Mia Freedman in home court battle over property

Mia Freedman is locked in a battle over property. .

The last subpoena is due to be lodged on Wednesday in the intriguing matter of the occupancy and ownership of a pricey Bellevue Hill home.

The Supreme Court battle relates to Fintry, the home of the entrepreneurial independent digital media couple Mia Freedman, the founder of the Mamamia women’s network, and her husband Jason Lavigne.

It was almost six years ago when the six-bedroom home, with Blainey North interiors, was bought by the couple who moved in under licence, after signing what Margin Call gleans was a December 2014 put and call purchasing option.

Set among Sydney’s most prestigious hillside dress-circle residences, the refurbished 1930s home has panoramic north-easterly harbour, district and ocean views.

A contract for sale caveat was added to its title last December between the Lavignes and the vendor, Somna Kumar, whose partner is the former Macquarie banker Joseph Jayaraj.

Jayaraj is now the London-based managing partner at ORB Capital.

No official exchange price ever emerged, but Margin Call recollects buyers were being told around $12.5m, although it had $15m hopes in 2012.

Illustration: Rod Clement

The matter is set for trial next week before Justice Rowan Darke. And for three days, which suggests it can’t be a simple issue of contract law and specific performance.

Timothy Unsworth is the Lavigne’s solicitor with the defendant represented by John Biggs, at Watson Mangioni Lawyers.

Fintry last traded at $10.2m in 2007 in a sale which was described as fully priced when sold by Channel Seven lawyerand fixer Bruce McWilliam and his lawyer wife, Nicky.

The McWilliams had bought it from the Heinze family in 1995 for $2.06m.

It had been the longtime home of the conductor Sir Bernard Heinze and his wife, Lady Valerie Heinze following his move from Melbourne to succeed Sir Eugene Goossens at the NSW Conservatorium. Valerie was the daughter of Sir David Hennessy, the third-longest serving Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and Lady Hennessy.

Brasher takes charge

Having steered Essendon AFL club out of the supplements crisis, former Labor finance minister Lindsay Tanner will stand aside as chairman of the Bombers later in 2020.

Tanner, who assumed the chair at Essendon in 2015, will leave the heavy fiscal lifting of the COVID-19 era to former PwC partner Paul Brasher.

The South Melbourne-based Brasher, a former chairman of Incitec Pivot and an ex-director at Amcor and Perpetual, has been on the Essendon board for almost nine years, its longest serving director.

“Paul is a man of outstanding character and integrity and the football club will be in terrific shape with him at the helm,” Tanner said late Tuesday.

No time for holidays

Given the pandemic, there’s possibly never been a more pivotal time for our ailing tourism industry, but it comes as the make-up of the coveted Tourism Australia board awaits minister Simon Birmingham’s signature.

The king of tourism, and the current Tourism Australia chair, Bob East is just two weeks off his current appointment drawing to a close.

There’s been no formal announcement yet of any extension or replacement.

East, who has been a board member since 2016, replaced IHG executive Tony South in the chair role. East led the Mantra Group for 12 years until he oversaw their $1.3bn acquisition by AccorHotels.

East’s deputy chair Anna Guillan, a consultant to global luxury resort operator Kerzner International, is also at the end of her term.

Ditto Australian Hotels Association longtime boss Bradley Woods and David Seargeant, acknowledged as the creator of the QT Hotels and Resorts brand.

All four stellar industry players, among the nine currently on the board.

Margin Call is assured Minister Birmingham is onto it, which ought ensure the industry is well-placed from the next board meeting to map the recovery, first through encouraging the uptake of backyard holidays, then safely reopening the country to international tourists further down the track.

No doubt Birmingham will run the four board renewals and or appointments past the Prime Minister.

After all. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was managing director of Tourism Australia from 2004 to 2006, during which we had the controversial but highly successful “So where the bloody hell are you?” tourism campaign, starring the then Cronulla model Laura Bingle.

Troubled waters

James Packer’s giga-yacht IJE is continuing its jaunt around the Pacific Ocean off Mexico.

But its upcoming itinerary could be caught up in an escalating diplomatic debate over allowing movement between Mexico and the US.

The Packer party boat docked earlier this week at Puerto Pichilingue, near the vibrant capital La Paz, off the west coast of Mexico.

The IJE, named after his three kids Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle, arrived in Mexico’s Baja California Sur in late May after spending several months at Tahiti.

Given the intriguing tabloid gossip column reports of the comings and goings, and no shows aboard the 108 metre yacht, it doesn’t appear that there have been too many official impediments quite yet.

But there’s continued political haggling over restrictions for non-essential travel.

The Politico website reported this week Mexican officials are concerned that US President Donald Trump will extend travel restrictions and “use Mexico in the coming months to justify spikes in cases”, especially with the November election just months away.

US officials are meanwhile reportedly investigating whether legal travel between the US and Mexico could be partly responsible for the latest spike in coronavirus cases.

Mexico has about 300,000 confirmed cases and more than 35,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US has surpassed 3.3 million cases and more than 135,000 deaths.

James Packer’s yacht.

Boutique recovers

Daria Sakic has regained control of her Bondi fashion outlet Tuchuzy under a deed of company arrangement.

“There’s been lots of sleepless nights,” she has since advised.

Sakic, who founded the company in 1995, called in administrators voluntarily early last month, citing macroeconomic factors.

It seems the bushfires, combined with the COVID-19 restrictions, had “led to a prolonged period of reduced retail spending and reduced revenues”.

The Porsche-driving Sakic noted her woes also resulted from a lack of continuity in senior management, which saw the businesses cost base expand without a corresponding increase in revenue.

There have been three general managers in the last three years. The company, which employed 28 staff, owed $1.8m to creditors.

McGrathNicol administrators Barry Kogan and Katherine Sozou noted a nice new fit-out by Forma Projects at the Campbell Parade premises left Forma seeking an outstanding $250,000.

The creditors also included Adidas, Alexander Wang, Dion Lee, General Pants, Sarah & Sebastian and P.E Nation and modelling agencies Chic Management, Priscillas Model Management and Vivien’s Model Management.

McGrathNichol told creditors they expected employees to get all of their entitlements, however creditors would only get between 7c and 11.6c in the dollar back.

“I feel responsible for the livelihood of my team … It’s been a challenge for me as an entrepreneur, but it’s also been a learning experience,” said Sakic.

“We know we have to continue to strengthen our operations and take the time to listen to our customers and suppliers to earn back their trust,’” she concluded.

The next chapter of Tuchuzy is unfolding with more ready-to-wear pieces, homewares, brands, plus an art exhibition titled TIDAL, curated by local artist Amy Finlayson.