Hanning’s Hong Kong swansong

Illustration: Rod Clement

The music has stopped for expatriate Aussie investment banking bigwig Matt Hanning, 48, who has been told there is no longer a slot for him at Swiss bank UBS.

Hong Kong-based dealmaker Hanning replaced Sydney-based banking boss and James Packer’s mate Matthew Grounds as head of investment banking in the Asia-Pacific in 2014, but has now been told by global banking boss Andreas Orcel that his time is up.

At UBS, there’s no longer a slot for Matt Hanning. Picture: AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini.

Orcel, in an internal memo to staff, blamed the overhaul of his “investment bank executive committee” on the “dislocation” being experienced by financial markets.

“... a perfect storm of challenges and changes from regulation, competitors and markets,” he wrote.

That old excuse.

Grounds might be pleased he relinquished the regional role in favour of his closer-to-home gig running the bank’s Australian and Kiwi operations.

Orcel has told staff Hanning is staying on to help with “the transition” before heading out the door.

The Aussie is believed to be planning a return to Sydney, where he has a ready-made life to slot back into. All that’s missing is a job.

Just before his 2014 promotion Hanning’s wife Jessica purchased historic Mosman mansion Rona on Bradleys Head Road for $8.75 million.

They also have a spread on Palm Beach’s Rock Bath Road that they paid $3.5m for in the early 2000s.

Size matters

But UBS golden child Matthew Grounds doesn’t seem at all fazed by the axe being wielded by Orcel.

Overnight he was looking tanned and relaxed as he celebrated his 47th birthday with his photogenic family, wife Kimberley and children, at Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera — a long way from his Caringbah origins, nestled out in Scott Morrison’s Cronulla shire.

Matthew Grounds was relaxed on the French Riviera.

The question still being asked by the rockstar’s banking peers: will Grounds still be running the UBS Australasian operations by the time his 48th birthday comes around?

While in Europe, Grounds appears to be maintaining a close distance to his trusted, and then not trusted, and now trusted billionaire client James Packer.

James Packer’s icebreaker, Arctic P.

Eclipse is the second-largest superyacht in the world.

After a jaunt to London with his Hollywood chum Brett Ratner, Packer and his Fantasy fiancee Mariah Carey have returned to the French Riviera.

Overnight they were at Eden-Roc Cap d’Antibes — where the Grounds were just days ago — and had dinner with Dasha Zhukova, the wife of Russian billionaire tycoon Roman Abramovich, who, with a fortune of $10 billion, is worth two Packers.

Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, had his 162m Eclipse superyacht parked alongside the Packer’s 87m icebreaker Arctic P, appropriately almost half the size of the Russian’s whopper.

Mariah’s Russian staffer Stella Bulochnikov is back on the Arctic P too, making for all sorts of fun and games.

Abramovich’s Eclipse is the second-largest superyacht in the world and cost more than $650m to build.

Showy Russians.

Good neighbours

When the Grounds get home we hope things don’t get awkward. Their newly-finished Mosman abode is separated from the Hannings’ more historic home only by the shores of Balmoral Beach.

The Grounds have only recently moved into their $4 million build on Kirkoswald Avenue, which was completed by the familial Grounds Construction, run by Todd and Finlay Grounds out of Cronulla.

The home is on the site of the historic Myarock home built in 1917, which the Grounds pushed over for the development.

Their next door neighbour is Ardent Leisure chair Neil Balnaves, who bought for $6.5m in 2001 and objected to the Grounds’ plans.

Still, the banker now has more pressing problems.

His adjacent Fairfax Rd home where the family lived during the project is now redundant and has been for sale for some time. The couple are hoping for about $10m.

Ship shape

But back to the European summer. The party on board luxury cruise liner Seabourn Odyssey to celebrate the near 80-year-old Lindsay Fox’s conception more than 79 years ago rolled into Dubrovnik, Croatia, overnight.

Lindsay Fox's “Love Boat”, just off the Croatian coast.

Fox, his wife Paula and their guests were swanning about the Old City enjoying lunch under Panama hats and sunnies.

Next stop is the ridiculously picturesque Croatian town of Primosten as passengers develop deepening tans with the myriad bald spots on-board getting extra attention from the harsh Mediterranean sun.

Retail billionaire Solly Lew has his Maridome docked at the Italian port of Genoa as he enjoys a penthouse on the liner with girlfriend Roza.

Molly Meldrum is believed to have flown home, while Sue and Michael Gudinski maintain the rage on board.

Here’s hoping those “Love Boat” sailors from Fox and Lew’s Toorak locked their mansions up tight on departure for the warmer climes. There were more than 25 car break-ins overnight on Wednesday in the affluent Melbourne enclave.

Not amused

Is anyone the least bit surprised to hear that the courting of Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlinhas not been well received in the Turnbull PMO?

The view of many is that Ricky Muir would be a more effective advocate for the Crown empire in Canberra.

Crown’s James Packer sees things from outside the Canberra bubble. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images.

But James Packer, clearly, sees things from outside the Canberra bubble.

Already, in Scott Briggs, he has a Liberal consultant on the books with good relations with PM Malcolm Turnbull (indeed Briggs helped win the bloody preselection battle for Wentworth back in 2004) and his Treasurer Scott Morrison (Briggs is often at ScoMo’s side at the Shire’s home of rugby league, Shark Park).

There’s lots for the likes of Credlin to do in the $9 billion Crown and private Consolidated Press empire that doesn’t involve her walking the ministerial blue carpet in Canberra.

Still, the addition of Credlin would a fascinating role of the dice. She has a poisonous relationship with Turnbull’s senior adviser Sally Cray. The rest of the office, not to mention much of the ministry, are hardly fans either.

As was well documented by our colleague Pamela Williams, the Turnbull PMO made it known to Sky chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos that the PM would not appear on the subscription news channel so long as Credlin remained on the payroll as an election commentator.

But then no political regime lasts forever.

Make your choice

What’s going to happen with Credlin’s Sky gig, anyway?

Peta Credlin, Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff, on Sky News.

She was a big hit with Sky audiences. But surely that role couldn’t continue if she joined ex-Labor heavies Mark Arbib and Karl Bitar at Team Packer?

Not surprisingly, we understand that there is a view within ConsPress that — to paraphrase Credlin’s former boss Tony Abbott — you can be a Packer employee or a Sky political commentator, but you can’t be both.

Although it’s worth noting people have said something similar about Victorian Liberal President/Sky talking head Michael Kroger. In fact, they still are.