Joshuatree
19-08-2014, 10:27 PM
i found qube on winners post on ryman re Top 10 logistic companies in the world.Anyone been quietly holding this ?
Qube logistics quietly posts ten-fold growth in three yearsBy Ticky Fullerton (http://www.abc.net.au/news/ticky-fullerton/3299526)
Posted 25 Jun 2014, 11:50amWed 25 Jun 2014, 11:50am
VIDEO: Extended interview with Maurice James (The Business) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-24/extended-interview-with-maurice-james/5547814)
MAP: Australia (http://maps.google.com/?q=-26.000,134.500(Australia)&z=5)
For a two billion dollar ASX company, Qube Holdings has had a remarkably low profile in its short life.
Yet this latest force in logistics has ambitions to upset all sorts of entrenched operations that make up the fragmented import/export supply chain in Australia. It could be a grain terminal, bulk handler or massive new intermodal transport hub.
Valued at $200 million when it listed just over three years ago, Qube's tenfold growth, largely through acquisition, has surprised even its own management.
Qube chief Maurice James has flown beneath the media radar since being lured back from retirement by his former boss at Patrick Stevedores, Chris Corrigan.
The mild mannered James is not at all what I expected from the ex-head of Patrick Ports who weathered the brutal waterfront action of 1998.
Yet that connection underpins the corporate culture. Half the board, the heads of both divisions and the CEO are ex-Patrick.
Remarkably, the bulk of the old executive team reformed in 2007 with Corrigan, now Qube chairman, and then bought businesses from the P&O Ports empire which today make up Qube's Ports and Bulk, and Logistics.
What is less well known is that up to 150 former Patrick employees are now with Qube.
"It's about being lean," explains James.
"It's about people with experience in the industry but, probably more importantly, a culture around challenging what's happening around delivering today."
Hallmarks of CorriganCorrigan spends much of his time in Switzerland these days musing on investments, often through Kaplan, the fund manager which begot Qube and whose managing director Sam Kaplan is deputy chairman of Qube.
Qube is quite accustomed to a media obsession with Corrigan.
One company source told me, "We'll be on the phone to Chris and say, 'You'll be interested to hear you've just done this or that', when all the big day-to-day stuff is done here."
Yet the growth underpinned by acquisitions in combination with strategic partners has all the Corrigan hallmarks.
"We have a board and shareholders that are very supportive and where we do identify opportunities where there's investment, we're prepared to do it, we get backing to do it and management are good at it," said James.
Most recently, Qube targeted monopoly grain handler GrainCorp, vulnerable after a failed takeover by American firm Archer Daniel Midlands and ACCC regulations around access to its terminals.
James saw an opportunity with grain traders such as Noble Resources, Cargill and Sumitomo's Emerald who were unhappy dealing through a competitor in GrainCorp with essentially monopoly assets in its ports.
It teamed up with these players in a joint venture, Quattro, at Port Kembla, which is investing in port infrastructure and managing the facility. Qube will be the rail operator to port and will stevedore the grain onto vessels.
Qube is not into internal logistics. It is all about import and export freight and finding new ways to smooth out delivery: unnecessary truck movements, unnecessary container handling, vertically integrating activities and scaling up through infrastructure at ports.
It is a business James believes will continue to grow at GDP plus, although he admits container volumes are flatter at present.
Rising port pricesQube was recently outbid on the Webb Dock lease in Melbourne. A new trend of rising prices for port lease and wholesale assets (Brisbane, Newcastle/Port Kembla, Botany) have led to warnings about rising costs and international competitiveness from both James, on behalf of industry, and this week, the ACCC's Rod Sims.
"The hidden impact is that the high prices that are being paid for our ports will ultimately flow through to the users, higher charges going forward, or infrastructure charges, or perhaps what I call an indirect tax," argued James.
"In our industry there's a common phrase - at the end of the day our cargo pays."
The Port of Melbourne, Australia's largest, is the latest to be flagged for sale.
Qube's other big project is the massive intermodal terminal at Moorebank in Western Sydney, to shift freight on rail from Botany to warehouses at Moorebank and beyond.
The company owns 67 per cent of the 83 hectare site at Moorebank with partner Aurizon and is now in exclusive negotiations with the Commonwealth Government (which owns a parcel of land next door) for a whole of precinct solution.
The 10-year development aims to be turning the first sod by end of 2015, with rail operations underway by the end of 2016.
One of James's visions is to move freight off the roads onto rail in cities like Sydney. Less Toll trucks perhaps?
There is little love for the Toll Group at Qube after its takeover of Patrick, but would Qube ever have a go at taking Patrick back?
James laughs politely.
"I think that's a hypothetical Ticky but, personally, spending 14 years of your life in stevedoring it's in your blood, but who knows what the future holds," he replied.
So would it be a matter of price?
"It could be price or it could be other opportunities that we see as more interesting and better returns," he added.
Asian food supplyFar more interesting is what the chairman is up to: buying into the protein supply chain to Asia.
Through Kaplan, Chris Corrigan has recently picked up 5 per cent of the Australian Agricultural Company and 12 per cent of Ruralco; one a big landowner and beef producer, the other a rural services company.
So, could this be the beginning of a Corrigan/Qube joint venture?
"I think you should really see it as two separate investments for Corrigan and Kaplan," James said.
"It is very much an investment that they are doing in their own right, but we certainly believe in the food bowl to Asia story the opportunities for moving products from rural sites in Australia through our ports to Asia is going to grow.
"I think it's a long way down the track before there's anything like that, if there was something like that to eventuate."
As I leave Qube’s offices mid-town, I pass the Kaplan Funds Management door on my way out. Chris Corrigan is back in Sydney this week for a major strategy meeting.
Qube logistics quietly posts ten-fold growth in three yearsBy Ticky Fullerton (http://www.abc.net.au/news/ticky-fullerton/3299526)
Posted 25 Jun 2014, 11:50amWed 25 Jun 2014, 11:50am
VIDEO: Extended interview with Maurice James (The Business) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-24/extended-interview-with-maurice-james/5547814)
MAP: Australia (http://maps.google.com/?q=-26.000,134.500(Australia)&z=5)
For a two billion dollar ASX company, Qube Holdings has had a remarkably low profile in its short life.
Yet this latest force in logistics has ambitions to upset all sorts of entrenched operations that make up the fragmented import/export supply chain in Australia. It could be a grain terminal, bulk handler or massive new intermodal transport hub.
Valued at $200 million when it listed just over three years ago, Qube's tenfold growth, largely through acquisition, has surprised even its own management.
Qube chief Maurice James has flown beneath the media radar since being lured back from retirement by his former boss at Patrick Stevedores, Chris Corrigan.
The mild mannered James is not at all what I expected from the ex-head of Patrick Ports who weathered the brutal waterfront action of 1998.
Yet that connection underpins the corporate culture. Half the board, the heads of both divisions and the CEO are ex-Patrick.
Remarkably, the bulk of the old executive team reformed in 2007 with Corrigan, now Qube chairman, and then bought businesses from the P&O Ports empire which today make up Qube's Ports and Bulk, and Logistics.
What is less well known is that up to 150 former Patrick employees are now with Qube.
"It's about being lean," explains James.
"It's about people with experience in the industry but, probably more importantly, a culture around challenging what's happening around delivering today."
Hallmarks of CorriganCorrigan spends much of his time in Switzerland these days musing on investments, often through Kaplan, the fund manager which begot Qube and whose managing director Sam Kaplan is deputy chairman of Qube.
Qube is quite accustomed to a media obsession with Corrigan.
One company source told me, "We'll be on the phone to Chris and say, 'You'll be interested to hear you've just done this or that', when all the big day-to-day stuff is done here."
Yet the growth underpinned by acquisitions in combination with strategic partners has all the Corrigan hallmarks.
"We have a board and shareholders that are very supportive and where we do identify opportunities where there's investment, we're prepared to do it, we get backing to do it and management are good at it," said James.
Most recently, Qube targeted monopoly grain handler GrainCorp, vulnerable after a failed takeover by American firm Archer Daniel Midlands and ACCC regulations around access to its terminals.
James saw an opportunity with grain traders such as Noble Resources, Cargill and Sumitomo's Emerald who were unhappy dealing through a competitor in GrainCorp with essentially monopoly assets in its ports.
It teamed up with these players in a joint venture, Quattro, at Port Kembla, which is investing in port infrastructure and managing the facility. Qube will be the rail operator to port and will stevedore the grain onto vessels.
Qube is not into internal logistics. It is all about import and export freight and finding new ways to smooth out delivery: unnecessary truck movements, unnecessary container handling, vertically integrating activities and scaling up through infrastructure at ports.
It is a business James believes will continue to grow at GDP plus, although he admits container volumes are flatter at present.
Rising port pricesQube was recently outbid on the Webb Dock lease in Melbourne. A new trend of rising prices for port lease and wholesale assets (Brisbane, Newcastle/Port Kembla, Botany) have led to warnings about rising costs and international competitiveness from both James, on behalf of industry, and this week, the ACCC's Rod Sims.
"The hidden impact is that the high prices that are being paid for our ports will ultimately flow through to the users, higher charges going forward, or infrastructure charges, or perhaps what I call an indirect tax," argued James.
"In our industry there's a common phrase - at the end of the day our cargo pays."
The Port of Melbourne, Australia's largest, is the latest to be flagged for sale.
Qube's other big project is the massive intermodal terminal at Moorebank in Western Sydney, to shift freight on rail from Botany to warehouses at Moorebank and beyond.
The company owns 67 per cent of the 83 hectare site at Moorebank with partner Aurizon and is now in exclusive negotiations with the Commonwealth Government (which owns a parcel of land next door) for a whole of precinct solution.
The 10-year development aims to be turning the first sod by end of 2015, with rail operations underway by the end of 2016.
One of James's visions is to move freight off the roads onto rail in cities like Sydney. Less Toll trucks perhaps?
There is little love for the Toll Group at Qube after its takeover of Patrick, but would Qube ever have a go at taking Patrick back?
James laughs politely.
"I think that's a hypothetical Ticky but, personally, spending 14 years of your life in stevedoring it's in your blood, but who knows what the future holds," he replied.
So would it be a matter of price?
"It could be price or it could be other opportunities that we see as more interesting and better returns," he added.
Asian food supplyFar more interesting is what the chairman is up to: buying into the protein supply chain to Asia.
Through Kaplan, Chris Corrigan has recently picked up 5 per cent of the Australian Agricultural Company and 12 per cent of Ruralco; one a big landowner and beef producer, the other a rural services company.
So, could this be the beginning of a Corrigan/Qube joint venture?
"I think you should really see it as two separate investments for Corrigan and Kaplan," James said.
"It is very much an investment that they are doing in their own right, but we certainly believe in the food bowl to Asia story the opportunities for moving products from rural sites in Australia through our ports to Asia is going to grow.
"I think it's a long way down the track before there's anything like that, if there was something like that to eventuate."
As I leave Qube’s offices mid-town, I pass the Kaplan Funds Management door on my way out. Chris Corrigan is back in Sydney this week for a major strategy meeting.