Right man for the job CBRE appoint property guru for pub chain
ACCC has TPG in the crosshairs
CBRE Hotels’ newest senior broker James Carrick will take Tropical North Queensland under his wing.
Mr Carrick joins the CBRE Hotels team as senior manager, where he will focus on hotel and leisure assets in major NSW regions, as well as more broadly on Australia’s east coast.
He has spent the past six years with Resort Brokers Australia, specialising in leisure asset transactions including motels, caravan parks, pubs and management rights.
Prior to his tenure there, Mr Carrick had held several commercial sales management roles with Foxtel, Fox Sports and Diageo.
He has also worked in the licenced pubs, clubs and accommodation sectors and gained experience in the sale of motels, as well as management rights and caravan parks.
Mr Carrick, who brings extensive knowledge, experience and track record of success within the hotel and leisure sector, will add a further capability of management rights asset transactions to the CBRE Hotels team.
“We are extremely excited to welcome James to the team,” CBRE Hotels national director Rob Cross. said.
“James’s extensive knowledge in the hotels and leisure space further adds to our already comprehensive hospitality platform,” he said.
“His appointment complements our recent focus on the management rights space, which has not been filled in the past by any top tier agency firm.
“We have identified this as a real growth area and gap in the market, with management rights an increasingly soughtafter asset class.” TPG has been slapped with federal court proceedings by the consumer watchdog for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars from a non-refundable fee it told its internet customers was a prepayment.
The ACCC says customers signing up to a TPG internet plan have had to pay $20 for what was described as a prepayment to cover potential costs – such as overseas phone calls – not included in their plan.
The watchdog says that, since March 2013, TPG has said on its website that the prepayment could be used for excluded services prior to a plan being cancelled. But TPG actually retains at least half – and potentially all – of the prepayment when a customer cancels their plan, the ACCC says.
“It is unacceptable that TPG only disclose this forfeiture in fine print,” Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said.
“Since March 2013, the ACCC estimates that TPG is likely to have retained millions of dollars paid by consumers in prepayments that were forfeited.”
The ACCC alleges when a customer’s prepaid balance falls to $10 or lower, TPG automatically tops up the prepayment by a direct debit to return their prepayment balance to $20. The ACCC is seeking penalties and compensation for consumers.