China crisis hits Crown Towers Perth party plans

Illustration: Rod Clement.

The enduring incarceration of Crown employees in China over the casino operator’s highroller business and fresh news that three Aussies are likely to face criminal charges there has put a dampener on plans for the launch of its new $645 million Crown Towers hotel in Perth.

It’s hardly the backdrop for a great party.

Former Crown chairman and enduring major shareholder, James Packer. Picture: SMXRF/Star Max/GC Images.

An extravagant gala opening had been planned for the 500-room facility for December 14, but the enduring legal crisis in the Middle Kingdom has meant a change of plan.

Former chairman and enduring major shareholder, billionaire James Packer,had been set to attend the opening of the six-star facility. He will now stay away as his chair and ConsPress boss Rob Rankin and Crown staff continue to work to free their employees.

It was to have been Packer’s first trip to Australia for some time. He missed his sister Gretel Packer’s 50th birthday celebrations in Sydney at the end of August, saying he was tied up in meetings in Israel where he has continued to spend much of his time since the demise of his engagement in late September to pop star Mariah Carey.

The hotel launch party has been so substantially scaled back that Rankin is now also not expected to attend.

As it happens, Andrew Mackenzie’s miner BHP Billi­ton is having a media dinner on the same night, December 14, at Crown restaurant Rockpool, which might make it more difficult for Rankin’s staff to keep things under the radar.

Biting the hand

It’s an old adage: never bite the hand that feeds you.

Melbourne rich-lister Alex Waislitz. Picture: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

But it’s clearly not troubling Melbourne rich-lister Alex Waislitz.

Waislitz had a big bash in this newspaper earlier this week ­decrying the 5 million or so in-the-money options going the way of the board and CEO of payday-lender turned auto lender Money3.

One of those featuring in the money was Money3’s new chairman Ray Malone, who we hear hasn’t taken too kindly to Waislitz’s public utterances about his options package.

The slight complication for Waislitz is that Malone also happens to be CEO of listed smash repairer AMA Group, of which Waislitz’s listed Thorney Opportunities fund owns just under 5 per cent and whose shares have more than trebled in value over the past two years.

With friends like Waislitz, who needs enemies ...

Lifetime angel

Meanwhile, Waislitz’s former wife Heloise Waislitz was the toast of New York on Tuesday night, receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Angel Ball.

Her sister Fiona and husband Raphael ‘Ruffy’ Geminder were along. Billionaire brother Anthony Pratt was in Australia, but his partner Claudine Revere was there to mix with Hugh Jackman, Deborra-Lee Furness, Bob Geldof and some of the lesser Kardashians.

Also along was Pratt fellow traveller and billionaire Gina Rinehart, who was enjoying the Manhattan glitz all while dominating the headlines back home thanks to a speech endorsing US president-elect Donald Trump. That address, given at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, was outsourced to Rinehart’s Hancock employee Sophie Mirabella.

Earlier on Rinehart’s US trip, the businesswoman caught up with possible secretary of state in the Trump administration Rudy Giuliani and the incoming president’s trusted adviser, Kellyanne Conway.

Also on the Rinehart itinerary? We suspect a catch-up with fellow Trump enthusiast Cory Bernardi, one of Rinehart’s favourite Australian politicians, whose three-month secondment in NYC at the UN finishes in a few weeks. Bet the PM can’t wait to have the free thinker back.

Council tilt

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s mouthpiece Sophie Mirabella isn’t the only member of her family with political aspirations.

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock employee Sophie Mirabella.

Her husband Greg Mirabella (like Rinehart, a cattle farmer) ran in the Wangaratta Rural City Council elections last month. Mirabella is president of the local branch of the Victorian Farmers Federation and was one of 10 candidates for four vacancies in Wang’s City Ward.

Sadly, Greg just failed in his tilt. Electorally, it’s been that sort of year for the couple.

But with his wife’s new gig working for the richest woman in the land, who would be in politics anyway?

Grier’s Trump cheer

Finally some good news for Estia chair Pat Grier. He’s a Donald Trump fan.

Estia Health chair Pat Grier.

“I was the only one in my family who said he was going to win,” Grier crowed at Estia’s AGM in Melbourne yesterday. “And that I think he will be bloody good.”

Grier’s enthusiasm seemed to be contagious. The embattled aged-care business’s stock was up 6 per cent yesterday, closing at $3.03.

But — as has been the case for much of Estia’s listed life — the short-sellers keep circling.

Management could yet prove the vultures wrong, but there did seem to be a few carcasses to pick at in yesterday’s numbers.

Extrapolating the first four months of the 2017 financial year, it looks like Estia will struggle to reach the lower end of its guidance next year — despite new CEO Norah Barlow’sreassurances.

Particularly with cuts to its government payments beginning at the start of January, staff costs rising and a new layer of regional management on the way.

All the while Estia’s $330m debt ceiling looms, with $286.5m in bank loans at the end of October, a dividend of $19.3m paid earlier this month and $32.6m in funds tied up for when residents move, less $31.8m in cash.

It wasn’t long ago Estia’s former spinner swore its sky was blue and grass still green — just before founder Peter Arvanitis resigned and dumped his $55m stake, followed by Barlow presenting a full-throttled mea culpa with an earnings downgrade and asset sales plan.

But, hey, that was before Grier’s Trump bump.

NAB changes

Still more change, albeit incremental, in the turbulent corporate affairs department of Andrew Thorburn’s NAB.

NAB chief Andrew Thorburn. Picture: Stephen Cooper.

Former Herald Sun journo Mark Alexander now has responsibility for corporate communications, assuming the role vacated by Meaghan Telford, who left to reunite with fellow NAB refugee Craig Drummond at Medibank Private in July. More than a dozen members have left the unsettled team in the past year.

Alexander is reporting to Nathan Goonan — the acting head of corporate affairs.

We gather Alexander — and the other members of his team given new, interim roles — won’t be getting fresh business cards made just yet. For now last Friday’s appointments are all acting, as the tortured process continues to replace Paula Benson (the better half of former Labor senator Stephen Conroy). Apparently that epic process has gone international.

Benson’s former boss, group executive of communications and governance Michaela Healey, also “retired” this year — although NAB’s latest annual report said she was given a “retrenchment payment”.

Not that Healey will complain. It pushed her total pay for last year to $2.89m — handy money as, to quote from her LinkedIn profile, she rediscovers the “joys of yoga”.