Listed property manager Wentworth Mutual is shifting its focus to the east-coast market, moving its head office to Melbourne as managing director and former high flyer Glenn Wheeler takes a non-executive director and consultant role within the company.
Listed property manager Wentworth Mutual is shifting its focus to the east-coast market, moving its head office to Melbourne as managing director and former high flyer Glenn Wheeler takes a non-executive director and consultant role within the company.
Mr Wheeler is well known in Western Australia for his links to the collapse of Permanent Building Society in the early 1990s, as well as his central role in financial planning, real estate, mortgage broking and tax-effective investment industries, frequently encountering the authorities along the way.
Wentworth Mutual made a loss of $2.5 million last year, the fourth straight year it has run at a loss, but company spokesman Mark Silveria told WA Business News that, this year, the company was expecting to break even.
Wentworth has more than 3,000 properties under management in WA, and intends to use its new head office in Melbourne to make rent roll acquisitions on the east coast.
“Glenn has other interests outside Wentworth which he has decided to pursue, but is staying on board as a consultant and non-executive director,” Mr Silveria said.
According to Wentworth Mutual’s annual report, Mr Wheeler was paid a salary of $257,000 for his executive director role for the last financial year.
Late last year, Wentworth announced the move of head office to Melbourne, and the redundancy of several corporate positions in Perth.
Last December, Wentworth Mutual paid $26 million for management rights company Amrites Ltd, which has lodged a prospectus with ASIC to raise $14 million from the public.
Wentworth will be raising $15 million through a placement underwritten by Bell Potter to fund the acquisition. The company last year completed a $13 million capital raising through a $10.5 million placement and a $2.5 million share purchase plan.
Mr Silveria said management rights, which involve on site management and letting for a fee, were complementary to the property management side of the business.
“Wentworth has seven manage-ment rights agreements with an average of 60 units per right.”
He said Wentworth had also acquired a 50 per cent interest in property tax depreciation specialist DepWest.
“By December 2006, we anticipate having 6,000 properties under management in WA, 4,000 in the rest of Australia and 20 management right agreements.”
