Many hats in the ring for gig as Virgin chair

Cartoon: Peter Nicholson.

AS the search for the new chairman of Virgin Australia being led by the airline’s director Sam Mostyn continues, some interesting names have emerged as the replacement for the retiring Neil Chatfield.

The most logical is former Business Council president Tony Shepherd, who is well known to AFL Commissioner Mostyn as president of the Greater Western Sydney Giants and who could match it in the verbal stakes with outspoken Virgin director and Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon.

But Shepherd may not have the gig in the bag, with whispers that Luxon and team aren’t too keen on the former Transfield chairman. Also in the mix are Tony Abbott’s business brain Maurice Newman and Stockland chairman Graham Bradley. Mostyn appears to be racing against time to get a name to go with the numbers at Virgin’s results next week.

Bryan flicks switch

YESTERDAY’S item on the contretemps between CLSA banking analyst Brian Johnson and CBA incorrectly stated that CBA chief Ian Narev shut down Johnson’s questioning during a results call. It was actually investor relations exec Warwick Bryan. Adding insult to injury, Margin Call failed to note that it was Bryan’s farewell outing after 20 profit announcements.

Project terminal

PROPONENTS of a $7bn casino and cruise ship terminal project on the Gold Coast are calling for mutiny on the social media poopdeck in a bid to stop the idea drowning under the electoral waves.

ASF Consortium reckons that if the megaproject is canned it will be bad for the reputation of Queensland, where new Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been less than enthusiastic about the idea.

Of course, ASF knows a lot about the value of a good reputation: one member, Chinese state-owned CCCC Guangshou Dredging, is barred from participating in World Bank projects until 2017 because its parent company breached the bank’s fraud and corruption policy. And another, Global Gaming Asset Management, has been locked in a bitter stoush with a Manila casino that accused it of breach of contract.

Sadly, ASF’s efforts to rally supporters have so far had little traction, with 1-star reviews on its Facebook page beating 5-star reviews 37 to 17.

Astra still looking

TROUBLED Adelaide-based Astra Resources is making another bid to list itself after getting kicked off Danish small-cap bourse GXG Markets for “a severe breach of the rules” last June.

Last week it said Hong Kong-registered Aspen Agency, owned by Belgian Charles Van Musscher, would organise a float on secondary board the Canadian Securities Exchange, plus a dual listing “on a German exchange” (which Astra legal counsel Niren Raj told Margin Call would be Frankfurt).

However, hurdles abound.

There’s an ASIC lawsuit alleging it illegally raised more than $7.6m from 300 investors, which went to trial in December and is awaiting judgment.

ASIC wants to ban directors Jaydeep Biswas, Barrie Meerkin and Silvana De Cianni. Biswas and Meerkin are no longer directors but De Cianni is.

And there’s a touch of confusion over just who is on the board: at Companies House in Britain, where Astra is registered, Raj is listed as a director, but he said this was a mistake that would be rectified by this morning. Melbourne silk Dyson Hore-Lacy, who didn’t return calls, was a director for a couple of months last year. Raj said the QC quit because of his legal workload.

Brookes and Autumn

IT may have been a balmy night in Melbourne but Myer chief Bernie Brookes was putting on his Autumn best for last night’s womenswear season launch at Myer’s Mural Hall. It was the style council at 20 paces as Brookes and his new women’s fashionista boss Daniel Bracken hosted Channel Nine Melbourne head Ian Paterson and Channel Ten’s Russel Howcroft among others. Also spotted was Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances as well as Melbourne Fashion Festival boss Laura Anderson.