The real estate properties that are linked to the Cudeco’s blunt boss Wayne McCrae are already earning $100,000 more in rent fees and payments from the copper mining company in just a year. There have been a lot of changes in the property pricing for the past months.
Property stretching from Cudeco’s Gold Coast headquarters to its Mt Isa copper operations is involved.
Company accounts show rent Cudeco paid to entities linked to Mr McCrae, who once boasted the company was as good as a “dog with two d***s”, rose from $224,941 in 2012 to $325,264 in 2013.
He’s been involved in almost $3 million in related party deals since 2005, although accounts show he had also offered interest-free loans to Cudeco and a director-related entity provided free rent.
Cudeco deputy chairman David Taylor maintained all director related-party deals have been handled transparently and at cheaper rates than comparable transactions.
Mr McCrae, 66, is a 40 year veteran of mining, with stints in Africa. He is active despite almost losing both legs in a helicopter crash years ago.
He formed Cudeco in 2003 and shares exploded to almost $10 in 2006 amid hype about its potential deposits. Interest has since waned and shares closed at $1.59 on Friday.
Cudeco since 2006 has rented, from a private company partly owned by Mr McCrae, an office with tinted windows at a Gold Coast industrial strip.
The $50,000 yearly rent was “excellent value”, Mr Taylor said.
That price was also within an acceptable range to a valuer contacted by The Courier-Mail.
But Cudeco refused to specify addresses for other properties rented out from Mr McCrae-linked entities for the remaining $275,000, nor why an increase occurred.
It stated those properties were in Cloncurry, near Mt Isa, and used as employee housing, storage sheds and a company office.
Cudeco’s accounts note buying a Cloncurry property from Mr McCrae’s personal superannuation fund for $1.25 million in 2012.
But another transaction, for an office next to Cudeco’s Gold Coast headquarters, did not have to be disclosed.
A McCrae-run company had sold that office in 2005 for $350,000 to a private family company whose shareholders had included a Cudeco investor. They onsold it to Cudeco for $395,000 in 2012.
Mr Taylor said Cudeco made the purchase to accommodate further growth, and the price was 15 per cent below a valuation.
Cudeco also said the selling family company was not a related party under the Corporations Act.
Cudeco maintained Mr McCrae did not partake in deliberations involving related-party deals or vote on any transactions.
“We consider that all director-related party transactions have been handled in a transparent manner,” Mr Taylor said.