Morning Briefing: Politicians lash out at controversial spruiker

Spruiker Jamie McIntyre has drawn the ire of Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Labor Senator Sam Dastyari... ANZ Bank says Mike Smith to step down as CEO after eight years...

Politicians lash out at controversial spruiker 
Appearing before a senate inquiry into land banking schemes, spruiker Jamie McIntyre drew the ire of Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Labor Senator Sam Dastyari.

According to a Fairfax report, Senator Dastyari called McIntyre a “conman” during the hearing, while Senator Xenophon was less than impressed with McIntyre’s conduct.

"In my seven years in the Senate, you would have to be the most evasive witness I have had to deal with and that's saying something,” Senator Xenophon said.

McIntyre’s appearance at the senate committee is in his relation to his involvement in land banking schemes.  

McIntyre and his company 21st Century Group are currently the subject of an ASIC investigation into five land-banking schemes in Queensland and Victoria.

According to the Fairfax report, tens of millions of dollars have been invested in the schemes in Victoria already, with investors encouraged to be involved in the schemes through seminars featuring celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Branson.

Fairfax claims Schwarzenegger and Branson were paid appearance fees of $40,000.

According to ASIC there are currently 100 investors who have committed to the schemes and the watchdog seeking orders to appoint a provisional liquidator or receiver and manager to each of the five schemes.

The developers of the scheme are also alleged to be associated with McIntyre and the 21st Century Group, with ASIC looking to appoint liquidators to oversee them as well.

ASIC is also using the proceedings to seek orders that each of the defendants, including Jamie McIntyre, be restrained from promoting or operating any of the schemes and from operating a financial services business.

Land-banking is a real estate investment scheme involving the acquisition of large blocks of land by a promoter or developer of the scheme, often in undeveloped rural areas, who then offer portions of the land to investors.

Land banking companies typically promote the investment with representations of high potential returns if the land is redeveloped, or if plans for rezoning and development are finalised.

 
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ANZ Bank says Mike Smith to step down as CEO after eight years
(Bloomberg) -- Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said Chief Executive Officer Mike Smith will step down, ending an eight-year tenure that turned the bank into Australia’s most Asia-focused financial services group.

Shayne Elliott, currently the bank’s chief financial officer, will replace Smith and join the board Jan. 1, 2016, ANZ said Thursday in a statement. Elliott, 51, started at ANZ as head of its institutional division in June 2009 and his previous roles include senior positions at Citigroup Inc. in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S., the bank said. Smith will step down Dec. 31.

Smith took over in October 2007, just as the financial crisis began. He set out to to tap growing wealth in Asia, buying Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s units in six Asian countries. Not everyone was won over by the strategy as Smith’s Australian rivals focused on their domestic markets.

“There will be a gradual wind back of the emphasis of the Asian strategy,” said Brett Le Mesurier, a Sydney-based analyst at APP Securities Ltd. “The focus will be more on getting the most out of the Australian and New Zealand businesses.”

ANZ Bank shares have more than doubled since bottoming in February 2009 after the worst of the credit crisis. The stock has dropped 16 percent this year, the biggest fall among Australia’s four largest lenders. It’s also worse than the 7.2 percent decline by the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Elliott’s announcement followed “a detailed review of external and internal candidates,” ANZ Chairman David Gonski said in a statement. “Shayne’s international banking and financial experience, together with his background in Australia and New Zealand makes him the right person to lead ANZ in a challenging global environment.”

Smith, who was born in the U.K., joined ANZ from HSBC Holdings Plc, where he had been head of Asia. He was the longest-serving chief among the country’s four major banks currently and said in April that media reports of his imminent retirement were “greatly exaggerated.”

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