Antony Catalano may still get TPG cream

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Few people have a better read on private equity giant TPG’s ­mooted $3 billion bid for Fairfax Media’s prized asset Domain than Melbourne-based billionaire Alex Waislitz.

The fun-loving Thorney principal has a bit more than a 2 per cent stake in the publishing group and has been a vocal shareholder in recent years.

Margin Call understands that Waislitz has been in close contact with the Joel Thickins-led TPG as a play for the crown jewels of Greg Hywood’s Fairfax kingdom, Domain, and the related metro media assets.

Alex Waislitz and friend

This week, as news of TPG’s preparations spread, Waislitz and his lieutenants were in communication with the private equiteers, while Hywood and his chairman Nick Falloon were kept in the dark on whether TPG was on its register and what its intentions were.

But was everyone in the Fairfax kingdom as ignorant about what was unfolding?

Waislitz is close to and a major supporter of Domain boss Antony Catalano and is pushing him as a key part of any deal.

Waislitz — who is separated from Heloise Pratt, daughter of the late Richard Pratt — was at Catalano’s 50th birthday party in Melbourne earlier this month.

Catalano’s boss Hywood was also along for the lunch celebration at the Stokehouse in St Kilda, but tapped out well before Catalano and the hatted Waislitz, who some guests confused for a member of 1990s funk group Jamiroquai.

The bromances don’t end there. Catalano’s and Hywood’s sons Jordan and Tom run a real estate business start-up, Apartment Developments, which provides an online advertising platform for buying off-the-plan apartments.

It is a competitor to their parents’ Domain at Fairfax. The ­little rascals!

Antony Catalano and his son

Jordan, who is one of Catalano’s eight children, is about to become a father himself. The Cat’s an expectant grandfather.

Waislitz holds his Fairfax stake via his listed fund Thorney Opportunities and private fund Thorney Investment Group. Together they have more than 50 million Fairfax shares that are worth about $53 million, while TPG is believed to have a right to speak for a stake that is still less than 5 per cent via an indirect interest.

Thickins’s mob now have to decide whether it stumps up the cold hard cash (and takes on a whole lot of debt) for a potential $3bn-plus asset grab.

But you can bet your Domain-listed mansion on who they’ll be consulting ahead of their tilt: the Cat’s mate, Waislitz.

Coming to censors

News just in: the Andrew Robb-led review into the Liberal Party’s underwhelming, but ultimately victorious, 2016 federal election campaign will soon be released.

We understand the review will be given to Richard Alston’s federal executive in time for their meeting next Friday.

Robb’s reviewing panel included Carol ­Cashman, the former Brisbane City councillor, Christopher Ellison, the former cabinet minister and senator for Western Australia, and Barry O’Farrell, the former NSW premier and now boss of Racing Australia.

Andrew Robb

That sure gives another complexion to O’Farrell’s trip to Canberra this week. The PM will not want to be surprised by any embarrassing findings in the report, which had input from state directors, state presidents and the party’s many disgruntled members.

So, will it be released, unredacted? It’s hard to imagine in light of the frank — and not at all flattering — advice we have heard the panel received by Liberal generals, armchair and otherwise, about the eight-week campaign.

Should anything be released, our guess is that it would only be after a thorough once-over by Liberal federal director Tony Nutt and his Sharpie. Nutty might have to trade his Blue Sharpie for a black one for this exercise.

Bosses pay their dues

The CEO pilgrimage to Canberra continued yesterday on the last sitting day before Treasurer Scott Morrison’s second budget.

Medibank boss Craig Drummond fronted up with the listed health insurer’s new head of government relations Mark Roberts, who was once a senior adviser to Tony Abbott until a strange run-in with Australian Indigenous Education Foundation chief Andrew Penfold.

The Medibank pair were spotted slipping into Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s office.

Also walking the halls was former Queensland Labor premier Peter Beattie, who is now the chairman of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation, modern day slavery abolitionist Andrew Forrest, better known to many as the founder of iron ore upstart Fortescue Metals, and Business Council of Australia boss Jennifer Westacott, who looked a bit glum. Can you blame her?

Ian Narev with Labor's Jim Chalmers and Rio’s Joanne Farrell

The night before, Westacott and BCA president Grant King hosted their members dinner in the parliament. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave a dinner address to a room that included Cormann, Energetic Minister Josh Frydenberg, Industrious Minister Arthur Sinodinos and co-founder of law firm Gilbert + Tobin Danny Gilbert, the man who — despite confident reports — was not appointed Jim Spigelman’s replacement as ABC chairman.

On Thursday morning, the BCA crowd — which included head Vampire Kangaroo Nicholas Moore — assembled in the same Private Dining Room for breakfast, this time with Bill Shorten’s Labor Party. The Opposition Leader was off inspecting Cyclone Debbie-ravaged north Queensland so had to skip it.

Tanya Plibersek with Grant King

The ALP was represented by, among others, deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, shadow treasurer Chris Bowen and opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers.

One notable absentee was the business community’s chief Senate inquisitor, Sam Dastyari. “I thought it best no one choke on their breakfast so I left them in peace,” the controversial Dastyari told Margin Call.