Andrew Bayly is hoist by his own petard, after acerbically criticising Labour's Michael Wood for not revealing shares he owned
A National MP who may be critical to his party's post-election hopes has confirmed he owns undisclosed shares in a successful software company that contracts to government agencies.
Andrew Bayly's shares are now worth AU$86,000 (NZ$91,600), according to a valuation prepared as SiteSoft International Ltd prepared to list on the Australian stock exchange.
At a meeting yesterday, shareholders agreed the company wouldn't proceed with the planned public listing, and would instead sell its Australian holdings and reinvest the money in a New Zealand expansion. The listing was tipped by one market analyst to double shareholders' money; the local expansion may have a similar outcome.
Bayly says he didn't attend the meeting – he was out on the hustings in his critical Port Waikato electorate. If the left and right blocs are tied on election night, this weekend, the result may come down to whether Bayly can hold his Port Waikato seat at a by-election on November 25.
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Andrew Bayly and his identical twin brother Paul bought into SiteSoft in November 2021, alongside another brother, to finance its expansion. Paul Bayly took a seat on the board of the new company, but Andrew Bayly insists he's been a passive investor.
Last night Andrew Bayly, who had been a strong critic of former Cabinet minister Michael Wood failing to disclose shares, insisted he had no obligation to disclose his own shares – because they're held in his family trust, the Paparangi Trust.
That's moot: MPs on Parliament's privileges committee say they shouldn't have to disclose non-property assets held in trust, but the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests Sir Maarten Wevers says they do have to. Even after Wevers confirmed that view earlier this year, and other MPs updated the register, Bayly made no move to disclose his SiteSoft shares.
It was the discovery that Michael Wood had shares held in a family trust that was the final straw in the Prime Minister demanding his resignation.
In the month leading up to that discovery, Bayly had been scathing. Speaking in the House on June 6 to oppose Wood's changes to the Health and Safety at Work Act, Bayly alluded to Wood's undisclosed shareholding.
Wood was "a casualty of workplace accidents", he told Parliament. "And no wonder Michael Wood is pushing it through, because, of course, he is known to have very strong ties to certain organisations that will want to bring about these sorts of changes, and, personally, I don't think for the better."
The law change that the National Party was opposing was especially meaningful to Bayly because, as he pointed out, he had been on the select committee that had honed the original act in 2015.
That law created a complex regulatory regime that requires firms to hire contractors to manage their risks – contractors like SiteSoft.
But that was several years before he and his family helped finance SiteSoft's expansion, and Bayly insists that despite being a shareholder, he's never offered advice to his brother about the regulatory regime or operating the company. "I want to confirm to you that I've had no direct involvement or management involvement – it's a passive investment," he told Newsroom. "You're trying to join two dots together."
That's a position that Paul Bayly echoes. "He hasn't had any involvement in the company ... He never attends meetings."
The twin brothers have always been close. They have told of growing up together on the family farm near Whanganui. Andrew Bayly famously shot his brother in the leg, in an accident with a loaded shotgun. And near identical in appearance, Andrew recalled once being called to the headmaster's office to be caned for offences committed by his brother Paul.
As adults, they've owned the family farm together but also both moved into finance. Together, they founded Cranleigh Investment Bank in 1996, where they made much of their money.
And when they decided to finance a small but successful health and safety software company, to help it acquire its bigger counterpart in Australia, they again did it together. Three Bayley siblings are listed among the 55 SiteSoft shareholders on the Companies Register: Andrew, Paul and Michael.
"We've done quite well out of Lucidity. If there's a mood to keep the money in the business, I think we should go and make a couple more acquisitions." – Paul Bayly, SiteSoft director
Paul Bayly says SiteSoft's ASX listing won't proceed, at least not in its present form.
No formal decision has yet been made on what the company should do with the proceeds from the planned divestment of its Australian subsidiary, Lucidity.
"We need to look around what sort of opportunities to grow this business, in New Zealand," Paul Bayly says. "We've done quite well out of Lucidity. If there's a mood to keep the money in the business, I think we should go and make a couple more acquisitions – and I think the next time we do this, we're going to do it in this market. It's a New Zealand story."
He says they'll be looking at local software-as-a-service companies, in the health and safety sector, that are in need of cash for expansion.
SiteSoft already has a long list of big customers in New Zealand, including boasting of former DHBs (now part of Te Whatu Ora) and aged care facilities. In building and infrastructure, its website lists Latitude Homes, Goldmark, Jennian Homes, GJ Gardner, A1 Homes and others.
Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger's firm has provided an endorsement for the SiteConnect product.
Maugers Contracting health and safety adviser Tammy Alexander says because of SiteConnect’s success, Maugers can’t imagine going back to a non-digital process. "Once you have had chocolate, you can’t go back to vanilla," she writes. "From a compliance point of view, my job is done. Once SiteConnect was set up correctly, it’s the users who have control."
