Nick Bolton Speaks

Nobody's White Knight

It was interesting while it lasted, but a man tends to look after his own interests first and Nick Bolton seems to fit the identikit of a classic corporate operator. Here's an article in the SMH.

"I took a commercial approach to this before buying in," he said.

"I saw an opportunity to improve the position of unit holders through our entry in the company and the actions we were planning to undertake. It was a commercial transaction, intended for commercial gain, for unit holders and for myself."

By his own admission, he was "playing a game" from the start, and the result was to extract a benefit from the carcass of BrisConnections.

"To the extent there was an altruistic outcome it was unintended, in that my interests were aligned with the interests of all other unit holders," he said. "But there was always a commercial intention on our part. We didn't seek the tag of white knight, and it doesn't fit."

Does he now fear his name, and his reputation, have taken a battering?

"To the mass market, yes. One needs to take an informed or educated decision as to whether or not that's right or wrong. To those at home it has definitely affected my credibility, but in other circles I am fine."

Throughout his court case with BrisConnections, counsel for the toll road builder tried to untangle the language used by Bolton to describe his intentions.It is no different trying to get Bolton to answer if, ethically, he can justify taking money for his vote.

'"To take money for something that would be of prejudice to others I think might raise questions," he said. "This wasn't one of those cases. I consider commercial prudency to be the number one motivator here. My personal ethics go to operating a business by the rules. If there are opportunities out there and they require exploitation of the rules, I don't think that's unethical. It comes down to interpretation, I guess, but I certainly think I have conducted things very ethically."

Interesting dude, but not nearly as interesting as the active shareholder people mistook him to be.  It's certainly made blogging the BrisConnections saga a lot less interesting. I'll tell you that much.