Crown Resorts keeps Nobu on menu; Kevin McCann a Liberal Party donor scorned

Crown Resorts is hanging on to its stake in Nobu. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Looks like Crown Resorts’ stake in Nobu has been spared the knife by the beancounters at private equity giant Blackstone.

Eager to take an axe to Crown’s operations, the high-end Japanese restaurant was on the hook for divestment but appears to have survived after receiving an upgraded valuation of $149m owing to improved operations.

Robert De Niro. Picture: Getty Images

That’s off a low of $121m recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic when disruptions afflicted the global business. For anyone hiding under a rock, Nobu’s 59 restaurants and 15 hotels are co-owned by Hollywood bigshot Robert De Niro.

Crown’s stake in Nobu was originally acquired by billionaire James Packer in 2015 for $141m, a light snack which gave him one-fifth of the enterprise.

But while there’s no chop for Nobu, we hear the company’s 50 per cent ownership of private gaming club Crown London Aspinalls is not looking as healthy, with Blackstone likely to say sayonara to that one soon enough.

Meanwhile, a look through Crown’s accounts reveals almost $1bn in losses. Thankfully that’s what rich parents are for, with Blackstone agreeing to give Crown an interest-free loan of $861m and, as of last week, committing to supporting its cash flow for the next year.

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A donor scorned

A mere 10 votes stopped Kevin McCann, a former Liberal Party president, from gaining preselection for the seat of Warringah in 1994. The winner of that contest was Tony Abbott, and the rest, as they say, is history.

McCann went on to chair the boards of Macquarie Group, Origin Energy and Healthscope, although they say his devotion to the Liberal Party always remained marrow-deep.

Until Monday night, that is, when NSW Roads Minister Natalie Ward stood for preselection in the North Sydney seat of Davidson, coming off second best to Matt Cross, once a staffer in the office of former NSW premier Mike Baird.

So incensed was McCann with the result that he has since moved to tear up his 40-year membership of the Liberal Party. We assume he’ll also cut off his substantial donations.

Women in leadership is a subject dear to McCann’s heart. He speaks on the subject routinely and sits on the founding group of the Champions of Change Coalition, an outfit started by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick. Its aim is to boost the number of women in leadership positions, among other objectives.

Natalie Ward. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Hence Davidson, which Liberal wets are labelling as a missed opportunity for an increase in the number of women in parliament’s lower house, with Ward’s loss now having the feel of a promissory note of ruination for the party. The election is in March, so we’ll see if they’re right.

Meanwhile, we hear it’s actually Ward who’s working double-time to convince McCann to stay within the fold, to keep up the good fight as such. She wouldn’t comment when Margin Call came snooping, but friends of the column on Macquarie Street confirmed the tale. McCann wasn’t able to be reached.

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Hauled over the coals

Shares in upstart miner Australian Pacific Coal have slid considerably since September thanks to uncertainty over plans to recommission its Dartbrook coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley.

Among the investors gritting their teeth is rich-lister Nick Paspaley, who stuck with the company during a $100m capital raise and probably dumped even more money into the venture after a decade of doing the same.

The raise concluded in October with a deal that saw APC take 50 per cent ownership of the Dartbrook project and return $70.5m in debt to Paspaley’s company Trepang, jointly owned with property magnate John ‘Foxy’ Robinson. Trepang was given 10 per cent while Tetra Resources and Matt Latimore’s M Resources each got 20 per cent.

In terms of cash the company has been left sitting on almost $29m as efforts continue to find a further injection of loot from global creditors. That’s to get Dartbrook operational by next year. It hasn’t helped that the NSW government is moving to legislate against open-cut mining at the site, even though APC’s project is an underground venture.

All of which is making Nathan Tinkler look like he dodged a bullet after his Pacific Premium Coal made an unsuccessful takeover play for APC in August at $1 per share. For confirmation just take a look at the share price.

One of the only beneficiaries is Stephen Silver, managing director of Evolution Capital, which raised the $100m for APC at 34c per share and took an underwriting fee of 5.75 per cent.

For those unfamiliar, Silver was subject to allegations in 2016 and 2017 by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, resulting in fines being accepted without admission or denial.

With APC’s shares down to 22c this week, and returning to 26c on Wednesday, the only person apparently making cream here is Silver, with the exception of one slight setback.

Written into the deal was a rider that on completion of the raise Evolution would be issued 20 million unlisted three-year options priced at 34c. Investors at Monday’s AGM weren’t having any of that, with 86 per cent casting ballots against it.