Alex Turnbull drops his appeal against Sydney fund manager Russel Pillemer

Pengana chief executive Russel Pillemer. Picture: Jane Dempster

Alex Turnbull abandoned his appeal against Sydney fund manager Russel Pillemer on Thursday, a shrewd decision that was surely encouraged by Bret Walker SC, the eminent barrister whom Turnbull recruited, among others, to take up this misguided mission.

A NSW Supreme Court judge had already called Turnbull a liar during a trial last year, finding that his claims of Pillemer’s alleged deception were “wholly unconvincing”, “inconsistent” and “highly implausible”. A layman could have told him that this appeal was another expensive, misconceived venture but, seemingly placed on this course by a delusional piece of software, he wouldn’t have listened.

The grounds were weak and, evidently, posed a risk to the reputations of almost everyone engaged to take up the matter. The whole thing was summed up rather neatly at trial by Pillemer’s barrister, Robert Newslinds SC, who said Turnbull’s entire case boiled down to “a severe attack of buyer’s remorse”.

To recap: Turnbull’s suit against Pillemer, the chief executive of listed fund manager Pengana Capital, rested on an allegation that he’d been hoodwinked into selling his Pengana shares while negotiations were in train to merge the outfit with investment firm Hunter Hall.

Claiming he was unaware of the proposed deal, Turnbull accused Pillemer – once a trusted family friend – of failing to pass on confidential information about the tie-up, which stood to increase the value of his holdings. It meant that Turnbull cashed out of the company too early to capitalise on the deal when it was finally announced to the market. He sued for $12m in claimed losses.

Alex Turnbull has abandoned his court appeal. Picture: Hollie Adams

Justice Kate Williams findings against Turnbull, bayonet-sharp in their criticism, saw the case dismissed in its entirety back in September, with almost full costs awarded to Pillemer.

Most right-thinking people figured that was the end of that – until February, when Turnbull re-emerged villain-like to sign Walker and barrister Daniel Ward, an ex-adviser to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, to avenge the matter on eight grounds of appeal.

That’s all been ditched now, the only bright spot being that Pillemer agreed to a reduced cost payment of $500,000 (payable in cash, immediately), which saved Turnbull about half a million he was on the hook to hand over.

Conversely, it saved Pillemer from chasing a shell company for his money, because the case was brought by a Turnbull-owned entity, Maurtray Pty Ltd, and who knows what assets it still holds.

“The trial judge found that the case against me was built on lies. It is all there in Justice Williams’ original judgment,” Pillemer said during a victory lap on Thursday. “It’s now pretty clear for all to see that this case should never have been brought to the courts.”

Dinner with Dutton?

What’s this we hear about the Liberal Party struggling to fill seats for its budget reply dinner two weeks hence? One would have thought a night with Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor at the National Museum of Australia would have been the hottest ticket in town, no?

Party emissaries have been contacting invited guests – those who haven’t RSVP’d – offering to negotiate on the $1500 entry price to cajole them into taking a seat.

Those who can’t make it are being asked to recommend people who might be interested. Honestly, where else would you rather be?

Secret sauce

Cha-ching for Marcus Blackmore, who’s set to cash out of Blackmores to the tune of $335m. That’s after Japanese beverage giant Kirin made a $1.85bn offer for the vitamin company. But there looks to be another big winner from the deal – Blackmores CEO Alistair Symington, who over his almost four years of service has managed to accumulate just under 89,000 performance rights.

Blackmores wouldn’t comment directly on the status of Symington’s holdings, but the good oil is that the Kirin bid will probably trigger early vesting of those rights, and others, even if conditions haven’t been met.

At Kirin’s offer of $95-a-share that means Symington’s stock could be worth $8.42m if he’s able to take it all off the table. He’s also got 18,500-odd fully paid ordinary shares to his name, worth $1.76m.

Symington’s still a young man at 50, and seemingly blessed with plenty more time for another crack at chiefing a company before he contemplates retirement. Who ever said vitamins don’t work?

Scrum down

Much hailing of good fortune for Rugby Australia on Wednesday after it released its financial results showing a profit of $8.2m – its first since 2018 and clearly a vast turnaround from the $27m loss it posted in 2020.

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan. Picture: John Feder

The crowing was cautious from RA’s leadership but there were still some bold claims about a return to normality, given those results were largely down to a full season of matches and events uninterrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Rugby is very much on the rise again,” said chairman Hamish McLennan.

Easy now. While an $8.2m profit does sound encouraging, we couldn’t help but notice another line item on the balance sheet concerning $7.9m in government grants. Strip those out and the code basically broke even.

Itemised in an explanatory note, RA said the grants mainly covered high-performance programs, community rugby, super rugby, and two rounds of funding from the Department of Health to fund a bid for the Rugby World Cup in 2027.

And that’s to say nothing of the $40.76m worth of debt still on the books, more than half of which comprises a loan – extended by $5m last year – which is laden with an interest rate 7 per cent higher than the bank bill swap rate.