Ex Lib minister Kelly O’Dwyer opens doors to Treasurer Chalmers

Alinta Energy’s Jeff Dimery scored an invitation to the dinner. Picture: Aaron Francis

Here’s the talk of banker circles – guess which ex-Coalition minister is connecting Jim Chalmers with the big end of town in Sydney? It’s former Turnbull-era assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer, who has quietly reinvented herself as a non-executive director at investment bank Barrenjoey.

The very private dinner was hosted by O’Dwyer at the bank’s Sydney HQ and included a string of top Barrenjoey figures, from Guy Fowler and Matthew Grounds – co-executive chairmen – to chief economist Jo Masters and head of fixed income Duncan Haig.

Former assistant treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer. Picture: Aaron Francis

The dinner unfolded amid a barney between Anthony Albanese and Queensland and NSW governments. Both Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk and Dominic Perrottet in NSW want compensation for any cap on coal ­prices, while the government separately considers what to do with gas producers.

And with that in mind, certain eyebrows were raised at the attendance of the O’Dwyer private dinner by several energy executives, namely Alinta Energy boss Jeff Dimery, and EnergyAustralia’s Mark Collette.

Others making the investment bank’s invitation list were Star Entertainment chief executive Robbie Cooke, AMP boss Alexis George and UniSuper’s head of equities Penny Heard, alongside Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton and Lynas chair Kathleen Conlon.

 

Spreading wings

Now that Tesla chair Robyn Denholm is a billionaire thanks to her long-held stock in Elon Musk’s electric car company, she and her family have been spreading their investment wings into all sorts of areas.

Sydney real estate has featured prominently in Denholm’s purchases, most recently a $27.5m penthouse apartment in Cremorne Point’s The Ritz building, which she settled on in early October.

That followed the former Telstra exec’s buy of a waterfront beach shack at Whale Beach for $6.2m. Both homes are mortgaged to a private vehicle also controlled by Denholm, who has two adult children, while the family also has their old home in the decidedly less flash, but still nice, suburb of Waverton.

But one family investment that has managed to fly under the radar belongs to her son

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm. Picture: John Feder

Matthew Denholm, who is a director of boutique brewery Akasha Brewing Company.

The 34-year-old has a bit less than a third stake in the company, which this year raised $1.7m in fresh capital via an equity crowd-funding offer to fund its expansion plans.

The new shares were sold at $6 each to value Denholm’s existing equity at about $4.5m.

The Tesla chair’s son also has a key role in the management of his family’s recent purchase of a 30 per cent stake in Hoops Capital, the owner of the Sydney Kings, made by the Denholms via their also relatively newly established family office, Wollemi Capital.

Just the sort thing no billionaire can live without.

The Denholms, also including daughter Victoria, 29, share ownership with former NBA star Andrew Bogut, Total Sport & Entertainment and now also Luc Longley, who played for the Chicago Bulls.

Margin Call notes Wollemi Capital says it invests “in businesses and ventures delivering a positive impact for generations to come”.

“This impact can come from areas as diverse as science and technology investments that help the environment, property investments that can demonstrate leadership in those technologies, and businesses that help communities such as hospitality or sports,” Wollemi says.

Booze and basketball – how perfect.

Sensitive school play

Seems the fine folk at Scotch College are still sensitive about the unfortunate events that have played out at the prestigious Melbourne institution over the past school year.

On Wednesday we updated you on the latest in the ongoing war of words between Scotch chair Alex Sloan and one-time corporate raider Peter Yunghanns, who earlier in the year was agitated by the circumstances surrounding the sacking of incoming principal Matthew Leeds.

Leeds was let go in January before term one had even begun.

That was after the board learned of a 2017 complaint against Leeds by a student at Geelong Grammar, where he then taught. Leeds was investigated and cleared by GGS in 2018 and has always strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Yunghanns has recently been fired back up by the apparent radio silence from Sloan following an unfortunate incident at the school on muck-up day that ended with a teacher being injured and a recent bomb scare at the Hawthorn college.

Scotch’s sensitivity and extensive media coverage of unfolding events has seen the appointment of international crisis management and public relations shop Senate SHJ, with the firm’s Sydney partner Craig Badings making contact with Margin Call on Wednesday to remind us that Leeds was sacked not with just a couple of days notice but rather months ahead of his planned July 2022 start date.

We stand corrected.

Yunghanns’ original gripe was centred on the executive search firm Fish & Nankivell that Scotch used to headhunt Leeds. Following the January scandal, the school’s council appointed a new executive recruitment firm, Hutton Consulting, to find his replacement.

The school’s professional services bill must be sizeable.

Mid this year it was announced Scotch had signed (another) new principal, Scott Marsh, who is relocating from Sydney with his family to start in the new year.

Margin Call notes that Marsh’s two most recent roles, which extend way back to 2005, have both been leading coeducational secondary schools. Surely not another Cranbrook coming on?