Stuart Robert and the share trade that delivered a windfall — and raised questions

This is part nine of a series. You can find the full series here.

Back when Employment Minister Stuart Robert was a mere backbencher, having been exiled from the Turnbull ministry for a conflict of interest scandal, his parliamentary register of interests shows share trades in a junior mining company called Atlas Iron which appear to have delivered a windfall profit over a period of just five months.

On February 6, 2018, Robert took a personal stake in Atlas and soon picked up more shares through his family trust. At the time Atlas was a company in trouble and on the slide. Its profit margins were being squeezed because of lower benchmark prices for iron ore. Its shares were only 2.5 cents each when Robert bought in. But it turned out to be a canny investment. When he sold out in June, the value of Robert’s personal shares had risen to 4.2 cents per share — a near 80% rise.

So what happened?   

Atlas’ downward spiral had brought into play West Australia’s biggest iron ore players, Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals, both of which were interested in acquiring shares. The battle for control heated up in the weeks after Robert bought his stake and produced a price spike from mid June, when Hancock’s bid of 4.2 cents per share prevailed.

ASX records show that Hancock lodged its takeover offer on June 18. On June 20 the Atlas board advised there would be no competing counter offer, in effect giving its approval to the Hancock bid. On the same day, Stuart Robert’s register of interests recorded that his stake in Atlas was no more.

Atlas’ longest serving board member in the run up to the takeover was the former Western Australia attorney-general Cheryl Edwardes, who had been appointed a member of the Foreign Investment Review Board. Once the Atlas takeover was complete its board was joined by long term Rinehart executive Tad Watroba. Hancock figure Professor Ian Plimer, a geologist and climate sceptic, took over as chief executive.

On paper the Atlas trades appear to have nearly doubled Robert’s investment. 

Robert though declined to comment when contacted about details of the trades, relying on a statement made to Crikey that he had complied with the register of members’ interests and a statement of ministerial standards. (Crikey also sought comment from Edwardes. We have no reason to suggest that she was aware of Robert’s stake.)

Whatever the case, the Atlas trades demonstrate the importance of a functioning and transparent register of interests in flagging potential conflicts of interest for a cabinet minister.