James Packer takes tax issue against Google

WE’VE had Packer v Gyngell — now it’s Packer v Google. Taking the stage (late) at the Crown Resorts annual meeting in Perth yesterday, executive chairman James Packer took a veiled swipe at the gargantuan search engine, without of course mentioning its name, for its habit of not paying much tax.

Lauding Crown’s “massive contribution” to the public purse, he said: “Compare this to the taxes, or lack of taxes, being paid by some companies in the IT sector.”

Slim Jim reckons Crown paid out about $590 million, or two-thirds of pre-tax profit, to state, federal and local governments.

No doubt, although Crown’s latest annual report shows its company tax expense was about 12 per cent, or less than half the headline rate of 30 per cent.

Lowering the tone

A GRUMPY Packer took Australian Shareholders Association rep John Campbell to task when Campbell asked whether long-time Packer ally Rowena Danziger was truly an “independent” director.

“I don’t like the tone of your question,” Packer said before launching into a dauntless Danziger defence.

Packer also found the tone of an ASA question about investing in Las Vegas, where he’s previously come a cropper, “offensive”. He even used the “O” word — One.Tel. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life but one thing I try to do is to not make the same mistake twice.”

London to a brick

BLACKROCK investment manager Evy Hambro’s regular broadsides against miners for wasting shareholders’ money on dodgy acquisitions appear to have come back to haunt him.

When Rio Tinto announced a $US14 billion writedown last year, Hambro was scathing. The big miners were “reckless and profligate”, spending too much on buying stuff and not giving enough back to shareholders, the fund manager said.

At the time BlackRock held more than 9 per cent of Rio stock. That’s reduced to about 6 per cent now — but Hambro’s criticism has continued.

In April, he again urged miners to rein in their spending.

Sadly for Hambro, part of his own investment strategy appears to have gone sour.

In 2012, his BlackRock World Mining Trust invested $US110m with London Mining, which extracts iron not from its Marampa operation in that well known African haven of tranquillity, Sierra Leone.

In return for the dosh, London was to stump up a 2 per cent royalty on Marampa ore — a deal that was supposed to secure an income flow and at the same time avoid the risk of buying shares in the company.

But instead of London, BlackRock got a brick. Plunging iron ore prices and the Ebola virus have savaged London, which is suspended from the British exchange and is tipped to default on its loans. BlackRock last week wrote off its investment.

Courting controversy

TURMOIL at mid-tier gold miner Kingsgate Consolidated, whose new chief executive Geoff Day and chief financial officer Austen Perren have lasted only a few weeks before being defenestrated.

Day served out little more than a month, having got his feet under the desk on September 8, while Perren’s tenure was even shorter, at just over three weeks (he started on September 22).

Yesterday both were gone after having a disagreement with the board, which includes former Packer family lieutenant Craig Carracher, over strategy.

“They’ve been let go in the probationary period,” chairman Ross Smyth-Kirk told Margin Call. “After starting it became clear there was a distinct difference in strategy to what we were expecting.”

Industry veteran Day last served as an executive at Newcrest, but before that he ran Kagara, which collapsed in 2012.

Margin Call suspects the decision to let Day go will come under scrutiny at Kingsgate’s annual meeting next month.

A load of croc

THE annual Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee Conference was on this week, and it was Darwin’s turn to play host.

While the event, attracted plenty of business bigwigs, the star of the show was a 5m saltwater crocodile taking pride of place at Sunday night’s opening shindig.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles even encouraged guests to pat the croc, whose mouth was taped firmly shut. Luckily the tape held and there are no reports of missing attendees.

Kept on hold

SPOTTED lunching at Rockpool’s Melbourne outpost: the boss of Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments retail business, Mark McInnes, and the woman he poached from Pacific Brands, Colette Garnsey.

Garnsey, who runs Premier’s fashion division, Just Group, worked with McInnes at David Jones before the sex scandal that saw him suddenly resign and flee overseas in 2010.

Margin Call’s spy reckons McInnes kept Garnsey waiting for about 10 minutes while he took a call at the table.

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