He did as I instructed. She stared at the items as they were put before her. ‘What are these for?’ she asked.
‘Jesus!’ I exclaimed. ‘Would you prefer a pearl-handled revolver? Write your resignation, please, with immediate effect. Otherwise I will put a motion of no confidence, it will be passed and all this will be minuted and reported to the bank, your employer, when the company’s business is moved to its rival.’
She looked at Culshaw, and then at Gerry Meek. Neither would meet her eyes. She picked up the pen and scribbled a few words, tossed the pad back at Smith, and started to rise.
‘Hold on,’ I told her. ‘Before you go, will you confirm also that your people have been leaking information from our confidential management accounts, also on your say-so? If they have, I’ll find that out too, one way or another, easy or hard.’
‘No!’ she protested. ‘Certainly not! That would be outright dishonesty.’
I shrugged. ‘As I say, I’ll find out, but actually, I believe you. Goodbye.’
The remaining five of us sat in silence until the door closed behind her.
‘I never did get round to answering her question,’ I remarked, once she’d gone, ‘but I don’t think I need to as it’s a matter of record. What’s also a matter of public record is that I’m a director of another company, in Spain, and that I have operated successfully in a commercial role for the UK government. Privately, I manage personal wealth, accrued through my association with my late former husband, that runs into seven zeroes and has grown significantly since it came to me. Susie knew all that; it’s why she appointed me to the chair.’
‘Non-executive chair,’ Culshaw murmured.
‘She didn’t, actually. She appointed me chair and that was it. When she did it, she envisaged that she’d still be around, still pulling the strings. Sadly, she isn’t, so I intend to assume an executive role.’
The managing director leaned across the table. ‘The shareholders may have something to say about that, given what’s happened to the company’s share price since your appointment was announced. I don’t condone what Gillian did, but we can’t hide from the reaction to the information she circulated.’
‘Your problem, Phil,’ I countered, ‘seems to be that you don’t keep up to date. This is what’s happened in the last hour.’ I took the sheets I’d printed in the hotel from my folder and slid them across to him, then watched his face change as he read it. ‘Seems there’s a significant new shareholder on my side, who now owns, by my calculation, around one-eighth of the equity, based on the buying price. Before you ask, it certainly is not me and no, I don’t have clue who it is.’ I looked at Wylie Smith. ‘Would you call the PR people, please, and find out what the current share price is?’
‘Certainly, Madam Chair,’ he replied, with a look in his eye that suggested he was enjoying the show, then rushed from the room.
‘While he does that,’ I continued, ‘I want to come back to the so-called confidential information that’s been used to undermine the company. I’ve had a day to study the accounts, that’s all, but even I can see that there’s a question needing answered. This golf course project; what the hell is it and why are we involved?’
‘It’s a joint venture with a partner,’ Culshaw replied, ‘a company called Monsoon Holdings Limited.’
‘How big a piece do we have?’
‘The Gantry Group owns fifty per cent of the vehicle company. It’s called Babylon Links Country Club PLC.’
‘Fifty,’ I repeated. ‘Not fifty-one?’
‘No, exactly fifty. It’s a true joint venture.’
‘Where’s the minute recording board approval? I can’t see it and I’ve checked.’
‘The late executive chairman signed off on it, last October. I can show you her instruction.’
‘That would be around the time she was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of leukaemia.’
He nodded. ‘It was, but what does that have to do with it?’
‘It suggests to me that Susie’s eye might not have been too firmly on the ball. Did she also sign off on the twenty million pound contribution that we’ve made to the new company?’
‘Effectively; she gave me permission to proceed as I saw fit.’
I eyeballed Gerry Meek. ‘Is that correct?’
He nodded.
‘Do you know anywhere I can hire a set of golf clubs?’ I asked Culshaw, casually. ‘I’d like to try the course out for myself.’ I smiled. ‘In fact, why don’t we have a board outing?’
‘That won’t be possible for a while,’ he murmured. ‘Construction hasn’t begun yet.’
‘No? Then where’s the twenty million gone?’
‘Nowhere yet. The planning authority needed assurances that the company was properly capitalised before they would give consent.’
‘And has it? Given consent?’
‘Not yet, but my project team assure me that it’s close.’
‘So meanwhile the company’s sitting there with forty million in the bank, uninvested and earning nothing.’
We were interrupted by Wylie Smith as he came back into the room. ‘The company’s share price has stabilised,’ he announced. ‘The wave of selling has stopped, but our market value is still twenty per cent below its closing level on Friday.’
It wasn’t the greatest news, but still I was pleased to hear it. It strengthened my hand as I turned back to Culshaw.
‘Not forty million,’ he said. ‘Twenty.’
I stared at him. ‘Are you telling me we’ve only got fifty per cent of the shares, yet we’re putting up all the money?’
‘Yes,’ he snapped impatiently, ‘but it’s not as cut and dried as that. Monsoon Holdings are putting up the land; they own that.’
‘How much land?’
‘Three hundred and ten acres.’
‘Of what? Agricultural?’
‘No. There’s a little woodland, but mostly it’s just grass.’
‘Not residential, though?’
‘No, it’s green belt, but that’s not an issue. There are golf courses on similar land all along that coast.’
I did some sums in my head. ‘I’m a country girl, Phil. I’m not up to date with current land values in Scotland, but I do know that if you can’t build homes or factories on it or grow things or graze things, then it isn’t worth a hell of a lot. Let’s say on a good day, three to four grand an acre. That would value it, tops, at one and a quarter million, against the Gantry contribution of twenty.’
‘Yes, but … When permission is granted and the course is built it will be worth much more.’
‘So where’s the business plan?’
‘There …’ He stopped, and glared at me, fiercely. ‘Look here,’ he barked, ‘enough of this! I haven’t come here to be cross-examined by some bloody woman who’s just walked in the door!’
‘Then resign.’ I eyeballed him back. ‘I could have another managing director in here by the end of today. Gerry,’ I snapped at Meek, ‘as finance director do you believe that the company has got itself a good deal here?’
As I looked at him I thought I saw an honest man, and he proved me right. ‘Frankly, Mrs Blackstone, I don’t. Phil is right that when the project is up and running, value will have been added to the property, but to give us a decent return on investment it would have to be showing an operating profit of at least seven million a year and have a capital value of fifty. In my opinion, those are high expectations, and no way will they be achieved overnight.’
‘Were you consulted over the commitment of this sort of investment?’
‘No,’ the FD replied. ‘I was simply told. I did consider going to Ms Gantry about it, but she was uncontactable.’
‘Where’s the business plan?’ I asked Culshaw, again. ‘The one you showed the bank.’
‘There is none,’ he admitted. ‘We funded it from within our own resources.’
‘Added to by a certain amount of borrowing from the bank,’ Meek chipped in.
‘All well within our agreed limit,’ Culshaw shouted, ‘as Gillian would have told you if she’d still been here.’
‘Boys, boys, boys,’ I said. ‘Let’s be calm, please. Phil, I have a duty to ask these questions, to try to get a handle on substantial spending that I don’t understand.’