Antony Catalano. Illustration: John ShakespeareCredit:
Seven West Media boss Kerry Stokes has no more enthusiastic cheerleader for his takeover of Prime Media than the regional broadcaster’s outgoing chairman John Hartigan.
But Harto’s farewell firesale was dealt a blow by the last-minute emergence — again — of former Fairfax executive Antony Catalano yesterday.
Having taken a 10.3 per cent stake in Prime with the help of his friend Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investment Group, Catalano is not wasting any time taking up the lobbying cudgel directly with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.
He may be busy finalising a major knees-up to celebrate a quarter century of his Byron hotel Raes at Wategos this weekend, but Catalano is also planning a trip to Wagga Wagga next week where Fletcher is holding talks on the competition regulator’s recommendation that $50 million in grants should be given to regional publishers.
Having recently acquired Fairfax Media’s regional business from Nine Entertainment — the publisher of this newspaper — Catalano has made no secret he’d like to be involved in other platforms.
Meanwhile, he told this column he would be in Canberra to meet Fletcher the following week, news which may come as a shock to the Communication Minister who is not scheduled to be in town. Details for the diary managers perhaps.
“The one-to-a-market rule needs to be abolished; and the affiliates should be able to come together and not have journalism constantly under threat,” Catalano told CBD.
“The government wants a healthy and robust regional media because that’s the only way regional Australians can stay informed about what’s happening in their areas.
"It doesn’t want three crippled networks struggling for survival.”
The one-to-a-market rule prevents the three regional broadcasters from merging.
Catalano’s intervention on that front is rather cryptic, considering the rule would have little impact on him even if he had any thoughts about competing with Stokes for Prime.
Does he have bigger plans?
Beachside birdcage
Meanwhile, plans for Catalano’s Saturday bash are almost complete.
The Cat first bought a half-stake in the property a little over a decade ago for $7 million, planning to eventually turn it into his home.
Instead, it remains a hotel and was in 2017 the site of a secret meeting between Catalano and Joel Thickins when the TPG private equity operator was first considering taking Fairfax Media private.
On the guest list: Solly Lew lieutenant and Premier Investments chief Mark McInnes and wife Lisa Kelly as well as brothers Karl and Peter Stefanovic. Former Nine boss (and Byron local) David Gyngell can’t make it, while Waislitz is still consulting his schedule.
Double check
With annual general meeting season upon us, are some of the city’s best-known fund managers feeling the heat?
Perhaps it's just good for business, but former Platinum Asset Management star Jacob Mitchell — who set up his own outfit at Antipodes Partners in 2015 — has had the investor service team at Boardroom do a ring-around of his listed fund’s larger investors.
Mitchell and his chairman, former Herbert Smith Freehills partner Jonathan Trollip, face investors at The Mint on Macquarie Street on Wednesday.
We’re not certain how many got the call up — the registry includes even Melbourne’s Xavier College Foundation — but one shareholder who did told CBD there were questions about how they thought the Antipodes Global Investment Company was tracking.
It’s share price has fallen more than 15 per cent in the last year, leaving the assets owned by Mitchell’s fund worth $93 million more than its market capitalisation. Genius.
As we wrote back in August, we’ll leave it for others to contemplate what that may say about Mitchell’s investment strategy.
Squaring up
Former Macquarie operator Adrian Fonseca’s departure from the world of investment banking appears to have done little to dent his pocketbook.
After almost two decades at MacBank and Deutsche, Fonseca departed to start childcare outfit Oxanda Education, where he is now managing director.
Fonseca, who moonlight as Tony Shepherd’s deputy chairman on the GWS Giants board, has just applied for permission to remodel his Bellevue Hill manor, snapped up from arts patrons Erin Flaherty and David Maloney for close to $14.5 million last year.
Reno price tag: $2 million.
That includes giving the house a new flat roof, all the rage, as well as sweeping new balconies (which will no doubt please the neighbours). And a splash of bronze on all gates, windows and balconies.
Those neighbours, meanwhile, include wealthy British racing enthusiast Paul Langmuir, who was forced to put his $10 million Elizabeth Bay penthouse on the market back in 2016 when the then treasurer Joe Hockey was busy enforcing foreign investment rules.