Crown Resorts counts down to Ray Finkelstein’s final royal commission report

Ray Finkelstein is due to hand down his report on Crown Melbourne on Friday.

It’s getting towards a minute to midnight for the delivery of Ray Finkelstein’s final report into the suitability of James Packer’s Crown to hold a casino licence in Victoria.

In what is shaping up as a monster couple of weeks for the gambling empire, former Federal Court judge The Fink has until Friday to get his report on Crown Melbourne to Victorian Governor Linda Dessau.

The report and its findings will then form the basis of the Andrews government’s decision on the future of Crown’s lucrative casino licence in the southern capital.

Crown in Melbourne is planning to have a- no jab, no entry, policy when they reopen. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Already this week Crown has reopened its Sydney hotel facility (but still no gaming), while the group’s probity-pending boss Steve McCann has Saturday’s running of The Everest at Royal Randwick firmly on his mind, with his Masked Crusader odds-on favourite to win the $15m race.

But win or lose there will be little time for the new chief to let any win sink in, with Crown’s 2021 annual meeting also set to unfold next week.

Former federal bureaucrat Jane Halton is running proceedings as Crown’s interim chair following the exit of Helen Coonan at the end of last month and pending the boardroom debut of Ziggy Switkowski, who like McCann is awaiting probity clearance from Crown’s myriad regulators.

The AGM, to be held virtually, is sure to be juicy. There’ll be the Bergin and Finkelstein reports to discuss, along with the still unfolding inquiry into Crown Perth.

There’ll be the usual election of directors and approval of sign-on and potential retirement benefits to former Lendlease chief McCann.

But Crown is also facing the prospect of a second strike after its remuneration report was rejected by 34.3 per cent of votes cast at last year’s meeting, as the company struggled through the first year of the pandemic.

Just one of the directors from Crown’s last in-person meeting remains on the board. Pictured here, Michael Johnston, Harold Mitchell and Guy Jalland in 2019. Picture: AAP Image/David Crosling.

Crown’s 2021 notice of meeting includes a contingent resolution related to a conditional spill of the casino’s giant’s board should investors again cast at least 25 per cent of votes against this year’s remuneration report.

If this happens, it would mean an EGM or a spill meeting within 90 days of the AGM, at which all directors cease to hold office and are subject to re-election ­– alongside any other candidates.

Then again, with 10 of 11 directors leaving in various circumstances over the past year, you could say they’ve saved shareholders the trouble.

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Modest means

Should we be surprised to learn that Labor’s Anthony Byrne, the federal member for Holt, is experience-rich but apparently asset-poor?

The 20-year-plus veteran of the national parliament was back in the virtual box at Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission on Tuesday for his second day of evidence, with Byrne’s appearance on Monday prompting the resignation of Victorian minister Luke Donnellan from the front bench over allegations of branch stacking.

Deputy Committee Chair Anthony Byrne. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch.

Byrne, who is deputy on the Andrew Hastie-chaired Parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, was first elected as an MP in 1999 following the exit of one-time foreign minister Gareth Evans.

Byrne on Monday admitted to paying thousands of dollars of his own money in Labor Party membership fees for other people since 1999 as part of a “well-entrenched” model of branch stacking.

And when you take a look at Byrne’s disclosures to the parliament’s register of members’ interests, the 58-year-old’s cupboard appears to be pretty bare.

The politician, who earns a base salary of just over $211,000-a-year, has a savings and cheque account with the Shayne Elliott-led ANZ, but doesn’t own shares in any public or private companies.

He has no beneficial interest in any family or business trust, isn’t a director of a company vehicle or member of a partnership and doesn’t own any bonds, debentures or other assets.

There are no investment properties, but there are personal loans outstanding from ANZ and Bankwest.

Cartoon by Rod Clement

Happily, all Byrne does disclose is ownership of a residential home in Berwick, which is mortgaged to ANZ.

Margin Call can reveal the pollie has recently sold it in a deal worth about $1m, compared with the $655,000 that he paid for the bricks and mortar (which by the way sits in the neighbouring electorate of La Trobe) in 2014.

No sign yet of a new abode for Byrne to move into, either within Holt or elsewhere, with the veteran politician at the 2019 election holding his seat by a margin of 10 per cent.

But can he make it to the next election and beyond or has this week been effective political suicide?

We shall see.

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PE flying high

The local airline sector is proving ripe for the picking by international private equity outfits, the latest entrant set to be the Miami-based 777 Partners via their newly created airline Bonza.

The new budget carrier, fronted by former Virgin Blue alumni Rick Howell and Tim Jordan, was spruiking its ultra low-cost airfares this week as it set out a plan to start flights in 2022, though just what routes it might service is still up in the air.

A corporate entity recently set up for the group lists 777’s Adam Weiss and Steven Pasko as directors, alongside Howell, Jordan and former Superloop CFO Lidia Valenzuela.

A new low cost carrier called Bonza is being planned for takeoff in Australia by mid-2022.

Unsurprisingly, the US private equity firm, which also owns a similar Canadian airline called Flair, holds the lion’s share of the company, though Jordan and Valenzuela both get a look-in, alongside head of ground-handling outfit Swissport Peter McNally.

A move by 777, which markets itself as a firm “empowering growth in opportunistic markets”, into the airline space comes after the fund inked a deal with Boeing earlier this year to lease 24 of its 737-8s, with purchase rights for an additional 60 aircraft.

Their entry to the local market will take to three the number of private equity-backed airlines jostling for dollars in the post-pandemic travel boom, counting the ever-vocal Regional Express which was given $150m in support from Hong Kong-based PE group PAG to start their assault on the so-called Golden Triangle.

Rex and deputy chairman John Sharp’s pledge to take on the duopoly of Virgin and Qantas in the capital cities was largely put on hold during the pandemic, getting by last financial year on $87.4m in government grants, including $21.5m in JobKeeper.

In the group’s recently lodged annual report, Sharp and his executive chairman Lim Kim Hai stressed the government’s scheme of support had got it through the pandemic, heaping thanks upon Scott Morrison and his former deputy Michael McCormack.

“Rex places on record its profound gratitude for the swift and bold intervention of the then Morrison-McCormack government, without which all carriers would have collapsed,” they wrote.

It is not far from the truth. Recall Margin Call told you of the $1.06bn in government grants provided to Alan Joyce’s Qantas last year, with further still provided to the now Bain-owned Virgin Australia, albeit beyond the public view.

A sector guaranteed not to fail? It is no wonder private equity is lining up.