Email: that’s how a surfie waves goodbye

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No wonder millionaire SurfStitch co-founder Justin Cameron pulled the plug on chair Howard McDonald via email.

There was no time to call — surf’s up this week at Hossegor, about 20 minutes north of Biarritz in southern France, renowned as one of the best surf spots on the planet.

The resort town is home to young rich-lister Cameron and his company’s European HQ and distribution centre (on an industrial estate on the outskirts of town).

Cameron made it back to Oz to ring the bell when SurfStitch listed less than 18 months ago, but sadly the former share analyst has decided listed life really doesn’t suit and he wants to take his baby private again.

His co-founder Lex Pedersen — the almost 40-year-olds were born just months apart — lives his new life in California with his partner and young daughter.

Both entrepreneurs took millions off the table in the late 2014 float of the company and last August they were both kind enough to sell down more shares in the interest of “liquidity”.

Underwriter and lead manager to the $83 million offer, JPMorgan, got about $4m in fees for the IPO, but are not on the sell side this time around as Cameron seeks a deal in conjunction with “private equity”.

Former Myer chair McDonald and former David Jones numbers man Stephen Goddard, who is also a board independent, have UBS’s Adrian Lee in their defence corner. Pandora chief Jane Huxley completes the NED trio, having joined the board table in June last year.

Back to banking

Look out investment banking, exiting NAB numbers man Craig Drummond is coming back.

The Geelong footy club director and one-time boss of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Australia has pretty much ruled out the top job at the likes of Medibank Private.

Instead, he’s pointed to his former life as a banker for a hint as to where he’ll spend the next phase of his career.

Drummond walks out the door of NAB for the last time next Tuesday and says he’s already knocked back one job offer.

“I’m looking at a range of opportunities, but they’re more aligned to my previous industries,” Drummond, who also ran the old Goldman Sachs JB Were, said yesterday.

Any port in a storm

Now that a deal’s been done to allow the sale of Melbourne’s port to proceed, it’ll be shoulder to the wheel for Flagstaff Partners’ Tony Burgess.

Along with Richard Wagner’s Morgan Stanley, Flagstaff is helping Vic Treasurer Tim Pallas “recycle” the port asset, but last week lost key man David Potaznik to a sabbatical amid what would have been the biggest deal of his investment banking career.

Word is Potaznik, who advised on the controversial sale of the Port of Darwin to the Chinese last year, is considering his future.

That means Burgess, who has been leading the deal team, will have to lift a notch. Potaznik to date has fronted buy-side briefings and done much of the heavy lifting.

Pallas’s office indicated yesterday there was no change expected to the advisers, which also includes ex-Port of Melbourne boss Steve Bradford as a senior adviser to the Flagstaff team. He’s a busy man. In December Bradford, whose idea it was to jack up rents at the port, took over as chair of the state-owned Tassie ports corporation.

Given how important the Port of Melbourne is to the Apple Isle’s existence, surely there is no conflict there.

Trials and tribulations

While his PR wife Roxy Jacenko supped on French bubbles in the final hours of Paris fashion week, her shiny hubby Oliver Curtis was back in the NSW Supreme Court contemplating the prospect of time behind bars for alleged insider trading.

The final touches are being put on what is shaping as Sydney’s society trial of the decade, with one last courtroom appearance on May 6 ahead of a 30-day hearing starting May 11.

Curtis is the son of mining millionaire Nick Curtis, and the former best mate of John Hartman , who is living out his second chance working for Twiggy Forrest in the west.

Hartman is the son of society obstetrician Dr Keith Hartman, who delivered Murdoch and Packer kids. Young Hartman is expected to return to the harbour city to give evidence against Oliver.

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