Jamie Packer bides time in Israel, John Messara gets life gong

Illustration: Rod Clement

Newly separated gaming bil­lionaire James Packer has kept a low public profile since parting ways with his pop singer fiancee Mariah Carey in late September.

Crown’s biggest shareholder, who turns 50 next year, has been spending plenty of his time in ­Israel, where his media profile is low and he has many friends.

Yair Netanyahu with Brett Ratner and Mariah Carey in Tel Aviv in August last year.

Packer is believed to have previously considered becoming a permanent resident of Israel, but has never made a formal ­application.

It seems the idea may be back on his radar, now that his latest romance is history and life is moving on.

Packer’s movie-making partner and good friend Brett ­Ratner caused a storm in April last year when he told an audience that Packer had become an Israeli citizen, which was quickly denied by the Aussie businessman’s camp.

But Packer is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and this week was drawn into a political con­troversy there following reports of Packer lending his beachside apartment to the politician’s son Yair.

Packer also owns a house in the affluent beachside city of Caesarea, near the Netanyahu family’s holiday home. Packer has also made a number of ­investments in the burgeoning Israeli technology scene.

The reports claimed there was a meeting between Packer’s Israeli lawyer Jacob Weinroth and the Israeli Interior Minister, during which Weinroth allegedly requested that Packer be given permanent residency.

But still, no formal application has been filed.

Netanyahu, for his part, is happy to claim Packer as his mate.

“Mr Packer is a friend of the family. Yair is a student at the Hebrew University and lives in Jerusalem. He has the right to stay with friends and with family members out of town from time to time,” the PM said this week.

Arrium deal heats up

Indian-born British entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta jets into Melbourne tomorrow as his $6 billion Liberty House steel and metals trader forges ahead with its bid for collapsed Whyalla steelmaker Arrium.

While all eyes have been on South Korea’s Posco and its high-profile tilt for the failed group, which has been in the hands of administrator KordaMentha since April, Gupta’s advisers on the ground in Australia have been working hard to position Liberty at the forefront of the sale process.

Ahead of final bids due in mid-January, Gupta will this weekend tour the Whyalla steelworks and port, after a round-robin of meetings also in Melbourne and Adelaide with senior federal and state politicians, union officials and community leaders.

Earlier this week, Liberty House local execs Gavin Houghton and Lindsay Kirsner (both ex-Rio Tinto) were spied dining in Sydney at the Chop House on Bligh Street ahead of their boss’s arrival. Also there were Arrium management including numbers man Anthony Brooks and mining boss Matt Reid, along with KordaMentha’s Sebastian Hams and Michael Baruffi from Morgan Stanley, who is advising the administrator on the sale process.

Pratt pumps Trump

Fresh from being one of the few to predict Donald Trump’s victory, billionaire Anthony Pratt was choosing his words carefully on Tuesday evening as he held court at Shannon Bennett’s Vue de monde restaurant in Melbourne with a band of 30 agribusiness heavyweights to discuss one of his favourite topics: food.

The Australian and Visy’s biannual Global Food Forum dinner was eager to hear from Pratt — who knows vice- president-elect Mike Pence and even had him open his new Indiana box factory in late March — about what a Trump victory might mean for trade.

“He has built up a tremendous business, he is a tremendous deal-doer. I think he will approach trade in the same way,’’ Pratt told the audience, which included the top players local agribusiness.

At the dinner, new Cargill Australia boss Penne Kehl made her first public outing since taking the job, as did new Fonterra Australia boss Rene Dedoncker. Another new kid on the block was Ingham’s chief Mick McMahon, fresh from a return to the public markets following last week’s float of the poultry producer. And he was counting his chickens that the share price remains above its issue price, getting away just before Trump’s shock election.

Australian Country Choice boss David Foote and Thomas Foods chief Darren Thomas traded polite barbs across the table, while Alibaba CEO Maggie Zhou — who had just flown back from China a few hours before proceedings — wowed the audience with tales from this week’s Singles Day sales in China.

But as they tucked into the menu of crab, Mark Eather line-caught fish and Wagyu beef, it took two foreigners — Treasury Wines boss Michael Clarke and Asahi’s Atsushi Katsuki — to give everyone a reality check of how good we have it in the Australian food industry.

Mature-aged adventure

When you run a conservative, listed investment company out of the City of Churches, guess you have to get your kicks somehow.

Jason Beddow (far right) and fellow cyclists.

So it seems for Argo Investments boss Jason Beddow, who this week has ditched his suit, tie and cufflinks in favour of adventure wear to take part in the Adventure Racing world championship. And it’s not for the faint-hearted. The race is a 600km journey through the Shoalhaven region of NSW, via a non-stop, unsupported course of trekking, mountain biking, kayaking and navigation.

Beddow is part of an all-male four-member team known as the “Tiger Adventure Mongrels”, who describe themselves as a “Newcastle-based team of mature gentlemen”, competing in their “first expedition-length race”.

Who knows if it will also be their last. When we last checked they were yet to finish the race.

Messara’s life gong

Thoroughbred horse breeder and owner John Messara has been bestowed the rare honour of lifetime membership of the Australian Turf Club, ahead of his retirement as chair of Racing NSW at the end of next month.

ATC chair Laurie Macri unveiled the award on Sunday in front of 260 racing identities gathered at Royal Randwick at a Racing NSW bash to honour Messara, who has been in the top job for five years.

Messara, who owns Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter’s Scone, is one of only about 30 racing luminaries to have been given such an honour. Guests gathered in the Royal Randwick Ballroom at the special lunch included former prime minister Tony Abbott and wife Margie, along with his parents Richard and Faye, who go to the races almost every week.

Former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell was also there, along with broadcaster Alan Jones, who is a close friend of and horse co-owner with Messara.

Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys also came to farewell his chair, along with one-time NSW racing ministers George Souris and Kevin Greene.

The man taking over from Messara as chair Russell Balding (who once chaired the ABC) was also at the lunch, as was the late Bart Cummins’ grandson James Cummings, who is also a horse trainer.

Messara’s wife Kris, his son Paul, who has been running Arrowfield while his father was focused on industry matters, his daughter Suzanne (a reporter for the Nine Network) and his Caledonia Investments’ fund manager son Michael were also gathered for the farewell party.