Plenty for new Balmoral Pastoral chairman John Borghetti to keep his eye on as he takes on oversight of the billion-dollar Oatley family empire from scion Sandy Oatley.
Borghetti was announced as Balmoral’s first independent chair on Wednesday. He takes the reins of the family assets at a time of some financial delicacy for the rich lister Oatleys.
Just-released accounts for Balmoral Pastoral for the year to June 30, 2023, reveal that the group has total current liabilities that are greater than its current assets.
The group, which has just shelved its plan to sell Hamilton Island for a mooted $1bn, has also just managed to rollover a fully drawn $100m debt facility with Westpac for another year, now due this September.
To further enhance its financial viability, Balmoral has increased the facility with Westpac by another $20m, $10m of which has already been accessed.
Despite all this, the Balmoral financials have been prepared on a “going concern” basis, with directors pointing to a listed investment portfolio worth $224m that is a non-current asset, but which it says are “liquid in nature”.
“As such directors of the group are of the view the group has sufficient readily available financial resources to enable it to continue its operations and fulfil all of its current and future obligations,” the report says.
Balmoral generated total revenue in the year of $332m, from $252m previously. It was the first full year of operations without the family group’s wine assets, which have been sold to Sandy Oatley.
Profit for the year was $15.2m from a loss of $11.7m previously, but no dividends were paid to shareholders, who comprise siblings Sandy, Robert and Rosalind.
Plenty to occupy new chair Borghetti’s attention to be sure.
Dinner date
Sources in Canberra tell us that father-son duo Mark and Jeremy Leibler, partners at Arnold Bloch Leibler, were spotted at The Lodge on Tuesday night, for what we assume was a private dinner with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
No shortage of topics for the Leiblers to discuss with the PM. Were these leading Jewish community figures there to talk to Albo about his government’s recent shift in policy around recognition of a Palestinian state? Or its cooling relationship with Israel?
Or maybe it’s easier to go simpler and just marry up the timing: on Tuesday the Leiblers arrive for dinner; on Wednesday the PM’s on his feet in parliament calling out the appalling hostility attendant at pro-Palestinian rallies and the execrable members of the Greens who “deliberately spread” misinformation. Coincidence?
In fairness, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been going the Greens all week. So then perhaps it was just a reunion celebrating Albo’s appearance at ABL’s 70th anniversary birthday party in Melbourne in August last year.
Court holds court
Senate Estimates brings all types to Canberra, both to take their turn in the limelight and lurk in the shadows as proceedings unfold. This week the appearance of ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court before the Economics Committee prompted a burgeoning of duties for Wilkinson Butler spin doctor Mark Abernethy when it comes to his work for one of ASIC’s enduring targets, James Mawhinney of the Mayfair group.
Abernethy has long been spokesman for Mawhinney, but this week had his duties expanded to include government relations. This was as Court updated the committee on where things were at between the regulator and Mayfair.
Abernethy was in the halls briefing pollies and advisers on Mayfair’s perspective as legal proceedings continue.
Court, for her part, read out a prepared statement on ASIC’s interactions with Mawhinney, who, along with defending himself against the corporate watchdog, continues to pursue business opportunities, including in New York.
Schammer’s shoes
Former ABC journalist Peter Wilkinson and corporate affairs specialist Andrew Butler’s Sydney-based outfit has long assisted James Mawhinney in his efforts to improve his reputation.
The spin doctors’ fees get paid by a corporate entity called Eleuthera Group, which is part of the Mayfair empire.
Mawhinney’s fellow shareholder in Eleuthera is Perth-based former AFL footballer Byron Schammer, who these days is – according to LinkedIn – an investment adviser at Bell Potter and a senior adviser at an outfit called Westar Capital.
But Schammer also has other interests, including as long-serving president of the southern Perth suburb Winthrop’s branch of the Liberal Party.
Winthrop sits within the federal electorate of Tangney, which used to be held by former prime minister Scott Morrison’s bestie Ben Morton, until the ALP’s Sam Lim, a former cop and Malaysian dolphin trainer, took the seat off him at the last election.
Lim holds what was the former conservative stronghold by the slimmest margin of his elected ALP colleagues of 2.4 per cent.
That sets the seat up as a ding dong battle when the next election is called. Alas the preselection of a new Liberal candidate has been fraught after star candidate and former reality TV star and SAS member Mark Wales stepped down due to family illness, just a short while after being chosen.
That’s seen Howard Ong, a former activist for the Australian Christian Lobby, take over to battle Lim.
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