Fast Eddy Groves speeds into childcare Eden
Groves is back. He never went away.
It was to be the big relaunch for "Fast" Eddy Groves, a series of "fireside chats" with Morgans director of equity capital markets Rob Douglas barnstorming through Melbourne, Sydney and (only naturally) the Gold Coast.
The Melbourne event was cancelled and the Sydney one sold out before Rampart could snaffle a ticket, so we will have to wait for another day to hear the Canadian responsible for Australia's biggest-ever childcare collapse to talk to the theme of the event, "Strengthening, Scaling & Safeguarding Childcare Businesses in a Changing Market".
Groves knows plenty about scaling – he grew the childcare group he founded, ABC Learning, to a 1000-plus centre, $3.4 billion market cap, ASX-listed behemoth in the mid 2000s – but strengthening and safeguarding feels like a stretch given it blew up in 2008 as the Global Financial Crisis bit, wiping out shareholders and forcing authorities to scramble for a new operator so thousands of children weren't tipped out of care.
In his Gold Coast pomp, Groves loved the spotlight. He owned fast cars and basketball team the Brisbane Bullets, was a social pages fixture and by 2006 was atop the Young Rich List with a fortune estimated at more than $260 million.
Since the collapse of ABC and his bankruptcy in 2013, he's preferred to keep such a low profile that his ownership stake in the US arm of his wife Viryan Collins Rubie's childcare chain Imagine Education Group is only visible via some obscure court filings in Florida.
