Alan Joyce has been lying low since returning to Australia after his sojourn to Europe to avoid the nuclear fallout from the end of his time at Qantas.
But the former airline executive seems not to have been idle, with he and husband Shane Lloyd finalising plans for the $3m amalgamation of their two apartments in the Sydney CBD.
The units are on the 42nd floor of the prestigious Cove building on Harrington St, The Rocks, with the couple enlisting the services of Cox Architecture to put together plans to transform the combined floor space into one spectacular $20m-plus home in the sky.
Joyce bought the pair’s first apartment in the building in 2008 for $4.58m and then in April last year the bought the pad next door for $9.25m.
It was a change of plan for the couple, who in May 2022 spent $19m on a home on the water at Mosman Bay, which they renovated but never lived in, before selling it fully furnished for $21m after they’d splashed on expanding their life in the clouds.
A development application for the extensive building works to re-engineer the apartments’ floor plans was this week lodged with the City of Sydney, although plans are not yet available. Margin Call has confirmed the application relates to the Joyce properties.
Joyce, who left Qantas in September, has plenty of time on his hands these days to shop for high-end fixtures and fittings for the home – fancy tapware and Italian marble no doubt top priorities.
In January amid a leave of absence he had taken as Sydney Theatre Company chair, he quit the board after the cultural institution was engulfed by controversy and protests linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
Joyce remains on a period of extended leave from his directorship of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art and has been deleted from the museum’s list of directors on its website.
Taxing times
Turns out we’re not the only ones interested in a confidential letter sent by Ashurst on behalf of former PwC partner Peter Collins to the Tax Practitioners Board.
The letter, reported in this column last week, played a prominent role during Senator Deborah O’Neill’s recent parliamentary committee hearings into the audit, assurance and consultancy industries.
It highlighted concerns with TPB boss Michael O’Neill and his investigation of PwC and Collins, raising questions overO’Neill’s independence and potential conflicts of interest. Looks like the committee wants to take a look at it, too, according to a question on notice that’s now been submitted by the committee to the TPB.
Along with concerns about O’Neill, the correspondence raised a gripe with the TPB’s investigation of Collins, saying the probe used a “holistic” approach rather than investigating specific confidentiality breaches on the government’s multinational tax avoidance crackdown.
“The matter was addressed at a relatively impressionist level … the allegations and our client’s submissions were not the subject of sufficiently detailed consideration,” the Ashurst lawyers wrote.
So, essentially, the allegation is that the TPB’s findings were based on the vibe of confidentiality being breached, rather than specifics.
The TPB has previously confirmed to the inquiry that it “did not make any specific determination regarding the exact number of unauthorised disclosures” made by Collins.
PwC says Collins’ only disclosure related to when the new tax program was expected to begin, which was a date already in the market via an exposure draft on the proposed change. “The breach of confidential information was the provision of the date. That is all,” PwC CEO Kevin Burrowes has also told the Senate committee.
“To say the breach of confidential information was used to create structures for our clients is incorrect.”
Meantime, the Tax Practitioners Board continues to investigate the actions of other PwC tax partners and what role they may have played in the whole affair.
Maybe those partners, who are being assisted by ABL partner Leon Zwier, might be brave enough to see the issue of what “confidential information” was actually disseminated by Collins and then his colleagues tested in front of a judge.
We shall see.
Diamond steps up
Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan, or so the saying goes.
But when it comes to the financial collapse of the Crescent Capital-owned bikini business Tigerlily – again – there has been someone left holding the baby.
Her name is Kerry Diamond, the new chief financial officer of the now defunct fashion house, which this week was placed into voluntary administration.
Diamond only started at Tigerlily last October, strangely about the same time that the private equiteers at Crescent Capital led by managing partner Michael Alscher told the market that the fashion business was for sale, with Deloitte wheeled in to assist in that process.
By January, however, around the same time Crescent was saying that a deal was close, Alscher exited the Tigerlily Aust and TL HoldCo (the parent entity) boards, as did Tigerlily’s head of finance and operations Louie Au. Au has now also left the company.
Thankfully, Diamond was there to fill their shoes, despite having only been part of the team for three months.
Crescent Capital was contacted for comment on the pair’s untimely departures from the impending financial car crash.
The first meeting of creditors is set for March 15.
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