Inside Nine’s $10m loss on Mark Bouris’ Yellow Brick Road

Channel Nine is reeling after being hit with a $10 million loss on its investment in one of former Celebrity Apprentice host Mark Bouris’ businesses.

Channel Nine is tightening its purse strings, after suffering a $10 million loss on its investment in Mark Bouris’ embattled mortgage broking company.

Documents reveal the television network has withheld more than $1 million of free advertising for Yellow Brick Road (YBR).

The advertising was part of the deal to buy into the business.

Questions are now being asked about whether Nine will continue to use Mr Bouris on programs such as The Today Show with Karl Stefanovic.

Donald Trump and Mark Bouris appearing on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.

Mr Bouris, a former judge of The Celebrity Apprentice that aired on Nine, has been desperately trying to rebuild YBR.

The company was worth as much as $112 million in 2013, but now its market capitalisation is just over $16 million.

Channel Nine paid $13 million to buy into YBR in 2011 at 40 cents a share, but the company was now down to 5 cents a share before moves to take it off the Australian Stock Exchange.

Mark Bouris with Celebrity Apprentice series winner Sophie Monk.

Half of the $13-million deal was cash, with the remaining $6.49m free advertising.

The television network has not handed over $1.2 million of that free advertising.

“Advertising of $Nil (30 June 2022: $Nil) was used during the year ended 30 June 2021, leaving an unused balance of non-current prepayment of $1,244,852 (30 June 2022: $1,244,852),” YBR’s Preliminary financial report said.

“The consolidated entity does not expect to realise this asset within 12 months of reporting date and hence it has been classified as a non-current asset.”

Former Channel Nine boss David Gyngell inked the deal with Mr Bouris.

Mr Gyngell and his wife, A Current Affair reporter Leila McKinnon, are neighbours with Mr Bouris in Byron Bay.

The former TV chief executive, who became infamous for his Bondi Beach brawl with Nine’s former billionaire owner James Packer, was “very confident” of the deal’s success at the time.

“We have worked with Mark Bouris and his team before and had great success, and we are very confident that Yellow Brick Road has the people, the business model and the know-how to make a positive and crucial difference in the financial services sector,” Mr Gyngell said.

He did not respond to questions this week on whether he would make the same decision to invest in YBR again given the company’s financial battles.

Mark Bouris, David Gyngell and James Packer at a party at Loft Bar in Sydney when they were investors in Wizard Home Loans.

Mr Bouris declined to comment when approached for an interview for this story because he did want to speak publicly except for statements to the Australian Stock Exchange.

However sources close to YBR say that the company has spent millions in advertising with Channel Nine.

Mr Bouris was on The Today Show earlier this week talking about how it would be a “nightmare” for incoming Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock to raise interest rates.

There are also suggestions Mr Bouris did not charge Channel Nine for his appearances on The Celebrity Apprentice, where he followed in the footsteps of former US President Donald Trump in telling contestants: “You’re fired”.

Mr Gyngell was a board member on Wizard Home Loans, which turned Mr Bouris into a millionaire 100 times over.

David Gyngell and wife Leila McKinnon who have a home next door to Mr Bouris at Byron Bay. Picture: Damian Shaw

The company, which was bankrolled by a $25 million loan from the late Kerry Packer, started in 1996 when the big four banks had a stranglehold on the mortgage market and quickly gained market share.

Mr Bouris sold the company for $500 million to GE Money just eight years later, pocketing $100 million.

The Wizard sale also earned Mr Packer’s business $58 million, just a year before he died.

GE Money offloaded the company in December 2008 as the global financial crisis hit banks across the world, with the company reportedly sold for less than $30 million.

Aussie Home Loans purchased the distribution network, with then chief executive John Symonds, scrubbing the Wizard name just a month later.

YBR lost $3.5 million in the 2023 financial year, with revenue from customers down 43 per cent.

The company was also bleeding trailing commission, what brokers are paid when customers stick with a loan, because many were refinancing.

Mr Bouris has a property on Sydney Harbour. Picture: Supplied

The mortgage market has changed since Wizard started, with the Commonwealth Bank offering cut price loans at its online only offshoot Unloan.

NAB also has a similar set up at its discount brand Ubank.

Both discount banks do not deal with brokers such as YBR, which charge banks thousands of dollars in fees for referring loans.

Mr Bouris has previously defended his $1.1 million annual salary from YBR.

Former David Jones boss Mark McInnes, who also ran the company behind Smiggle, Peter Alexander and Just Jeans, was on the board of the Sydney Roosters with Mr Bouris.

He said that YBR and Mr Bouris would bounce back.

“Mark is a great entrepreneur and in all his dealings he’s been nothing but exceptional,” he said.

“Mark was instrumental in breaking the big four banks stranglehold on Mortgages providing better deals for millions of Australians.

“There’s nothing about the Australian mortgage market that Mark doesn’t know that is not worth knowing.”

Nine Entertainment Co was approached for comment.