The late Bob Oatley built his family’s multibillion-dollar empire off the back of the wine industry, with the businessman flogging his Rosemount operations in 2001 to Southcorp for almost $1.5bn.
So how are the much smaller, next-generation Oatley wine operations faring now that they are solely in the hands of his son, Sandy Oatley?
The scion, as this column noted earlier in the week, at the start of the 2023 financial year bought out his family’s Robert Oatley Vineyards from the wider family holding company Balmoral Australia.
Apart from changing the name of the business to AG Oatley Wines, offspring Sandy has managed to substantially boost the group’s earnings in his first year of his full ownership to $12.6m, compared with a much lesser $1.3m in the year prior.
Cheers to that.
Revenue from the winemaking operation has jumped in the year too, from $108.6m when it was in the wider family’s Balmoral portfolio of assets to $118m at the end of June last year.
Things may shrink somewhat in the current year, with Oatley in the process of selling off the company’s US sales and distribution operations.
The wider business has emotional significance, as it marked Bob Oatley’s re-entry into the industry after he flogged Rosemount to Southcorp, which became Treasury Wine Estates.
Happily, AG Oatley has net assets of more than $37m, with the entity in much better shape than its former parent Balmoral, whose net assets have slipped into the negative.
But that’s John Borghetti’s problem now.
From pillar to post
Peter Costello’s driver was standing by to pick up the former federal treasurer turned company director from Canberra Airport on Thursday after the Nine chair knocked our colleague Liam Mendes to the ground.
Costello was on his way to Parliament House for the opening of a new Nine press gallery bureau and studio by none other than the PM Anthony Albanese himself.
Mendes approached the Nine chair with a set of questions on the saga surrounding ex-news boss Darren Wick and CEO Mike Sneesby’s handling of the affair.
On seeing his driver Costello moved to quickly navigate the terminal, with his driver walking by Costello’s side as he and Mendes interacted all the way through the airport and to the car park, where the private hire car was waiting.
Alas, Costello’s clear desire for a quick getaway was thwarted as he tried to get into the back seat of the sedan, only to heavily slam the rear car door into an adjacent structural column, making it impossible for the chairman to get in.
That meant Costello had to swiftly change plan and jam his large frame into the front passenger seat of the car, clearly a position he was unhappy with, made even more awkward by Mendes peppering Costello with questions the whole time.
We trust Nine will take care of any damage bill for the door.
Meanwhile, Crown Resorts boss Ciaran Carruthers was asked for his view on Costello and clearly did not want to engage on the story of the day. But given the few years Crown has endured, he had plenty of thoughts about a broader way to operate a successful business.
“As a proud Irishman I like to keep things relatively simple … don’t engage with villains, don’t be a villain, treat people with care and respect,” he told Australia’s Economic Outlook conference. “That’s not a bad lesson to learn, that’s not a bad focus to have …(As a) general recommendation, that’s probably what I’d do.”
Not buying in
It’s an understatement to say that Nine chair Peter Costello is no rookie when it comes to interacting with the press – he’s been top of the table at the $2.3bn media empire since 2013, was on the Future Fund board for 14 years and before that was the member for the once blue ribbon seat of Higgins for almost two decades.
Yet somehow the 66-year-old, whom Nine pays $374,000 a year to be chief steward of the group’s influential operations, has become the story on the front page of Nine’s own newspapers and beyond.
Eight years in the chair and Costello hasn’t paid to buy any Nine stock since the 2015-16 financial year.
His stake of just over 300,000 Nine shares hasn’t changed since then and is worth just over $430,000.
Depending how this pans, Costello’s bad day at the office could have serious implications for his non-executive income.
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