Kerry Stokes cracks whip in race for WA TAB

Look out punters: billionaire Kerry Stokes looks to be gaining a rails run in the race for the $500 million-plus privatisation of the West Australian TAB.

Former James Packer executive and Crown Resorts boss Rowen Craigie has been sneaked on to the board of Seven West Media and the Victorian racing industry joint venture Racing.com, as the partners prepare for the potential sell-off of WA Labor Premier Mark McGowan’s tote.

Craigie is a veteran of the local gaming industry and will bring vital industry expertise and connections to any role that Racing.com plays in the much-anticipated government sell-off.

His addition to the Racing.com board, effective from last week, follows his appointment to the board of Racing Victoria in September.

Crown Resorts boss Rowen Craigie. Picture: David Caird.

The Stokes-RV venture has been aggressive in its pursuit of racing broadcast rights.

Two years ago it beat Tabcorp in a bitter battle for the Victorian rights and is now also broadcasting racing from Hong Kong.

The WA TAB would be a fine complement to Racing.com’s existing operations.

In August, WA’s Department of Finance appointed Investec to undertake a scoping study for the potential sale of the wagering enterprise.

Investec, which has been paid $440,000 for the role, is expected to report its findings in the new year, with its six-month engagement expiring at the end of February.

Spill the beans

“A lapse of judgment.”

Those four words, included by NAB boss Andrew Thorburn in an email to his leadership team about the departure of his long-serving chief-of-staff, are ricocheting like a sniper’s bullet around the bank’s Docklands bunker in Melbourne.

There’s an intriguing story emerging behind the resignation last week of 20-year NAB veteran Rosemary Rogers, first revealed by this column on Monday.

Margin Call has been told that the “lapse of judgment” related to communiques written by Rogers that were found on her computer.

They were said to have been highly critical of her colleagues at the bank, possibly including members of Thorburn’s executive team, perhaps even the CEO himself.

A NAB spokesman said he did not know why Rogers suddenly departed, but said our version was incorrect. Rogers did not return our calls.

We understand Rogers last week returned to work from annual leave and promptly met Thorburn. By the end of that encounter she had resigned.

The email Thorburn sent out to his leadership team that noted Rogers’ departure described her as “an institution at NAB”.

Thorburn also acknowledged “her enormous contribution over more than two decades”, the last nine of which were in the all-seeing, all-knowing CEO’s chief-of-staff position, first under Cameron Clyne, then Clyne’s Kiwi successor Thorburn.

That COS gig gave her unrivalled information on NAB’s executive team, and its relations with the Ken Henry-chaired board.

It also gave intimate access to her boss’s life.

“She cared for me and my family,” Thorburn noted in his email.

We’re told Thorburn has been shocked by what Rogers confessed was a “lapse of judgment” right at the heart of the CEO’s inner circle.

Win some, lose some

It’s a long way from the Italian village of Lozzo di Cadore deep in the Dolomites where his familial heritage is said to lie, but former dual citizen and Queensland senator Matt Canavan has a new home.

Along with wife Andrea and the couple’s five children, Canavan has put down roots on Queensland’s central coast, purchasing a home at Yappoon, about 25 minutes north of Rockhampton. The purchase came just after Canavan’s status as an Australian citizen was clarified by the High Court in October and he was able to return to the Turnbull ministry.

However, he wasn’t so lucky in the recent vote on Nats leader Barnaby Joyce’s new deputy, losing out to Bridget McKenzie, who yesterday was named the new minister for Sport, Rural Health and Regional Communications.

Canavan, who remains Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, was helped into the buy by Ian Narev’s Commonwealth Bank, which is just as well given the apparent state of the LNP pollie’s finances.

Canavan’s latest entry to the register of senators’ interests reveals that the Southport-born 37-year-old had to borrow from his brother John Canavan to pay upfront legal expenses related to the Section 44 legal battle in the High Court. Canavan’s lawyer was James Stokes, of Underwood law firm Stokes Moore.

The politician’s brother John, who is an accountant at KPMG, called Stokes the night in July that Canavan discovered he may have had an issue with dual citizenship after his mum Maria raised it with him

Stokes was on the team that went to Canberra to argue that Canavan was eligible to sit in the parliament as a ridgy-didge Australian citizen.

Stokes won the day, so Canavan remains in the red house and the Turnbull cabinet. All he needs to do now is pay off his family debt.

Rathbone to rescue

Agribusiness and wine entrepreneur Doug Rathbone has always loved a deal and it looks like his family have just played a part in one that has delivered a little Aussie icon back into local hands.

We hear John Foss’s Chia Company, which sells its health food products to some of the biggest retailers in the world, has been sold to the Rathbone family, two other wealthy local families and Foss himself, after being in private equity ownership for the last five years.

Chia has been one of the nation’s most successful agriculture export stories, capitalising on soaring demand for healthier food products, especially those that are gluten and dairy-free.

In 2012, Foss sold part of The Chia Company to US private equity firms VO2 Partners and Arlon to provide capital for the company’s growth and global expansion.

But those plans went awry in the US business as the company was squeezed by supermarket giants Wal-Mart and Costco, and the private equity firms increased their 40 per cent stake in the business to a combined 60 per cent.

While Chia’s Australia, Japan and British operations are all profitable, the US part of the business lost money last year.

The private equity firms are said to have entertained offers a year ago from the likes of billionaire Ruffy Geminder and US food giant Kellogg, then earlier this year from former Costa Group shareholder Paine & Partners. But they decided against selling.

In recent months they have apparently changed their mind, and as part of the deal with the Rathbones, we hear Melbourne will become Chia’s new head office.

Foss — who was previously based in New York — will continue to be the controlling shareholder and will look to reignite the company’s growth plans after working with Rabobank to resolve the problems in the US business.