How the Adgemis charm built a $1.8bn debt empire, a decade in the making
Every bankruptcy starts somewhere. To understand how Jon Adgemis created a $1.8bn debt mountain, his role in the 2014 Bellamy’s infant formula saga got him on the market’s radar, but he was already known to some of Sydney’s richest people.
One of Sydney’s biggest bankruptcies is on the horizon, with former pub baron Jon Adgemis staring at a vote which could see him trading his taste for Land Rovers and G Wagons for a Kia Picanto. A second hand Picanto, that is.
But to get to $1.8bn in debt, you have to start somewhere.
Mr Adgemis, often described as Sydney’s most eligible bachelor depending on his relationship status, faces a bankruptcy nearly a decade in the making.
Creditors will decide his fate on August 29.
Bankruptcy trustees estimate his potential debts stand at $1.8bn, after a nearly $300m upgrade to a preliminary figure upon further digging at the urging of the bankruptcy regulator.
His creditors will vote whether to accept a 0.15c in the dollar return, or plunge the pubs baron into bankruptcy which means he cannot serve as a company director, nor own a vehicle worth more than $9,600.
His ballooning debt bill comes after the former KPMG dealmaker became the borrower du jour on Australia’s budding private credit scene, obtaining loans from some of the biggest names in the market.
These lenders will decide Mr Adgemis’s fate, after an earlier attempt to woo them with a $3m cash top-up from his mum and sister was held up by the intervention of regulators.
Often being feted by the media and spotted on the arm of glamorous women including former spouse Anellie Manolas, the daughter of pharmacist and property developer Kerry Manolas, Australian journalist Karen Tso, and model Cheyenne Tozzi, he now faces allegations of millions being diverted from his pubs to fund a luxury lifestyle.
Adgemis at his peak assembled 22 pubs and hotels, and other property holdings, across Sydney in Melbourne over more than a decade.
In his KPMG days, he floated Kathmandu and worked on the deal that saw Pacific Hunter pick up celebrity chef Neil Perry’s Rockpool.
After snapping up the heritage-listed Exchange Hotel in Balmain for $5m in 2016, Adgemis carved up the pub into four shopfronts, including a design studio for Tozzi.
He consolidated his disparate property holdings into holding company JAGA Group in 2015 as more pubs were added and lenders rolled in and out of his orbit.
These included Macquarie Bank, Deutsche Bank, Gemi Investments, Lance Rosenberg’s Gleneagle, and beleaguered billionaire Alex Waislitz. Adgemis wanted to list the group, turning his motley collection into an ASX opportunity for investors.
This included a 2020 tie-up with the Millennium Alternatives Fund, renamed JAGA Alternative Income Fund, which offered a slick presentation with plans to raise $20m and acquire six more properties.
The flagship Public Hospitality Group was presented as an Australian equivalent to the Soho House chain “designing the ultimate millennial lifestyle experience”.
In 2021, it was marketed to investors with $325.4m in debt against a valuation of $376.5m. That’s about $1.5bn of leverage added in the past five years including Adgemis’ personal guarantees.But many of the pubs have been stripped from his control, as lenders moved in on the hospitality assets and debts went unpaid and interest costs ballooned.
American private lender Muzinich tipped five venues into administration last year after a dispute between Adgemis and the lender, run by Singapore-based chief executive Andrew Tan.
Mr Tan was one of several investment committee members who made the call to seize control of the venues.
Several other sites have been sold, or are in the hands of lenders or caught in litigation.
The Australian Taxation Office is also circling amid allegations companies he controlled were behind a GST refund scheme that amassed debts exceeding $300m.
A decade ago he made his first big run at a property project on Sydney’s Lower North Shore, in a gamble on the $21.6bn Sydney metro.
Several of the lenders who joined his pubs play backed him buying shop fronts around the
triangle-shaped sliver of land on the east side of the Pacific Highway where he envisioned a 60 storey tower.
“He thought he was going to make a motza, it didn’t matter how much he paid,” a former backer says. “He had very much extended himself on that deal and it was a loser for him.”
Adgemis’s Crows Nest plans were blocked by a local pushback, eliciting hundreds of objections, and he sold out of the project in 2019.
It cost him several relationships he cultivated at KPMG, including a close friendship with Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron.
Adgemis played a key role in Cameron’s attempt to block the purchase of Bellamy’s in 2014 in The Black Prince affair.
Adgemis, who set up her offshore vehicle Black Prince, ended up owing Cameron nearly $68m over Crows Nest. He turned witness in a case brought against her by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission which accused of her hiding her Bellamy’s shareholding.
Bermuda-based media billionaire Bruce Gordon also fell out with Adgemis over Crows Nest and lent tens of millions to the businessman.
Adgemis’ grand plan was simple: take tired spots in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne, many of which had historical development applications, and renovate.
He tended to borrow against the at-complete value of the pubs, rather than their dilapidated state. Many of these pubs have never been finished, including Melbourne’s the Vine in Collingwood or his most expensive purchase, Noah’s Backpackers in Bondi.
Still, lenders flocked to Adgemis deals. Gemi reprised a role in funding the pubs after backing the original Crows Nest project.
Known for his taste in Italian suits and hefty watches, he is regarded as convincing and compelling.
“But he can’t keep promises,” one person says.
Work is still continuing on the five venues Adgemis controls, but bankruptcy trustees warn the debt facilities on the pubs are in default and the work is behind.
Dining at Noah’s Backpackers was due to open in April; it remains a construction site.
Adgemis was an astute buyer, another says, but instead of consolidating his holdings and completing the renovations, he moved on to the next thing.
Former subcontractors reported being paid for work with no follow through. Others went months without payment.
BDO insolvency administrators alleged a key company in Adgemis’s empire may have traded whilst insolvent between 2021 and 2023, but returned to profitability in 2024.
The surge in borrowing costs as interest rates rose imperilled him financially, jawboning pub valuations, and squeezing customer spending.
Despite this, bankruptcy documents allege Adgemis kept up a luxury lifestyle, trading the Bang & Olufsen mansion before decamping for Caledonia fund manager Will Vicars’s Bondi penthouse.
With just $3.79 in his bank account, bankruptcy documents allege Adgemis lent himself, or took as cash, nearly $15m from accounts controlled by his companies over the years.
A further $2.4m was funnelled from his companies over five years into paying for the loan on his 95-foot yacht Hiilani, seized and sold by Commonwealth Bank.
Cranbrook-educated Adgemis has a unique talent for navigating Sydney’s eastern suburbs social circuit where old money and youthful buzz intersect. He earned an executive producer credit funding Paul Schader’s 2024 drama Oh, Canada, a film his former girlfriend Megan MacKenzie appeared in.
Do you know more? Contact rossd@theaustralian.com.au
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Originally published as How the Adgemis charm built a $1.8bn debt empire, a decade in the making
