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Cannon-Brookes will clearly want the AGL board to accept his application for two positions on the board, and he already has a list of preferred candidates drawn up. But, curiously, he does not demand that any of his candidates be president, and he is happy that this role will be taken on by an independent.
It seems likely that the names of their candidates will be handed over to Botten and Sullivan at this week’s meeting.
What is most difficult to assess in this muddy government situation is who has the balance of power.
The current board doesn’t really have a mandate to do anything, and Cannon-Brookes has an 11.2 percent stake, which along with some allied shareholders was enough to prevent the AGL board from merging, but it’s not enough to set the corporate agenda.
Therefore, Cannon-Brookes would be willing to put his candidates around the board table so that he can say who will take on the most important roles in AGL: that of the new chairman and the new CEO. (The current CEO, Graeme Hunt, was very tired and announced that he would leave when a replacement was found.)
The now-discontinued spin-off of AGL Energy would have split the business in two and would have seen both companies remain in the hands of existing investors. Credit: Paul Jones
AGL Director of Operations Markus Brokhof is already rumored to be the most likely internal candidate to replace Hunt, and while Grok’s camp acknowledges that he is a talented executive, he is more likely to push for fresh blood. from the executive to the head.
Second phase of the master plan
Since Grok cannot exercise absolute control over AGL, he understands that this must be achieved by consensus.
Cannon-Brookes has managed to thwart spin-off plans, but the second stage of its master plan to bring forward the dismantling of the company’s coal-fired power plants by ten years and make it invest billions of dollars in renewable energy cannot be get unless the board and management agree.
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UBS Investment Bank has suggested that Cannon-Brookes sees AGL as an opportunity to leverage technology to develop an energy trading platform, which uses artificial intelligence to orchestrate all the energy generated by households.
As fascinating as it sounds, Grok is still a long way from exerting that level of influence.
In the meantime, there is still the possibility that AGL will become the subject of a takeover bid, but if Cannon-Brookes gets two seats on the board, it would have the ability to block any deal.
All of this shows that Cannon-Brookes has so far only won one term to stop a split. He will need more words before he can stop the company from selling one of his two businesses, and even more influence before he can dictate the details of his operations.
No wonder it’s all about consensus building now.
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