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Global property giant Lendlease has moved to quell intense shareholder pressure on its management for the company’s underperformance, and confirmed that chairman Michael Ullmer will retire at its annual general meeting in November.
Dissident high-profile investors led by John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital have been calling for management changes to transform the property developer and funds manager into a more simplified business, with an emphasis on being an Australia-focused company.
Lendlease chairman Michael Ullmer will front investors next week.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Tanarra, along with Allan Gray and David Di Pilla’s HMC Capital, have also raised concerns about the lack of real estate expertise on the board.
Allan Gray chief investment officer Simon Mawhinney said at the company’s client investment conference on Wednesday in Sydney that shareholders wanted Lendlease to sell the overseas operations in which “they have no competitive advantage”.
Ullmer, a former NAB banker, joined the Lendlease board in December 2011 and was appointed chairman in November 2018. The dissident investors had particularly focused their ire on Ullmer and asked for his immediate departure, however, he will remain on the board until the AGM on November 15.
“On a personal note, after 12 years on the board, and almost six years as chairman, I believe that now is the time to commence the process of identifying and transitioning to a new chair. I will seek input over the coming weeks as part of my normal engagement with key stakeholders,” Ullmer said on Wednesday.
The Lendlease shake-up will also see the retirement of long-time non-executive director Nicola Wakefield Evans. She joined the Future Fund board in January.
ASX-listed Lendlease, valued at $4.22 billion, is holding an investor strategy meeting on May 27 where chief executive Tony Lombardo will outline changes to the business.
The measures would involve simplifying Lendlease’s vast operations and further sales of non-core assets. The company already got the ball rolling with the sale last week of its Asian Life Sciences business into a joint venture with Warburg Pincus worth $147 million.