Craig Hutchison’s rich life after AFL Footy Show

Illustration: Rod Clement.

A year ago Craig Hutchison suffered the indignity of getting boned from The AFL Footy Show and replaced by Eddie McGuire.

But don’t feel too sore for Hutchy. It looks like the Melbourne broadcaster and businessman has grown his post-Footy fortune to almost $20 million.

The $70m merger of Hutchy’s private Crocmedia with the listed Pacific Star Network has given Margin Call some visibility on just how much he is worth.

As part of the deal, Hutchy has emerged with a 24.4 per cent stake in Pacific Star, worth more than $17m at the media group’s current share price.

He is also paid almost $1m a year to be its managing director.

Craig Hutchison attends a Superbowl function in the US. Photo: Twitter

All going well, over the next three years Hutchy is also set to receive a further 2.1 million ­Pacific Star shares via performance rights that are worth $735,000 today (and more if the share price rises).

Meanwhile, Pacific Star continues to expand. The media group owns two Melbourne commercial broadcasting licences, with Crocmedia a long-term supplier of sports content to ­Pacific Star’s SEN.

It also has three digital radio stations, talent management arm Bravo and a suite of magazines, including the inner-north Melbourne fashion bible Frankie (which the group acquired when ABC boss Michelle Guthrie was a director on Pacific Star’s board).

Craig Hutchison (right) with football star David Beckham (second from right) and the AFL’s former GM of commercial operations, Richard Simkiss. Photo: Facebook

Croc also has the commercial radio rights to broadcast Australian cricket, the AFL and the NRL, which it syndicates around the country.

And now, with Hutchy at the helm, Pacific Star via Crocmedia has done a deal to buy a quarter of property developer Larry Kestelman’s National Basketball League champion team Melbourne United.

Plenty to keep Hutchy busy in his life after Sam Newman.

Packer withdrawals

The quiet devolution of power in the Packer empire continues as the family retreats from the frontline and places corporate structures in the hands of trusted outsiders.

Billionaire Gretel Packer, 52, has withdrawn from a key family investment vehicle, resigning as a director of the longstanding Colodusk.

Her even richer younger brother James Packer, 51, resigned as a director of the company the same day.

Recent weeks have seen the businessman exit all his Australian corporate directorships.

The siblings’ late media mogul father Kerry Packer was a Colodusk director until he died in December 2015, with his children appointed directors of the vehicle in May 2016.

Enduring Packer executive Michael Johnston is now its sole director.

The reshuffling comes as James Packer enjoys time in the sun with friends aboard his new
55m superyacht EJI, last spotted off Ibiza.

Meanwhile the Taronga Zoo-supporting Gretel’s icebreaker Arctic P is believed to be navigating the bear-festooned islands of the Gulf of Alaska.

Changes at the empire have not been confined to profit-making operations.

There’s been a subtle change to the philanthropic Packer Family Foundation, whose board has been stable since its inception in mid-2014. The only change has been the exit of investment banker Rob Rankin after his time with James Packer came to a sudden end at the start of last year.

Along with family matriarch Ros Packer and daughter Gretel, other heavy-hitting directors include our nation’s first lady Lucy Turnbull, and in-house family advisers Johnston, Mark Arbib, Sam McKay and Guy Jalland.

But now outsider Kerrie Corne, 60, has quietly joined — Corne, like Turnbull, a rare board member who is neither a Packer nor a family employee.

As with Turnbull, Corne is well known in Sydney’s east. She’s married to businessman Philip Corne, a director of Louis Vuitton Australia, which he previously ran here.

The waterside Woolloomooloo-residing Corne’s experience as a teacher — currently at Sydney’s elite girls school PLC in Pymble — is an asset given the charity’s youth and indigenous opportunities.

In the past year the foundation provided the bulk of the $750,000 money that allowed the NSW government to secure the Invictus Games for Sydney.

It’s also believed to have given $1m to Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital and $2.5m to the Seven telethon in Perth, a cause close to the heart of billionaire Kerry Stokes, a key mentor to James Packer.

Banking on Coulthart

Back to life after television and guess who has picked up worked consulting for a bank enmeshed in Kenneth Hayne’s royal commission?

None other than former 60 Minutes journo Ross Coulthart.

What a difference a year makes. Back in July last year, Coulthart got caught up in an epic battle with the Australian Financial Review’s Aaron Patrick.

In story after story, Patrick accused Coulthart of treating the Commonwealth Bank unfairly in a 60 Minutes story Coulthart did on CBA’s treatment of sunken Queensland property developer CEC Group.

Former television reporter Ross Coulthart. Picture: Hollie Adams

Coulthart first responded by calling Patrick a “lickspittle” and then elaborated with a 3000-word essay on Australians’ hatred of their banks (and why The Fin’s criticism was wrong).

It was the year’s most epic journo-on-journo showdown.

But the world has changed since then. The Turnbull government established a banking royal commission and Coulthart has left 60 Minutes.

As Margin Call reported earlier in the month, Coulthart has since emerged working for Sue Cato and Brett Clegg’s newish spinning outfit.

And we’ve since learned one client benefiting from Coulthart’s considerable investigative skills is Jon Sutton’s Bank of Queensland, which like its financial services peers is currently negotiating the Hayne Show.

It’s not quite anti-bank crusader Rod Culleton signing on as ANZ chieftain Shayne Elliott’s rural adviser (wouldn’t that be great?), but it’s not a move we saw coming.