No Images? Click here 24 May 2019 Smiles Inclusive Limited Shareholders Vote to Remove Mike TimoneyA comical battle for control of Smiles Inclusive Limited is over. At the extraordinary general meeting of the 22nd May 2019 shareholders voted for the removal of Mike Timoney and David Herlihy from the Board by decisive majorities. Mr Timoney was the business founder who cobbled together 52 dental practices as part of its initial public offer and bragged to potential investors that they had 61 totally vacant chairs. The more discerning investors figured out that those 61 vacant chairs might have been a sign that many of the practices were in serious decline. Following profit downgrades the share price tanked leading to boardroom fights and demands for not one but two extraordinary general meetings. Finally they settled on one. Mr Timoney and his supporter Mr Herlihy lost by decisive margins. Forces aligned with David Usasz and Tracey Penn are now in control of the company and face an enormous challenge to make it profitable. Investors have been badly burned and await the first full year’s audited financials in September with trepidation. Profit downgrades and boardroom turmoil probably mean that serious investors will give Smiles Inclusive Limited a wide berth. Any dentist, or indeed any other investor dealing with Similes Inclusive Limited or considering trading in its shares are advised to take professional advice. Mr Timoney of UK Bartercard fame, had his initial dalliance with dentistry via a Gold Coast practice owned by his former wife. This became a basis for his initial attempt to put together a dental corporate named Dental Partners Limited. That first attempt imploded and a prominent dentist and a dental specialist both resigned from its board. Subsequently, a new company also named Dental Partners Limited but with a different ABN made a successful entry into the dental corporate scene. This company was later sold to the New Zealand company, Abano with Mr Timoney retained in a senior role. That ended unhappily with a severance of the relationship and legal action. Abano has since rebadged a number of its practices as Maven and has ceased purchasing practices in Australia due to disappointing performance. Mr Timoney and one of his former associates, Carl Burrows, subsequently set about signing up dental practice owners to his Smiles Inclusive Limited project. Carl Burrows subsequently associated himself with another attempt to form a dental corporate. The Smiles Inclusive Limited project has now ended sadly for Mr Timoney, albeit that he still has a shareholding, but one with a very reduced value at current market prices. In Australia corporate dentistry has failed to meet the market penetration it achieved in some overseas countries and is unlikely to do so. Ultimately, after vendor dentists have completed their earn out contract obligations and move on usually to retirement, no dental practice operated by a corporate will achieve the level of efficiency of the best privately owned and operated practices. The self-interest of contracted dentists will usually not extend beyond the surgery in which they treat patients and their monthly net payment. Best wishes to all Dentists,
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