Geminder’s holiday on hold for now

Pact Group chairman Raphael Geminder.

You’d have to think that an intimate family gathering in your no-expenses-spared, leafy inner suburban compound isn’t such a bad plan B when it comes to celebrating a milestone birthday.

Pact executive chairman Raphael Geminder is set to turn the big Six Oh next Tuesday and had been planning to celebrate his special day as part of a broader family walking holiday across the ditch next week in New Zealand, which was set to extend into the Easter break.

But the unfolding international health crisis, capped off with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s directive this morning to halt international travel, has put paid to Raffy’s plans and those of wife Fiona, daughter of late cardboard box king Richard Pratt.

Instead the couple and their children are staying, with Geminder telling Margin Call it was “good to be in Australia with all my kids”.

Still, downtown Kooyong is likely to provide less distraction than a tramp in nature from the sharemarket carnage that has stripped more than 40 per cent from Pact’s value in the past month.

On Monday, Pact revealed Geminder had taken advantage of the big share price slump to boost his holding to 44.3 per cent from his previous 41.3 per cent. Pact is now capitalised at just under $500m.

But there’s plenty more in the couple’s portfolio, held via their Kin Group family office, that’s hopefully holding up better.

Recent weeks have seen Geminder offload the one-third stake he controlled in Victorian dairy beverages company Nature’s Dairy for an undisclosed sum.

Geminder had held the stake for about five years and sold out to the business’s two other owners.

“Great business and excellent partner, but non-core for Kin Group and (our) investment thesis changed,” Geminder explained, adding that “no other divestments (were being) contemplated”.

Birthday boy

Still on the Pratt family — not even Australia’s richest man can avoid the coronavirus ripple effect.

International box billionaire Anthony Pratt, at last count worth $13.14bn according to this newspaper’s The List, turns 60 on April 11.

The Visy executive chairman was set to celebrate his birthday at a gathering with his nearest and dearest a week later on April 18 at the Pratt family’s historic mansion Raheen in Kew.

But alas, thanks to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, Pratt has now postponed his knees-up “in view of the ongoing global health situation and out of respect for those already affected by the coronavirus”.

The Visy boss, who runs significant operations in the US and divides his time between luxury homes there and in Australia, is in Oz now after touching down last weekend just a day ahead of Scott Morrison’s edict for travellers to isolate for 14 days.

From here, expect the billionaire, who is close to US President Donald Trump, to stay put for six weeks or so in line with ScoMo’s directive for us all to stay on home soil.

Thankfully Pratt and his wife Claudine Revere’s son Leon, who’s just turned 11, got his party in ahead of the curve, celebrating on the weekend via a sleepover with his young mates, where little shut eye was had by all.

Conference cancelled

The biggest conference to inspire estate agents, held annually during winter’s quiet listing period, has been postponed due to the new gatherings edicts.

The US best-seller Ryan Holiday was set to open the Australia Real Estate Conference (AREC), giving insights to the near 3000 attendees from his book topic, Ego Is The Enemy.

The big drawcard was set to be entrepreneur Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson who was scheduled to fly in from her Florida base to close the two-day June event.

Macpherson was set to provide “insights into building a brand that transcends the ordinary”.

The Killara-born supermodel was last in Australia to promote her plant-based supplement brand WelleCo.

AREC, which kicked of 23 years ago, sees agents fly into the warm Gold Coast. The postponement will affect the bottom line of the listed McGrath agency since it owns Total Real Estate Training, the organisation that provides the opportunity for agents to gain knowledge about best practice and innovative techniques.

Margin Call reckons auctioneer Damien Cooley ought be on any future speaker schedule.

On Tuesday night he pulled off an Australian first when a Bellevue Hill apartment in the Bon Sejour block sold under the hammer with no bidders in the auction room.

There were three online bidders, all apparently too timid to turn up. The vendor, in lockdown in Germany, secured a $970,000 sale after 14 bids, slightly above the $950,000 guide from selling agent Elliott Wasserman.

Cooley’s AuctionNow platform allows prospective buyers to watch, register, bid, buy and exchange on live auctions. The auction was done within 20 minutes, but stand by for the five-day online-only auction version that allows more time for buyers to consider their bids from the safety of their own abodes. That plus more private onsite auctions with bidders keeping their distance.

Wedding woes

The veteran media executive John ‘‘Harto’’ Hartigan and partner Miche Paterson are still getting married — but they have postponed their wedding party amid the escalating COVID-19 travel and crowd rules.

The couple, who have been engaged since Harto popped the question at Woolloomooloo’s China Doll, without a ring no less, last year, were set to wed tomorrow at the picturesque venue, Chiswick Woollahra.

Harto and Paterson had made the decision to not proceed with the gathering well ahead of yesterday’s new 100-plus crowd rules. And they had also scrapped their plans for an Italian honeymoon several weeks back.

Paterson, a partner at Newgate Communications, was on her first day off yesterday ahead of the scaled-down wedding, as she has been busily assisting in the coronavirus crisis management of their many clients.

“We just couldn’t put the bunch of our best friends at risk,” Harto told Margin Call.

“We will still get married with two witnesses in the back yard,” he added.

The guests had been flying in from all over the world, including the long-lunching newspaper editor legend Col Allan from New York who took Harto to their favourite Sydney eatery this week.

“I’ve had many lunches at Lucio’s but this is the first one I’ve flown 20,000km for,” Allan told Harto after hearing the decision to scrap the wedding party.

Meanwhile, the radio broadcaster Ray Hadley, the 2GB star, and his fiancee Sophie Baird, are considering postponing their June nuptials given the gathering rules will likely still prevail. The couple will need to check with businessman John Singleton about the booking’s postponement since he’s the proprietor who’s taken the holding deposit at their intended wedding reception venue, the Mount White restaurant Saddles.

Hoard immunity

Shoppers were on their best behaviour when local federal member Katie Allen came to check out the state of food supplies at her local Woolies in Toorak early on Wednesday morning.

Allen was in the village with a minder to chat to Woolies staff and her constituents, as well as film a little video in the fruit and veg section that she later posted to her Facebook page reminding the good folk of Higgins not to panic-buy.

“Follow the guidelines, look after your fellow citizens and just be nice,” Professor Allen implored. The good doctor’s effort at stemming hoarding was valiant, but the checkout lines remained long as Higgins voters stocked up on what essentials they could find.

Allen left without buying a thing.

Secret speaker

It seems we muddied the waters surrounding just who will be the mystery guest speaker at the 31st annual Sydney Institute dinner, which has been postponed amid the coronavirus ban on gatherings. Margin Call inadvertently suggested that former prime minister John Howard would be back again to give the lecture. No such luck!

There are some 800 intending guests eagerly awaiting the word from the institute chairman Jacquelynne Willcox on just who it will be when rescheduled for sometime later this year. Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne had been set to introduce the speaker whose identity is being kept a secret.