Sponsor wears his heart on his sleeve

This is a story about credit cards, and about what credit is due. There's even a small dog involved, and a lady of fashion.

There are court cases, plus planes, boats and even a few flying tomatoes. And it centres on a man who, when his many irons fail to fire, can fall into deep depression and take to his bed for days on end.

And tonight, the tale may even come to include a part in a famous victory over the Lions.

It's the story of Jim Smylie, the 58-year-old founder and managing director of Western Bay Finance (WBF) and chief sponsor of the Bay of Plenty Steamers.

Smylie was looking for a way to boost his business and was feeling altruistic towards his home-town Tauranga when fate played a hand. Bay of Plenty had let coach Gordon Tietjens go after 2001, and their major sponsors left in protest.

These were hard times for the battling rugby province. When Smylie's WBF jumped on board in 2003 - signing up for four years - Bay of Plenty had spent two seasons avoiding relegation and been sponsor-less for a year.

Since Smylie's arrival, they have made the NPC semifinals, won the Ranfurly Shield for the first time, and turned dire finances around.

Not that it is all his doing, of course. But still, you would think the Smylie-Bay of Plenty rugby story should be all smiles, given its fairytale nature. Not so, however.

But first, who is Jim Smylie?

Smylie came from a Matamata farming family, left school at 15 to be a mechanic, then launched into a 25-year insurance career and got into property development.

His financier was lawyer Pat Renshaw, who was convicted of stealing $6.4 million of clients' funds in 1992. Smylie lost about $500,000 in the Renshaw scandal, helping to send his property investments into a tailspin. At one point, banks, insurance companies and the Law Society were chasing him for $12 million.

Smylie fought back on three fronts. First, he dealt with the chasing pack, having one judgment against him overturned on appeal, and satisfying other creditors out of court.

Second, he went to law school, joining his two sons in class. In 1999, he was admitted to the bar with his older son, Robert. And third, he used his credit cards to build a finance company which helped meet the legal fees. Smylie would borrow to the maximum on the cards - about $80,000 - and make repayments using a tricky scheme involving dud cheques and a money-go-round.* (See correction at foot of page)

This scheme provided the base of the business for seven years. The credit card companies charged about 18 per cent interest, and Smylie charged his clients 30 per cent.

Western Bay Finance now has $60 million out in loans, will soon open its 17th office, and is valued at up to $50 million, he says.

A driving force is Smylie's second wife, Kaaren, who used marketing ideas gleaned from a career in the fashion industry to drive WBF along.

It has been a game of risk, and holding your nerve.

Smylie says: "I have bad patches and good patches. I don't know if I'm a manic depressive or not - I don't have highs so much but I certainly have lows.

"Now and again I get so down and have to hop in to bed for a couple of days. I get quite depressed, then I come right again and I'm away."

Smylie has certainly won notice in rugby circles with a team owner persona that hasn't always gone down too well in the union he backs.

He got initial notice in the Bay because his sponsorship was conditional on Tauranga replacing Rotorua as the main match venue.

He was not alone in believing this was the way forward for Bay rugby, but his company's cars in Rotorua were pelted with eggs and tomatoes, and a top WBF investor threatened to pull out.

He burst into further prominence by offering a $250,000 incentive to the Steamers players if they could lift the Ranfurly Shield from Canterbury in 2003.

This led to drama behind the scenes when the insurance underwriter in London, who had yet to sign on the dotted line, backed out two days before the game after discovering the Steamers' run of wins over Italy, Waikato and North Harbour.

A startled Smylie managed partial cover by putting $20,000 on the Steamers at seven-to-one, but the TAB halted him there. That left a further $110,000 on the line. Canterbury won narrowly.

"I still wanted the Steamers to win. I would have more than made up for it with the kudos, and it would have been great for Bay of Plenty."

Last year, he waved $500,000 around in a failed bid to get Canterbury to put the Ranfurly Shield on the line in the NPC semifinal, and as a lure for the Steamers players to win the NPC. He says he even rang Canterbury chief executive Hamish Riach, offering his players "about $20,000 each".

Behind these gestures however is a feeling in some circles that Jim Smylie over-promotes his firm without enough regard for the team, and over-states his part in their rise.

He wanted to ride at the front of the Ranfurly Shield victory parade, for instance, whereas this is traditionally a place for the players.

He also took to parading the sidelines before games with his constant companion - a jack russell terrier called Jack.

Another key figure in the Steamers story - promoter Bob Clarkson, who owns the Mt Maunganui stadium - is not one of Smylie's people. In contrast to Smylie's ways, Clarkson quietly dropped $40,000 into the team's fund last year.

It was Clarkson who pointed out to Smylie that dogs are not allowed in a stadium which bears the name of Smylie's company.

WBF will, according to rumour, have put in a seven figure amount by the end of next year. Yet Bay of Plenty are believed to have offered the company an out last year as their rugby stocks rose.

Of his relationship with BoP rugby, Smylie is coy for contractual reasons but admits: "It is strained. I can't work them out sometimes ... I still admire the union though. I admire [coach] Vern Cotter, and I love the players.

"I hope people think of me kindly but they probably think of me as an arrogant son of a bitch."

Still, despite sounding like a man who feels unappreciated at times, it's almost always onwards and upwards in Smylie's world.

He will soon take delivery of his first plane, a new $126,000 two-seater from Italy. Then there's his racehorse, and he recently sailed one of his two yachts to Tonga. There are new ventures in the air - a nationwide car sales business and insurance company.

And yes. Smylie is negotiating with Counties Manukau about becoming a major backer on their return to the first division, and wants to stay with Bay of Plenty past 2006 even though he knows the price may have gone up by then.

A man who built his fortune by lending may still be searching for the rugby credit he believes is his due.


* CORRECTION: Smylie is keen to point out that he did not write "dud" cheques in the early days of building his finance company empire. He always made sure there was enough money available by the time it came to honouring the cheques, he assured the Herald this week.