A sinking feeling for cruise director Katie
Company director-about-town Katie Lahey might have thought a gig on the board of the world’s biggest travel leisure company Carnival Corporation was a sweet deal when she joined in January last year.
Annual general meetings in Miami, Florida. Board gatherings all over the world, reflecting the group’s international operations, including P&O Australia and Princess Cruises.
What a gig for a successful Sydney-based but UK-born businesswoman on the cusp of retiring as the head of the local arm of international headhunter Korn Ferry.
But then less than a year later along came the new coronavirus, which has devastated the NYSE and LSE-listed Carnival both in revenue and reputation.
Lahey can see plenty of cruise ships coming and going in Sydney Harbour from her apartment in The Rocks, but on Wednesday wasn’t too keen to talk when it came to Carnival’s cruise ships in Aussie waters, and in particular the company’s Ruby Princess.
The coronavirus cruise ship is now docked at Port Kembla as NSW Police begin their investigation. Some 15 deaths and more than 600 cases of COVID-19 have been linked to the ship, the single biggest source of coronavirus infections in Australia.
Of course the Diamond Princess, which was stuck last month at the Japanese port of Yokohama, was one of Carnival’s floating palaces too.
“I am just about to take a call and I can’t talk,” the almost 70-year old Lahey told us yesterday when Margin Call phoned for a chat.
“The board is meeting regularly — of course that’s online now — to cope with what’s happening around the world.”
“And now I must go and take that call.”
Bon Voyage.
The Midas touch
The retired Carlton AFL champion-turned-entrepreneurial investor Chris Judd has been trading in ASX-listed gold stocks. He been busily spending his time in isolation in his home office in Brighton trading stocks while “trying to get some peace and quiet from the kids”.
He’s also done a bit of reading and been “bossed around to do some chores”.
“Much the same experience as a lot of Australians out there,” he suggested.
Judd, who is into his third year as football director at the Blues, admits to stress as he watches his investments in the precious yellow metal.
“I’ve been highly stressed, as anyone involved in markets has been,” he says.
“I’ve described my investing as a bit like I’ve had a very bad day at Flemington and I haven’t had a winner and I’ve looked at Ascot (Perth) … and Willie Pike is on the last there.
“And the last for me is Aussie gold stocks.
“If the gold price crashes you might not hear from me for a while,” he jested to the Triple MMM Hot Breakfast team in Melbourne.
Despite the eponymous JuddCorp investment corporation being the subject of occasional self-derision, along with mirth from his fellow idle AFL footballer commentators, Judd officially registered the company last year.
At a little over $US1650 an ounce, gold is currently near all-time highs in most currencies, so the precious metal could be seen to be a wise punt.
But the issue is the supply chain, with mining stocks hit by production, transportation and financing issues as mines are closed and exploration put on hold due to the COVID-19 virus.
Pacific not pacified
The dispute between Bauer Media and Pacific Magazines over the sale of a magazine division seems destined for a frosty resolution. There has been speculation that Bauer would be put into administration to avoid going ahead with the acquisition that’s scheduled for settlement on Thursday.
But Margin Call reckons Bauer HQ has realised there’s a clause within the paperwork making it clear that the Australian company’s operations enjoyed requisite support from its parent company Heinrich Bauer Verlag (HBVKG).
The clause may have caused an accusative Sergeant Schultz finger-pointing moment back in Hamburg when Yvonne Bauer, the German billionaire businesswoman, got the update from her legal team that there was no room to manoeuvre.
Bauer had sought to renegotiate in recent weeks, or even walk away from the acquisition that was signed off by its current local chief Brendon Hill, but first initiated when Nick Chan led Bauer.
NSW Supreme Court proceedings were commenced to force the German media giant to settle on its intended $40m acquisition from Seven West Media, which has been adamant the contract with Bauer was unconditional after the ACCC approved the deal last month.
There is a scheduled hearing later this month, if required, but Seven updated the ASX yesterday on an email from Bauer’s solicitors that read “Bauer is aware of its obligations under the sale of business agreement and, as you know, has been actively engaged since October 2019 in preparing for completion”.
Melaleuca mystery
The price is no longer a mystery, but the buyer remains very much under wraps. The settlement details for the sale of the Palm Beach weekender of the late Sam Chisholm andlate ex-wife Ronda sees a staggering $24m, record-equalling, price pocketed by their daughter Caroline Jumpertz.
No wonder she took the offer just two weeks into the marketing in February when the initial price guide for Melaleuca was $20m.
The Ocean Road beachfront reserve trophy home had previously traded at $3.1m in 1994 before its renovation, designed by architect Susan Rothwell.
There’s still huge intrigue as to its buyer as it has been bought by a shelf company acting as trustee for numerous wealthy Australians, with the paperwork lodged by Bridges Lawyers.
The Macquarie Bank signatories on the accompanying mortgage, Eileen Lee and Stuart Bush would be well-placed to know too.
Despite not being a beach type, Mike Cannon-Brookes was top of the Ray White listing agents’ wish list, but the Atlassian co-founder and his wife Annie are keener for the Pittwater side where they maintain a boat.
Indeed, Cannon-Brookes had made an unsuccessful offer last year for the Palm Haven, Pittwater listing, but lost out to Dominic Roche from the pioneering Nutrimetics skincare company, who’d offered $20.5m. The chat is Cannon-Brookes then went direct to Roche to buy the home that Phillip Cox had designed for Phillip Esplin, the late founder of Esplins Solicitors.
The $24m purchase tops the $22m sale of Kalua next door in 2012 by the Joye family to retired car dealer Laurie Sutton, and matches the notional $24m internal transfer where Gretel Packer secured her beachfront in 2015 in the division of assets of her late father Kerry with her brother James.
Auction action
Gai Waterhouse has been down in the Southern Highlands, tuned into Inglis’s first ever online auction for its annual Inglis Easter Yearling Sales. The trainer, along with Adrian Bott, bought nine horses on behalf of their owners at the two day event. “I’m not saying it’s going to be the way we go in the future, but it could be, one never knows,” the First Lady of Australian racing said.
She compared the traditional sales ring to being on the stock exchange floor in olden times.
“It’s a moving, happening, throbbing place that of course can’t happen when sitting in your lounge room here at Alpine.”
With a bullish $300,000-plus average price there were $65m in sales, compared to the $123m last year.
It was always going to be substantially lower once John Messara’s Arrowfield pulled out.
Ardex Technology provided the software for the online bidding, watched daily by nearly 150,000 people from 100 countries.
Waterhouse noted she’d bought some of her best horses at prior sales.
“The sales toppers are always going to be there,” Waterhouse told viewers watching Inglis TV’s Caroline Searcy coverage, noting she was “happy to look east or west” for reasonable value rather than the “glamour, sex-appeal horses”.
Inglis managing director Mark Webster said the sale had been held “successfully during a global health and financial crisis with restrictive movements internationally and between states”.
The pandemic restrictions didn’t deter Coolmore Australia boss Tom Magnier who bought the two most expensive horses on day two, including $1.8m on the colt consigned by Sledmere Stud on behalf of the China Horse Club from champion sire Snitzel and champion filly First Seal. Coolmore had been the under-bidder on First Seal when she sold as a yearling in New Zealand years ago.
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