Douw Steyn: A meerkat beyond compare

Illustration: Rod Clement

Megalomaniac South African billionaire Douw Steyn is best known internationally for his temple to himself — “Palazzo Steyn” — a Romanesque structure which sits within “Steyn City”, a gated community north of Johannesburg.

Over in Australia, the 64-year-old Steyn — whose fortune was last valued at $1.1 billion on The Sunday Times Rich List — is the little publicised richie whose money is behind insurance comparison business Compare the Market.

Douw Steyn’s Palazzo Steyn in the Steyn City development north of Johannesburg.

That’s the one with the annoying ads of the meerkat in the velvet dressing gown.

The firm had a torrid last financial year. Its chief executive Matt McCann and chief operating officer Jo Thomas were removed from the business.

Installed to manage Steyn’s operation was Ram Kangatharan, who was previously the chief operating officer at Bank of Queensland. He left the bank in 2012 after the board made Stuart Grimshaw its new chief executive.

The latest set of results Compare the Market lodged with ASIC underline the extent Kangatharan’s challenge.

The business lost $11.3 million last financial year. That brings total losses since 2014 to about $30m — a sum that might be niggling its South African billionaire backer.

And it suggests there will be blood in the next year as Kangatharan tries to get things in shape. After all, a few more years like the last one could undermine future additions to his boss Steyn’s South African palace, a 3000sq m monstrosity with a 33-car subterranean garage that would make even Liberace blush.

Rounding up steers

Still no sign in Canberra of any of the all-Australian rival consortium for the Kidman cattle empire.

Tom Brinkworth.

The cattle owners — Tom Brinkworth, Viv Oldfield, Malcolm Harris and Sterling Buntine — have interests spanning much of the country, and remain very involved in the day-to-day running of their operations.

For now they seem content to defer their government relations to maverick rural MP Bob Katter. Still, if they can co-ordinate their schedules, and delegate some of their livestock duties, a dramatic intervention in the capital — perhaps with some animals in tow — surely wouldn’t hurt their chances.

No sign either of billionaire Gina Rinehart, the leader of the Kidman board’s preferred bid.

Trying their best to keep a low profile in Parliament House yesterday — and almost getting away with it — were Nick Campbell and Peter Sykes from CapitalHill Advisory, who were brought on by the Kidman board to help get a read on the FIRB hurdles for the high-profile transaction.

It’ll be a few weeks yet before Treasurer Scott Morrison — after consulting with FIRB chair Brian Wilson — makes his official decision on the $365m bid.

However, all the signs are looking promising that EY partner Don Manifold will finally get his seller’s fee.

Mine and dine

Aside from a well-targeted attack on WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls by Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Chris Salisbury, the Minerals Council of Australia’s annual dinner in Parliament House’s Great Hall was a relaxed affair compared to recent years.

Federal Labor member for Lilley Wayne Swan. Picture: Tara Croser.

Doing his best to add frisson to the Wednesday night Canberra gathering, Wayne Swan, the Treasurer who a few terms ago tried to impose a super profits tax on the mining industry, gave a speech accusing Andrew Mackenzie’s Biggish Australian BHP Billiton of “gaming the system” and exploiting its Singapore marketing hub to reduce its tax bill.

Swan’s attack — made in the House of Representative with the security net of parliamentary privilege — emphatically answered a question some have asked since news broke that former Labor national secretary George Wright was leaving the ALP for a lucrative gig at BHP.

Back then, some wondered whether Labor would, perhaps, pick another target for its corporate tax war? No chance, was Swan’s answer, robustly given in this, Wright’s second week in the job.

Daily double

It sounds like the new lobby group for corporate bookies Responsible Wagering Australia will soon be a bipartisan fresh pasture for two of the year’s most senior departures from Canberra — unless the would-be recruits get cold feet.

Former Liberal senator Richard Colbeck.

Representing gaming challenger businesses, including Bet 365, Betfair, William Hill and James Packer’s CrownBet, the new group was registered in August, weeks after anti-gambling Senator Nick Xenophon’s strengthened role in the Senate became clear.

Unless the major parties stay on side, all sorts of industry crackdowns look likely.

Former Labor senator Stephen Conroy has been flagged as the group’s inaugural chief executive.

The gig would provide Conroy some needed cut and thrust as he pulls back from decades of factional warfare and political streetfighting. And it could be topped up with a range of director positions in the worlds of sports, media and technology.

As with all successful government relations projects, there is an acknowledgment of the need for balance.

Enter former Liberal senator Richard Colbeck.

Colbeck was the well-regarded minister for Tourism and International Education until he lost his Tasmanian Senate spot thanks to the handiwork of Apple Isle powerbroker Eric Abetz.

He could be just the chairman to balance Conroy.

Intensive care

Merivale entertainment tsar Justin Hemmes and partner Kate Fowler lent their waterfront Vaucluse mansion The Hermitage to The Royal Hospital for Women last night.

Justin Hemmes and Kate Fowler. Picture: Christian Gilles.

It was one of the biggest fundraisers in Sydney’s eastern suburbs since Hemmes threw open his home for an event for Malcolm Turnbull, weeks before the July 2 election.

Along to help out Royal Hospital for Women Foundation CEO Catherine Oates Smith were Ardent Leisure boss Deb Thomas (an excellent opportunity for the Woollahra councillor to mix with her constituency), John and AmberSymonds (who have their Point Piper property on the market), James Packer’s school friend Ben Tilley, Westpac’s ubiquitous consumer banking boss George Frazis and richie James Spenceley, who as of Wednesday’s failed coup is the former board member of telecommunications upstart Vocus.

Also along was real estate billionaire Lang Walker, who — thanks to his soon to be opened Kokomo island resort — is today appearing at the Fiji trade and investment symposium, along with Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Steven Ciobo and Frank Bainimarama, who — a decade after he led a coup d’etat — remains the Fijian Prime Minister.

The Spec-Tech-Ular

Moving to Melbourne, where tonight at the Glasshouse — aka the home of the Collingwood Magpies — billionaire investor and Magpies vice-president Alex Waislitz is throwing a party for a few hundred of his nearest and dearest.

Alex Waislitz. Picture: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

To be known as the Thorney Spec-Tech-Ular, the night will be a tech-themed affair following Waislitz’s plan to launch a new tech fund on the ASX before the end of the year.

In fact, the invite to guests is in the form of a glitzy video featuring a digitally drawn Porsche.

Speaking of the tech fund — to be known as Thorney Technologies — we hear Waislitz’s favourite broker Hugh Robertson has already secured commitments worth well over $30m, all before the prospectus has been issued.