Yes, Patrick Campion has mortgaged 194 Pitt Street to ANZ Bank.
The implications are staggering – and confirm everything that has been said about Campion on this blog.
First, it is a clear breach of the City Tattersalls Club Act which says that no mortgage can ever be granted over the Club’s property unless approved in advance by members.
Second, it could only be sheer desperation that made the Club change banks at this time. City Tatts has banked with National Australia Bank for over 40 years. To switch to ANZ now can only mean that National Australia Bank told the Club to go or insisted on additional terms that the Club could not meet. (It is no secret that National Australia Bank have been very concerned about the management of City Tatts since last year.)
Lastly, this move makes nonsense of Campion’s statement in February that the Club had “met all bank covenants”. You can not change banks overnight when there are commercial overdrafts, floating charges and mortgages involved. Campion must have already been in discussions with the ANZ about the move in February when he made the statement – knowing that a new mortgage with ANZ would be necessary.
It is also interesting to consider the position of ANZ in this mess:
- How will the legal department of ANZ react when they discover that the mortgage is not valid?
- The bank’s credit review team will obviously want to interview the ANZ banker who brought in City Tatts as a client. We don’t know yet who this person is but we should be able to find out fairly soon.
- The mortgage is for $17 million – secured on a building that is not worth $8 million. We can only guess that there must be additional floating charges to cover the shortfall.
Save City Tatts Committee
Save City Tatts 