Gupta’s house of home loan horrors

British businessman Sanjeev Gupta is paying some hefty fees on his home loans. Picture: Mark Brake

One small bright note as we wait for relief from the Reserve Bank. Whatever interest rate you’re paying on your home loan, Sanjeev Gupta is probably paying more.

His global empire is tottering because the would-be metals magnate has run out of people prepared to lend him cash to prop it all up. How then did he refinance his Sydney properties last year? And how is he paying the $400,000 bill to service the monthly interest on this ­portfolio?

So toxic is Gupta he can’t get bank financing anywhere around the world. The majors wouldn’t even give the British businessman a mortgage on his Australian properties: a Potts Point mansion and a three-bedroom waterfront apartment at Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf in Sydney, worth a combined $63.5m after the refinancing of his personal loans last year.

Instead, Gupta has been forced into private credit markets, borrowing $38.1m at rates of around 12.5 per cent, we hear; hence our aforementioned interest calculation.

The term sheet for the debt was circulated last year, when Gupta was refinancing his Potts Point mansion to buy the Woolloomooloo apartment. It doesn’t name Gupta, but the description is clear enough; an ultra-high-net-worth sponsor who happens to be the majority owner of a global steel business, and one that is “currently subject to offshore regulatory investigations which has placed noise around reputational risk and the ability to obtain traditional mortgage financing”.

But, even though Gupta was prepared to put up a personal guarantee backed by a (sadly unnamed) accountant’s assessment that he has more than $US1.6bn in personal wealth, the loan didn’t land easily. The term sheet offered the bank bill swap rate plus 6.25 per cent — a combined 10.5 per cent at the time. Gupta eventually paid quite a bit more to seal the deal, we hear.

Cold comfort to the 400 or so workers at Gupta’s Tahmoor Coal operations in NSW, stood down last week and now wondering how they will pay their own mortgages if operations don’t restart quickly.

Bomera, located in Sydney’s Potts Point.

Tahmoor has been wildly profitable over the past few years while coking coal prices were up. Exactly how profitable isn’t known, as the business hasn’t lodged financial accounts with ASIC since 2021, but it made plenty.

But, coal prices have since fallen off a cliff and the colliery, which has been providing money to prop up other parts of Gupta’s empire, isn’t a cash cow any more.

We’re hearing Tahmoor’s overdue trade debts have ballooned to more than $60m. The closure was forced because suppliers cut off deliveries or, in some cases, refused to return major bits of equipment sent out for ­maintenance.

The only people who’ve been getting paid over the last few months are those who took the trouble to lodge statutory demands — and failure to pay opens up the prospect of winding up orders, which Gupta can ill-afford. That’s a bad habit to get into, particularly if word spreads.

On Monday, ratings agency Moody’s added to Gupta’s woes, downgrading the debt of Gupta’s Infrabuild steel business on concerns it, too, is running out of cash and won’t be able to raise new debt. That’s a familiar tale across all of his business. Barring a miracle, it’s becoming pretty clear the end is nigh for all of it.

NE

‘Sovereign’ security breach

An embarrassing security breach locked down Old Parliament House over the weekend after a horde of Sovereign Citizens — a movement firmly in the scope of counter-terrorism police — commandeered the building’s Senate Courtyard for a performance they dubbed “The People’s Court”.

Witnesses tell us this pitiful display resulted in about 100 people amassing for a “treason trial” replete with “indictments” prepared by a “grand jury” (not even kidding) for every federal MP and senator.

Sovereign Citizens do their best to “occupy” the old Senate Courtyard at Old Parliament House.

These politicians — and many others — stood accused of charges ranging from child abduction and child trafficking to genocide and fraud. We’re talking Pizzagate on the lunacy-scale. To have stood there and watched this unfold, as some onlookers did, was to witness a 4chan comment thread come to life.

Those being pursued by the self-proclaimed SovCits and their indictments include John Howard, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and every living former Prime Minister. Sam Mostyn is named alongside Governors-General going back to Bill Hayden, who faces indictment even though he died 18 months ago.

Included, too, are top law enforcement officials like Karen Webb and Reece Kershaw, as well as all seven justices of the High Court, and a random collection of individuals who have been unfortunate enough to have crossed these people: an insolvency litigator; a Federal Court justice; a child protection officer; two counter-terrorism detectives.

And tourists standing about who were caught up in this failure of Old Parliament House security measures had to be escorted out a side entrance while Australian Federal Police backup was called to contain the disruption.

It was “treason” with a side of tea and biscuits.

A day of contrasts, you might say — amid this security meltdown, tea, coffee, sandwiches and biscuits were being served to those attending this “treason trial”.

As to the mystery of how this all transpired, Old Parliament House officials are blaming the caterers. Event spaces at the venue are ordinarily hired out by a catering company, not the OPH management team, and this time the caterers accepted a booking from a group calling itself GJT, which no one figured for any high-risk ­affiliations.

An Old Parliament House spokesman told us security was increased once the intent of the event became obvious.

“Old Parliament House has several event spaces available for public hire managed through a third-party contractor,” the spokesman said.

“Old Parliament House will be reviewing event-booking processes with a view to adding an extra layer of oversight. The event does not align with the role of Old Parliament House. Our role is to strengthen understanding of Australia’s democratic system.”

Oh, the irony.

YB

Just plane wrong

Perhaps we were too hasty with our weekend write-up of Stake.com billionaire Ed Craven and his alleged purchase of a jet …

You see, we assumed Craven had bought the Gulfstream G650ER on which he descended into Darwin last Thursday for meetings with gambling regulators and Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby. Why is this news? Because the pool of available private jets in Australia is very small; new entrants attract attention and envy in equal measure. And why was Craven in Darwin in the first place? He wants a bookmaker’s ­licence.

High-flying Ed Craven. Picture: Julian Kingma

The assumption that Craven acquired the plane made perfect sense as we followed the trail of breadcrumbs he left behind for us. First of all, he’s wealthy enough to afford a G650ER (it’s a rich-list staple; Elon Musk has one, as does Jeff Bezos) and at a preloved price of $40-$55m it’s cheaper than that dump in Toorak — the ‘‘ghost house’’ — which he bought for $80m in 2022.

Second, Craven literally landed in one on the tarmac at Darwin, heightening our suspicions, and then we found out he’d established a company, EC Aviation, just a few months ago.

This sort of housekeeping, the registration of an aviation company, is common practice before one purchases a jet. So, of course he bought the plane; it couldn’t have been more bloody obvious.

Except Craven did not purchase a plane; he just gaslit us into thinking he did. In fact, he borrowed this particular jet from Spotlight billionaire Zac Fried through a jet hire firm, Global Charter, for a ballpark price of about $80,000. King for the day, you might say. Although how often does Fried party with Drake?

YB