The plunge into administration of Tim Casey’s St Hilliers isn’t new territory for the Sydney squillionaire.
It’s the second time in 12 years that his property and construction empire has fallen into the hands of corporate undertakers – the last time being in 2012, when Casey said the decision to call in the administrators was “the most difficult decision of my professional life”.
Fast forward more than a decade and Casey is once again the sole director and shareholder of a failed corporate kingdom.
Last time Casey, now 62, was able to convince St Hilliers creditors to accept a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) that would allow him to regain control and continue trading.
To fund that deal, a range of company assets and trappings of Casey’s personal wealth were sold, including the family home in Bellevue Hill for $13m.
So this time around what has Casey been able to accumulate over the intervening years that might help fund any fresh deal to rescue the company that he established in 1989 and which in 2023 turned over almost $155m?
Casey and his family these days have residential real estate assets that combined are worth even more than the $13m he received from the sale of his eastern suburbs mansion last time things went bust.
There is a family home on prestigious Queen St in Woollahra that was purchased for $7m in 2018, and there is a northern beaches abode at Avalon Beach that is currently successfully rented out and would be worth several million also.
Tucked in behind Five Ways in Paddington is an architectural award-winning home that Casey paid just under $4m for in 2019 and which is now worth well over $5m, plus there is a winter pad at Thredbo that the family has had since before the first-time-around administration.
Rich pickings if the millionaire wants to try for the corporate equivalent of third time lucky.
Giddy up
It’s been four months since Gillon McLachlan (finally) finished up as boss of the AFL.
And now the jungle drums are beating louder than ever that the businessman is set to be named as the new chair of Racing Victoria, which runs thoroughbred horse racing in the state.
But the plum role won’t be the only major project the sports administrator has on his plate.
That’s if all goes to plan.
McLachlan and wife Laura McLachlan (nee Blythe), in mid-2022 spent $13.5m on a multimillion-dollar mansion on Prahran’s Grandview Grove, which is widely considered to be one of Melbourne’s most exclusive streets.
The home is in the name of Laura, who is the daughter of the former boss of Spotless Brian Blythe, who died in 2022.
Laura has significant retail investments in her own right, with the couple a few weeks ago adding to their mental load by lodging an application for approval to undertake what they estimate to be a $6m renovation in their new digs.
Stonnington Council is yet to advertise the mega project to the McLachlans’ neighbours, and plans are not yet available.
The development project, as well as the racing gig, should keep the former footy boss pretty busy.
Former financial services executive Mike Hirst, a long-term Racing Victoria director, has been acting in the plum role since mid-last year following the exit of Brian Kruger.
Victorian Racing Minister Anthony Carbines wants McLachlan to accept the role, which would also result in him overseeing thoroughbred racing in the state, including that conducted by the Victoria Racing Club – the entity that runs the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington.
McLachlan in the top job, potentially as an executive chair, would put him squarely in competition with Peter V’landys, CEO of Racing NSW.
V’landys has in recent years been a thorn in the side of racing in Victoria, directly challenging the status of the prestigious Melbourne Cup with The Everest at Randwick, which is now the richest horse race in Australia.
Back in action
After several years of flying under the radar thanks to the demise of his career as an elected representative, Melbourne Labor power couple lawyer Liberty Sanger and former member for Batman David Feeney are set to step back into the limelight.
With some help from their political friends.
It’s all thanks to state Premier Jacinta Allen’s ALP government, with Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes appointing Maurice Blackburn principal and director Sanger, 50, as a judge to the County Court of Victoria.
Feeney until 2017 was the federal member for Batman and before that a Victorian senator, notorious for forgetting about multimillion-dollar real estate assets that he and his partner Sanger owned in his then electorate and finally exiting politics after controversy over Feeney’s British citizenship.
But Sanger, a regular fixture over the years on the likes of the ABC’s Q&A and its local radio commenting on news, current affairs and politics, has forged ahead with her legal and broader career.
She’s benefited from almost a decade of Labor power in the state via key roles on various state government advisory boards and organisations.
Her move to the bench will leave Feeney, now a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, to forge ahead with the couple’s side hustle of residential property development.
The house in Northcote that Feeney forgot to list on his parliamentary register was redeveloped into a contemporary stunner and sold by the couple in 2022 for almost $6m.
After that, the couple forked out for two other houses in the suburb – one to live in for $2.45m and another for $2.8m that looks set to be their next project.
If only Feeney can remember to lodge plans for the Ruckers Hill home with the local council.
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