The former KPMG dealmaker burst onto the hospitality sector after buying up a string of venues. Huge debts and angry lenders are threatening to push it over.
“Let me guess, you’re calling about our friend Jon,” one of his exasperated associates sighs. By now, everyone who works in pubs and hotels knows about the plight of Jon Adgemis. So too, probably, does everyone who works in finance, a sector the businessman once ruled as KPMG’s best dealmaker.
Having left the firm in 2018, Adgemis put his deal brokering prowess to work cobbling together an empire that sprawls from the Karen Martini-fronted St Kilda diner Saint George to Maybe Sammy, the celebrated Sydney CBD cocktail bar. He also cobbled together an extensive list of lenders and a pile of debt that reaches $700 million, according to multiple creditors.
Primrose RiordanAssociate editorPrimrose Riordan covers private companies and family offices from the AFR's Sydney newsroom. Primrose was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and covered foreign affairs and politics in Canberra. Primrose has won multiple awards for her journalism including from The National Press Club, SABEW in the US and Press Gazette in the UK. Message Primrose on Signal: https://tinyurl.com/PrimroseSignal Connect with Primrose on Facebook and Twitter. Email Primrose at primrose.riordan@afr.com
Sarah ThompsonStreet Talk editorSarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Email Sarah at sarah.thompson@afr.com
