No mercy over billionaire James Packer’s threat to businessman

James Packer giving evidence to the NSW casino inquiry on Tuesday.

The contrast could not be more stark. In November 1991, at the height of his failed campaign to take control of the Fairfax newspapers, Kerry Packer made a rare public appearance in person before the parliamentary print media inquiry in Canberra. The now late legendary businessman put on a show for the ages.

On Tuesday, his son James, 53, appeared virtually before former NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin’s inquiry into the casino company that has been the centrepiece of his life for 22 years.

James, wearing a suit for probably the first time since he fronted the Crown AGM three years ago, looked every bit the person who has battled three nervous breakdowns. The latest he is still recovering from. He was sweating, his eyes at times appeared glazed and he spoke slowly. He admitted he has been on medication since 2016, which affects his memory.

But there was to be no mercy shown by Bergin or counsel assisting, Adam Bell.

The commissioner has grown increasingly irritated over the past week over Packer’s apparent level of control of Crown since ceasing to be a director of the group and network of private companies more than two years ago.

Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings owns a 37 per cent stake in Crown, and there have been questions raised at the inquiry about conflicts of interest of his CPH executives (who are also Crown directors), most notably in the sale of 10 per cent of CPH’s holding in Crown last year to Lawrence Ho’s Melco Resorts group.

But on Tuesday, Bell went for Packer’s greatest weakness: his penchant for emailing, and the anger he has shown in those emails when things have not gone his way.

Packer admitted in my biography of his life, The Price of Fortune, that he hits back hard when he feels wronged.

But as it was revealed on Tuesday, hitting hard can also include threatening people, as he did to the unnamed executive of a private equity company negotiating with Crown on a $9bn privatisation of the company in December 2015. The company, referred to only as Zedco, was supposed to contribute $1.5bn of equity to the proposed privatisation of Crown Resorts but changed its mind and only offered $400m.

The Price of Fortune mentioned TPG Capital and several other firms as potential partners with Crown.

What Packer said to the un-named man was not proffered after his lawyer, Noel Hutley, said the communications “took place at a point of deep personal crisis” for Packer.

Indeed it was. Packer had been in acrimonious negotiations with his sister for a division of the family fortune. Crown shares were at a low and he was dating diva Mariah Carey, and anxious of all the publicity.

Regardless, Bergin noted that his conduct in 2015, when he was still a Crown director, was “completely unsuitable” for a board member of a company that holds a casino licence.

This goes directly to whether the billionaire is fit and proper to retain a controlling interest in Crown for its Sydney casino.