Ex-Crown chair Rob Rankin’s new way to pay the rent; Niki Savva’s surprise guest

Former Crown Resorts executive chairman Rob Rankin is in the accommodation game in England. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Rob Rankin is finding novel ways of coming up with extra coin these days.

We note the investment banker has moved to start renting his luxury UK bolthole for $22,000 a week on a number of British holiday websites.

That’s during the low season, mind. It buys visitors a stay at The Old Rectory, Rankin’s seven-bedroom mansion in the Cotswolds. It’s very pretty by day, according to the pictures, but looks haunted by the apparition of a pale-faced child at night. For that price, who cares; there’s enough space to hide in the gym, in the cinema, in the hedges. Plus there’s the help who stay on site to shoo away the bad energy. They reside in some kind of bothy out the back.

This is what it’s come to for Rankin, formerly the executive chairman of James Packer’s Crown Resorts empire, and the man who famously dodged requests in 2020 to appear at Patricia Bergin’s inquiry into the gaming and hospitality business.

Divorce can leave a hell of a mess too, of course, and this rental play bears the hallmarks of the demise of his marriage to Paula Boff. Last we heard there was some heavy liquidation of assets in the pipeline, in this country and possibly elsewhere.

Then again, Rankin’s investment banking outfit, Altero Capital, hasn’t been performing so well lately either, as we’ve reported previously. He’s chair of the shop and owns 25 per cent of it. He’s also a shareholder in Constantia Investment Partners, formerly known as Aitken Investment Management, at least while it was run by fund manager Charlie Aitken; he left mid-year when the firm was bought out by Etienne Vlok, Daniel Gerdis and Andrew Strasser.

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Surprise guest

Noted with interest at the launch of Niki Savva’s post-mortem of the Scott Morrison years was former parliamentary speaker Tony Smith.

We doubted that such a loyal Liberal Party foot soldier would attend the event at the Commonwealth Club in Canberra on Thursday evening, but Smith was pencilled in for attendance alongside Anthony Albanese (who misspelt Savva’s name in a post on Twitter), Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Education Minister Jason Clare, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally.

Niki Savva. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Quite a coup for the Prime Minister to show up, even if Savva was holding a discounted copy of her own book in the photograph she took with the PM.

Press gallery titan Laurie Oakes made an appearance, as did former journalist turned lobbyist Kerry-Anne Walsh, and they were not far from Morrison nemesis and Team Global Express CEO Christine Holgate, who’s mentioned at numerous points in Savva’s tome. Kooyong teal Monique Ryan worked the room, as did Tasmanian Liberal Bridget Archer, the lone member of the party to cross the floor and back a censure motion of Morrison this week.

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Revolving door

Headhunter Anna Whitlam seems to be having a hard time pinning down staff over at CEO advisory firm Teneo. That might make it difficult for her to hit performance targets tied to her earn-out arrangements.

Whitlam sold her business, Anna Whitlam People, to Teneo in August last year in a deal that took place weeks after Teneo’s global chairman and spiritual leader Declan Kelly blew himself up after drinking too much and allegedly touching people at an LA charity event. Kelly was once an aide to Bill Clinton and Clinton will always be remembered as a hands-on president, so make of that what you will.

Whitlam’s earn-out is apparently pegged to revenue growth, which is probably why she announced the signing of a fresh MD in Lisa-Anne Taylor-Chong, formerly a director at Netflix, soon after the deal was signed.

Taylor-Chong began in February and made it to August at Teneo. She then left to take up a role with Danish toy company Lego Group, starting just last month.

But Taylor-Chong’s tenure was relatively long compared with that of Sarah Crawshaw, who joined Teneo last year as a plum hire after a stint as Asia-Pacific chief with competitor outfit Taylor Bennett. Crawshaw lasted five months before exiting Teneo to go freelance. To be fair, the security of a pay cheque has become so passé. Crawshaw’s since landed a managing director role at FGS Global.

Whitlam’s most committed hire seems to have been Amanda Tait, formerly a consultant with FTI. She signed on as a managing director of AWPeople before it was acquired by Teneo. Sadly her tenure ends this month after just over a year with Whitlam. No word on what’s next, but her resignation note, seen by Margin Call, suggests a pursuit of “further study in the corporate sustainability space”. To be fair, she did say she thoroughly enjoyed her time at the company.

We doubt any of this is hugely troubling for Whitlam given that recruitment is her bread and butter. Then again, turnover seems high. Nine months ago she announced the arrival of Sophie Lim, of Melbourne competitor Hope and Glory. She came over as a senior vice-president based in Melbourne, lasting two weeks before decamping for plumbing supplies outfit Reece.

Port in a storm, folks.

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Market upheaval

Over in Perth there’s been much speculation over an alleged bust-up on the board of financial news website The Market Herald between founder Jag Sanger and director Gavin Argyle. It would appear that’s come to a head, with efforts under way to remove Sanger as a director. That’s according to a Section 249D notice filed to the market after the close on Thursday by Gavin’s father, David Argyle.

Alan Davison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

He’s said to own enough of an interest in the company to call a general meeting to that effect. Not that Sanger is without supporters, of course. His online chum Alan Davison, better known as @StockSwami on Twitter, has been pumping up his tyres for weeks amid rumours of a split.

What’s it all about? From what we can tell the Market Herald is facing some fairly brutal financial pressure. It’s also just completed the acquisition of Gumtree, CarsGuide and Autotrader, and it’s understood not everyone is happy about the overs paid.