Twelve months of Rampart
Joe turns up three weeks late to his own birthday party.
Before I get to Rampart's anniversary, our imminent new episodes of Rampart Talks, and brand new developments and features for Rampart subscribers…
First, my monthly column in the AFR – on Barrenjoey's reverse takeover of fund manager Magellan – ran on Friday. It's amazing to think how much flak Magellan's co-founder Hamish Douglass copped back in 2020 for providing the seed capital to fund Barrenjoey's start-up losses. Where would Magellan be now without that investment? Having said that, my column raises legitimate issues about how inadequately the Magellan board has discharged its responsibility to secure fair terms in this transaction for its long-suffering shareholders.
Joe Aston
My point was only reinforced on Friday when Magellan revealed that the Lowy family had been handed 60 per cent of the institutional placement to part-fund the Barrenjoey acquisition, further diluting existing Magellan investors. Those investors have hung around through the baddest of bad times, and finally thought they were going to see a bit of sugar. Instead, Barrenjoey directed the majority of Magellan's new shares to a celebrity family office, forcing Magellan's existing investors to form the aftermarket immediately following a step-change in the share price. It was brutal, outrageous and so quintessentially David Gonski.
Remember, the Magellan-Barrenjoey 'merger' hasn't actually happened yet, but Magellan's dozy chairman Andrew Formica has let Gonski feather the nest of his longstanding personal sponsors, the Lowys, to the detriment of the entire register.
Formica earned his good name in funds management in London, whose pre-emption code prevails as the stone tablets of respecting shareholder rights in capital raisings. But like so many other company directors, he has been thoroughly seduced by the Gonski and Matthew Grounds full court press. Barrenjoey wants us to believe that standalone Magellan was a melting ice cube, but the only melting ice cube in this story is Andrew Formica, who's been duchessed, held captive and turned native. Forget the EGM on April 10 – Magellan's change of control is already in effect.
Two seemingly discordant views can actually be true at once: Barrenjoey's principals and staff deserve all the admiration (and jealousy) they are presently receiving; and yet the moment the cookie jar was prised open, they simply could not help themselves. Look no further than the classic fable of the Scorpion and the Frog: it's in their nature.
Back on February 20, Rampart chalked up 12 months since we published our very first article (and it all began, fittingly, on our favourite steel shyster Sanjeev Gupta). I had the best-laid plans to write a note to subscribers that day but unfortunately events completely overtook me.
The last year has been exhausting, rewarding and terrifying in approximately equal measures.
It's quite unreal to watch a daydream become a business and a brand that thousands of people pay for and talk about. Casting out on my own was a calculated risk – both on myself and on the evolving distribution and economic models of prestige news content – with frankly no references for success locally.
I am incredibly grateful to the many individuals who have invested in a Rampart subscription; attended our exclusive events for Rampart Chairman's Lounge members; to the dozens of Australian companies that have taken out corporate subscriptions for their leaders and employees; and to Rampart's sponsors who have chosen this platform, and its elite audience, for their important messages.
When I was on staff at the AFR, I simply wrote and submitted my columns and everything else was taken care of. As I've shared in previous subscriber notes, the biggest challenge for me now is the extent to which running Rampart the business deprives me of time to conceive of, and write, Rampart articles – which is, after all, what subscribers are principally paying for. The addition of our vodcast, Rampart Talks, has only made that harder again.
As Rampart continues to scale, I can assure you that my priority is to delegate more operational responsibilities and to quarantine a greater proportion of each week for research and writing. I am also growing the editorial team, although I know I need to be extremely selective in how I do that.
I want to very gradually increase the value of Rampart's output without diluting its quality. That means I won't publish articles by other authors on Rampart unless I personally find them compelling. I am incredibly lucky to have regular columnist Ivor Ries who, week after week, meets and indeed exceeds this standard. From Rio Tinto to CSL, he is presently in a purple patch.
When my article count dips, it's often because I'm working on other compelling content. Case in point: over the past three weeks, I was studying for, then filming, two new vodcast episodes – both of which I am confident are going to blow your socks off.
I launched Rampart Talks in November as a genuine experiment. If we were going to do business broadcast content, it had to be better than anything else in the market. Of course, having the highest production values makes it very expensive content, so we would need both the backing of commercial sponsors and really strong subscriber demand. Thankfully, for our first run of six episodes, we received both.
That means – drum roll – I've been able to commit to making Rampart Talks a permanent offering for subscribers. I have managed to lure gun TV producer Eliza Harvey from the ABC as Rampart's executive producer and associate editor, and we will henceforth be releasing one new episode every month.
I'm delighted to announce that BHP has signed on to be the naming sponsor of Rampart Talks for the next 12 months. It is obviously very exciting for us at Rampart to have such an eminent corporate brand, and substantial driver of Australia's prosperity, throwing its weight behind this series. Our matching orange logos almost made it destiny.
I would also like to thank our new gold sponsors, Generation Development Group and Ray White Commercial, and I look forward to talking to you much more about them in the coming months.
These companies have come onboard not to influence Rampart's editorial direction, but to position their prestige brands and products alongside the highest-quality business TV and the elevated conversations Rampart is facilitating in this format.
The next episode will drop this month. To help inform future episodes, I would love to hear from you – as a valued subscriber – about who you would like to see me interview. You can share your suggestions by simply replying to this email.
We only trialled Rampart Talks in the first place because our first subscriber survey in July told us that a podcast was one of the things our audience wanted from Rampart the most. You also wanted the ability to share Rampart articles with non-subscribers, and so we developed the gifting articles functionality now available on our website. We also responded quickly to ad hoc subscriber feedback that you wanted the full Rampart Talks episodes available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and that is now available to connect via your account settings.
We are currently working on further upgrades to our desktop and mobile websites, and then we will be developing a Rampart mobile app. We will also conduct a second subscriber survey in the coming weeks so we can get your updated feedback and then execute on it.
We're dedicated to providing the best experience for our subscribers, and to develop the features that you're actively asking for.
I want to say a big thank you to the subscribers who have just renewed or are about to renew for their second year. Rampart could not hold the powerful to account – nor lay bare the f—ing funny side of finance – without you.
Joe Aston
