Online and postal voting has closed for Australian Turf Club members ahead of the landmark vote on whether to proceed on a $5 billion sale of Rosehill racecourse.
That means that the only way members who haven’t voted via proxy can now have their say on the contentious proposal is an in-person vote via Tuesday’s Extraordinary General Meeting at Randwick racecourse.
Under the conditions of the vote, members who couldn’t attend the EGM could appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf via either postal voting or via an online portal.
Postal vote forms had to arrive at the Computershare Investor Services – located in Melbourne, - by 2pm on Sunday, while online voting through the Computershare portal closed at the same time.
Members can direct their proxies to vote as they see fit. They can also nominate the Chairman as their proxy and he must follow their instruction.
However, if the Chairman is appointed proxy, either explicitly or by default, and receives no directions to vote, then he will vote as he sees fit on a member’s behalf.
ATC chairman Peter McGauran has said he will vote in favour of the proposal and will put undirected proxies towards the affirmative case.
The EGM, which will be confined to current ATC members, will be held at the Ballroom, Level 2, QEII Stand at Randwick at 2pm on Tuesday.
The resolution is – “That the sale of Rosehill Gardens Racecourse (Rosehill Gardens) to the Crown in the right of the State of New South Wales (State) or other entity nominated by the State (the Transaction) is approved.”
There are seven key provisos for that the progress. They include a guaranteed sale price of $5 billion (with terms attached), a rebuild of Warwick Farm, a new training site, that the ATC will implement $1.9 billion of the proceeds to infrastructure, that a loyalty program be established to compensate members, that a racing advisory board be set-up and that a future fund, to deal with the investment of the $3.1 billion remaining, be established.
If that is approved then Rosehill Gardens will be declared non-core property, to enable the transaction to be put to the government.
However, the Minns government is yet to give any indication of whether the terms of the sale are acceptable.
“The content of the Resolution represents the ATC’s position,” the ATC said in its Notice Of Netting, published earlier this month.
‘The NSW Government has not negotiated, endorsed or agreed that position. If the Resolution is approved, the ATC will proceed to negotiate the terms set out in the Resolution with the Government as part of the Unsolicited Proposals (USP) Process.”
While the concept of the sale of Rosehill was first announced in December 2023, it wasn’t until recent months that the idea that the government would purchase the site was communicated to members, as opposed to the ATC selling off and commercialising the site itself.
