Dead Cat bounce for rudderless Domain

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Man of the moment Antony “The Cat” Catalano is really taking this family stuff seriously.

With the shock of Catalano’s departure from the Fairfax-backed property listings business Domain still ricocheting around the market, we hear The Cat, his wife Stefanie and some of his eight children are off to Aspen for a skiing holiday.

A good dose of the white stuff sounds like just the thing.

Now liberated from Domain (a mere two months into its life on the ASX), there’s no reason to rush back to prepare for the business’s first-half results on February 19.

That joy belongs to Nick Falloon, who as of Monday is Domain’s executive chairman, in addition to his role as Fairfax chairman.

Domain’s new executive chairman, Nick Falloon. Picture: Aaron Francis.

In better news for Falloon, Domain’s shares, after plunging 17 per cent on Monday, closed up 9 per cent yesterday. A dead cat bounce?

Listed purgatory

Back to the backstory.

It was far from a state secret that Antony Catalano had a strained relationship with Fairfax chairman Nick Falloon.

Friends say The Cat was not happy about his pay (too small), the scrutiny in the role (intense) and his chair (a killjoy, with a nosy director in Greg Ellis to make things even less fun).

Catalano was so fed up with the Fairfax-controlled, ASX-listed Domain structure, it’s a wonder he lasted so long. After all, two human months make almost three cat years, according to veterinary science.

Catalano was last year brazenly open in his enthusiasm for a Domain future under the ownership of the Joel Thickins-led Australian arm of private equity giant TPG, a deal that looked a sure thing until rival private equity firm Hellman & Friedman arrived on the scene and nudged the price up.

TPG Australia boss Joel Thickins. Picture: David Geraghty.

Sources familiar with his blood pressure say Falloon was not impressed with the extent of Catalano’s involvement with TPG.

So how did Falloon react when he found out that Catalano caught up for a meal in Los Angeles at the end of Domain’s international roadshow?

A Fairfax spokeswoman said Falloon was nonplussed when he was informed, after the fact, that the Cat had caught up for a late-night feed with Thickins (and a mutual, Chateau Marmont-loving acquaintance) in LA just weeks before Domain was spun out of Fairfax.

In light of the 10-month history that preceded that meal — and the $2 billion listing that was scheduled to succeed it — that seems a surprisingly reserved response.

After all, any indication that Catalano was less than enthusiastic about managing an ASX-listed Domain could have been unhelpful to the listing, then only weeks away.

It could have suggested that Catalano was flirting with a life outside of listed purgatory — which, as Domain shareholders have belatedly learned this week, would have been pretty close to the truth.

Zebras get their stripes

As Pat Regan announced his debut writedown as CEO of QBE, his once rival for the top job at the unloved insurer Colin Fagen was getting on with business of his own.

Fagen — who shot to prominence a year ago following his abrupt departure from what was then John Neal’s QBE — has set up a new insurance underwriting agency Blue Zebra Insurance with Blair Nicholls, the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Australia.

The pair of Blue Zebras worked together at QBE back in the storied Frank O’Halloran era. Nicholls was chief actuary for the famously acquisitive O’Halloran, who now chairs insurance brokerage Steadfast.

The new operation is still to officially open the doors of what will be a Sydney-based, Australia-wide operation.

But documents lodged with the corporate regulator ASIC indicate it will be quite the insurance reunion.

Fellow zebras on the share register include former IAG-er Stephen Jeffery, whose LinkedIn profile says he’ll be “starting something new in early 2018”. Jeffery has a 3 per cent stake in Blue Zebra Insurance. Can anyone guess what his something new might be?

Others on the register include former chief operating officer at Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Australia Matthew Hodson, who has a 4 per cent stake and is also “starting something new in February 2018”.

There’s also QBE refugee Mark Polglase, who owns 3 per cent. Meanwhile, Greg Mullins’ insurance and finance fund Envest Investments has just under 25 per cent and a seat on the board for Mullins.

The other directors are Fagen (who has a 27 per cent stake) and Nicholls (who has just under 30 per cent).

We understand they will be, respectively, managing director and CEO, although how that will work in practice is a bit unclear.

All up, it looks like a happy, entrepreneurial start to the new year for Fagen — the perfect successor to a torrid 2017 that began with his sudden departure from Neal’s QBE, then moved to the hiring of scarlet workplace relations firm Harmers to negotiate his exit package, followed by far too many mentions of Fagen’s name in pieces about Neal and Neal’s secretary-turned-girlfriend Lucy.

But that’s all ancient history now.

New boss no tyro

Credit where it’s due: financial wannabe Tyro seems to have done well for itself, appointing as its new CEO Robbie Cooke, the former boss of Tatts who was on the market thanks to its $11bn merger with the now David Attenborough-led Tabcorp.

Cooke will be the fourth person running the Tyro shop during a chaotic past 12 months at the Michael Cannon-Brookes-backed company, which has also had a notable amount of executive churn.

Next on the agenda: refreshing the board.

For now former E-Trade co-founder Kerry Roxburgh is the chairman, but Tyro told Margin Call he will be replaced later this year.

Fellow investor Rob Ferguson remains Tyro’s acting managing director until Cooke starts in March, at which point Ferguson — Tyro’s former chairman — will return to the board as a director, alongside former CBA veteran Paul Rickard, Harris Farm Markets chair Catherine Harris and the Atlassian billionaire Cannon-Brookes.

And in coming months, at least one new non-executive director will join the Tyro board, as the business further distances itself from its long-time former boss Jost Stollmann, who left the board last October.