gilmore,but narrowly lost to Labor’sFiona Phillips. He’s since contested two Senate preselections,both times as a favourite,both times losing out on the day.
Most recently,he lost after several fellow moderates backed factional comradeDave Sharmafor a casual vacancy late last year.
It’s fair to say that once again,this preselection isn’t a slam dunk for Constance. Local lawyer and Shoalhaven deputy mayorPaul Ell,also a moderate,has quit the state executive to contest the preselection and already looks to have strong numbers among the local party branches. Ell probably had the numbers ahead of the last election too,but stepped aside to let Constance have a crack.
CBD hears that this time,there isn’t the same pressure to let Constance have a free run – especially since it’s been over a decade since the Liberals held a preselection in Gilmore.
SHARING IS CARING
We’re not sure why,but investment websites have gone from being so hot to so not in what seems like a very short period of time.
But they were definitely de rigueur back in 2022 when ASX-listed financial services group Sequoia Financial moved on a group that included the sites ShareCafe,Informed Investor and Corporate Connect Research in a deal worth $5.1 million.
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But the deal had gone sour after just 15 months,with chief executiveTim McGowen out of the business amid a dispute with Sequoia over payments McGowen and other staff claimed were due to them as part of the takeover deal.
Amid a good deal of acrimony,McGowen and others were reportedly offered just 40 per cent of the 3.2 million shares in the merged business they claim to have been owed,with Sequoia insisting that revenue targets agreed at the time of the acquisition had not been met.
Now the matter has landed in the courts,after,it seems,the positions have been reversed.
Now Sequoia reckons that McGowen owesit money – $3.5 million – and has lodged an action this week in the Victorian Supreme Court to try to get it,alleging breaches of the share purchase deed agreed between the parties in March 2022 as part of the takeover.
McGowen has not yet lodged a defence and neither he nor Sequoia responded on Wednesday to a request for comment,so we’ll just have to keep you all posted on this one.
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