Magellan shares tumble after another bleak update

Performance fees for the six months ending December 31 were “not meaningful”, the company said.

Magellan funds will pay distributions of $0.3 billion in January which will be reflected in next month’s funds under management figures.

The shaky end to 2022 comes after shareholders voted in favour of increasing fees for non-executive directors by $1 million at a meeting in December. The increased cap for non-executive director pay from $750,000 to $1.75 million is part of the company’s strategy to renew and expand the board.

Magellan aims to appoint two new non-executive directors to the board and wants to increase the fees of current directors Robert Fraser, Colette Garnsey, John Eales and chair Hamish McLennan.

Despite some pointed questions from shareholders, who asked why they should support the increase given Magellan’s share price had tumbled, the vote was comfortably passed with almost 95 per cent voting in favour of the resolution.

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At the December meeting, the chair told shareholders that a lot of the outflows had been caused by the “instability of Hamish’s departure”.

“And there were a lot of institutional relationships that were tied to Hamish that, no matter what anyone could have said or done, I think was a difficult situation for the board to get their heads around,” he said.

Douglass, who split from his wife at the end of 2021 before announcing he was taking medical leave after “intense focus” on his personal and professional life, has returned to the firm as a consultant, not an employee.

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