James Packer and Julie Bishop to test friendship

Steven Lowy’s Hey Jude is back in Rose Bay.

For once it is not a shared love of celebrity that is bringing gaming billionaire James Packer and Minister for Emporio Armani Julie Bishop together.

Rather their latest dalliance has been brought about by the Communist Party of China.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop with James Packer and Mariah Carey.

Eighteen staff at Packer’s Crown Resorts have been detained by Chinese authorities.

The staff at the gaming business, half-owned by Packer, and chaired by Robert Rankin,seem to have entangled themselves in the Communist Party’s ban on promoting gambling in China.

Crown is working closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to help its staff.

It’s a major test for DFAT’s new secretary Frances Adamson, who moved out of the Prime Minister’s office to take up the position at the end of August.

Thankfully, it’s a test Adamson has well prepared for. She was, from 2011 to 2015, Australia’s ambassador to China.

That’s a handy stint on the CV as her boss Bishop will be taking a keen interest in the Crown situation.

In her role as Foreign Minister, Bishop has become close to Packer. Last September Packer joined Bishop at her celebrity charity dinner in New York at Packer’s buddy and business partner Robert De Niro’s restaurant Nobu.

Earlier this year, the pair and their partners — David Panton and Mariah Carey — hung out at G’Day LA.

And before that, Bishop was Packer’s personal guest to watch his fiancee Carey’s New Year’s Eve performance at Crown Melbourne.

That freebie never made it on to Bishop’s declaration of interests because, as her office has explained to us, it was a gift from a friend.

Packer will be making the most of that friendship.

Anchors aweigh

Local fishermen spotted James Packer’s unmistakeable 88m-long ice breaker Arctic P steaming purposefully from the Turkish Riviera through the Greek Islands yesterday as Crown’s diplomatic situation in China saw its share price close down 13.9 per cent at $11.15.

Steven Lowy’s superyacht Hey Jude.

Meanwhile, closer to Canberra, the super yachts of his fellow Australian billionaires buoyed in the gentle waters of Sydney Harbour.

Over the weekend it was clear that the locals were back from the Mediterranean and ready to play Down Under.

Football Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy’s 44.1m superyacht Hey Jude was spotted cruising on Rose Bay near his father Frank Lowy’s 46m vessel Ilonka.

Its 24m-long sister vessel Ilona is believed to still be docked in London, mothballed for the coming European winter.

Billionaire Solomon Lew’s 45m Australian cruiser Texas was also enjoying the beginning of the summer, and was seen circling Hey Jude for a good look.

Drop in the ocean

Norah Barlow, the acting CEO of troubled listed aged-care provider Estia Health, announced a fortnight ago that the company had started a “rigorous strategic review” of the business, hunting for “non-core assets” to flog off to improve the balance sheet.

Norah Barlow, the acting chief executive of Estia Health.

“We are looking at things like a couple of houses,” she said in an interview.

While there’s no sign yet of a sales campaign, we have found those houses.

They’re in Bexley, near Sydney Airport.

To go by recent sales, even in the city’s hot housing market, Estia will be lucky to get much more than $2 million for the pair.

And that’s assuming they aren’t sold internally for a circa 40 per cent discount to market rates, as appeared to occur with two Gold Coast apartments that were sold to Estia executive Steven Boggiano.

Either way, it’s hard to see how the strategic review will be material to Estia’s debt balance, which was $286m at the last market update.

Dawkins pushes on

An update on the case in the Federal Court by Greg Medcraft’s corporate watchdog ASIC against former Vocation chair John Dawkins, chief executive Mark Hutchinson and CFO Manvinder Grewal.

Former Vocation chair John Dawkins.

Last week, lawyers met for a case management hearing to discuss the way ahead. The case has been provisionally listed for a four-week hearing, starting on October 9 next year.

Thankfully, that won’t clash with Dawkins’ appearance at the Australian Financial Review’s higher education summit on November 17.

Billed as “the architect of the Australian university system”, Dawkins is down to discuss his time as Bob Hawke’s reforming education minister. But will Dawkins find a moment to discuss his role at training provider Vocation, which — a year before his scheduled address — collapsed into administration? Most people wouldn’t, with a case in the courts.

But with Dawkins — never shy about speaking his mind — who knows?

Doyle to Old Dart

Audi Australia boss Andrew Doyle is off to run the German firm’s British operations — although not in a hurry.

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week earlier this year.

The Melbourne-born Doyle has been asked to run Audi’s fourth-largest global market as of April 2017 — where annual sales at more than 170,000 are almost seven times those in Australia. No surprise he has been promoted. Audi Australia is in great shape having achieved 11 consecutive years of growth, including expected sales growth of 7 per cent this year.

Taking over the Australian operations will be Irishman Cian O’Brien, the current sales director for Audi UK. O’Brien will take over in April — well in time for next year’s Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

Fink eyes Europe

Bruce Fink has only just sold off the Australian arm of the in-office advertising business Executive Channel Network he founded in 2005 with CEO Charles Parry-Okeden.

But with the tidy, almost $70m sale to outdoor advertising group oOh! Media, Fink is bringing his digital office screen expertise to take over the corporate towers of Britain, France and Germany.

And Fink has his board — which includes Abacus Property CEO Frank Wolf and former News Corp Australia boss Kim Williams — along to oversee the European expansion. Bon voyage!

Vale Richard Hockey

Some sad news for our man in Washington, Joe Hockey.

Joe Hockey and his father Richard in 2014.

His father Richard Hockey, a legend on Sydney’s north shore, died peacefully on Sunday. Even before his son went on to become a treasurer of Australia and later ambassador to America, Richard’s was a wonderful Australian migrant story.

An Armenian, born in Bethlehem with the last name Hokeidonian, Richard moved to Australia to escape the Arab-Israeli conflict that broke out after World War II.

For a while he ran a delicatessen at Bondi, where he first met Joe’s mother, Beverley. By the time they went on their first date, he’d moved to a bigger store in Chatswood, on Sydney’s north shore.

They married in 1963. Two years later, they had their son, Joseph.

“No language can truly describe my feelings for them,” Hockey, the newly elected member for North Sydney, said of his parents in his maiden speech in 1996.

In 1969, Richard founded the successful real estate agent Hockeys Property, which is now run by his sons Colin and Michael.