Nine boss Gyngell says streaming tie-up Stan no company saviour

2015-08-28 David Gyngell examines pay packet Peter Nicholson cartoon for Margin Call column

Nine boss David Gyngell had a trading update for Fairfax revhead Greg Hywood yesterday on the pair’s streaming tie-up, Stan, portraying the joint venture as less Maserati and more Leyland P76.

“We don’t see Stan as being the saviour of this company long-term; we see it as being an adjunct,” he said of the Rebel Wilson-promoted service.

Fairfax has spruiked Stan hard, but Gynge said it was “keeping in touch, just”. “We are up against the hottest brand in the world, Netflix.”

The Packer-pounder’s pay plummeted from $19.5 million to $4.48m, absent last year’s juicy bonus for refloating Nine.

And at $335,000, just 4.5 times the average wage, his cash bonus was a quarter of target.

Perhaps Gynge’s relative poverty explains his otherwise mysterious sale of a $1.6m wad of Nine shares just weeks before its June profit downgrade?

No profit to be seen yesterday, but at least Gynge unveiled Nine’s $592m loss early in the day, unlike the downgrade, which was a Friday night special.

Rockpool grill

Several strange dining fellows at Sydney’s Rockpool yesterday would know Gynge’s pain wringing profit from TV.

They included former Kerry Packer lieutenant Nick Falloon, the now Fairfax director who was forced to step down as boss of PBL in 2001 in favour of banker Peter Yates.

Former MacBanker Yates, now deputy chair of the Myer Family Company, was also at Neil Perry’s flagship. Awkward.

Then in the door came one-time Nine boss David Leckie, who Yates was forced to punt from Nine’s top office.

All that while one of Sydney’s colourful Ibrahim clan held court at what is James Packer’s table when he’s in town.

Slippery calls

Fresh from signing off on a new coach, Carlton director Raphael Geminder wasn’t leaving anything to chance yesterday as he announced the results for his listed Pact packaging group.

Geminder personally moderated his hook-up with analysts. Perhaps he learned from good friend and Seek boss Andrew Bassat, who had problems with his phone moderator on Seek’s call last week, leaving one fundie cranky.

These things can go bad quickly. During the call for Jake Klein’s gold digger Evolution Mining yesterday, Credit Suisse gun analyst Michael Slifirski was introduced by the moderator as “Michael Slippery Foreskin”. We kid you not.

“I’ve been called lots of things in my life, but never a foreskin,” Slifirski, better known as Sliffer, later clarified.

But back to Pact … Bassat and Geminder have a shared love of fine wine, with the pair journeying together through Burgundy in recent years, along with other mutual friends.

Heydon’s dilemma

Speculation mounts among our learned friends that trade union royal commissioner Dyson Heydon will decide to step down after the brouhaha over his decision to speak at a Liberal Party function.

The former High Court judge has again delayed his decision on the unions’ apprehended bias application after they asked for details about a yarn on the snafu in yesterday’s Oz.

Declarations by PM Tony Abbott that the show can go on without him have observers thinking Heydon might go.

If he digs in, he’s likely to be needled by union witnesses saying they “overlooked” a big bag of cash or an inconvenient document, just as his honour “overlooked” the function’s connection to the Libs.

An appeal to the Federal or High Court would eat time and might see him booted anyway.

It turns out that Heydon is the only High Court judge to share a name with two Aussie test cricketers: John Dyson and Matthew Hayden. Both retired.

Cameron’s comeback

Sacked Macquarie Private exec Mal Cameron has re-emerged after some time cruising about on his motorbike to join revitalised boutique Shaw and Partners as head of its Melbourne office.

Cameron returns after being unceremoniously dumped from MacBank after two decades amid proposed controversial changes to its model in May.

He joins the team of former colleague Earl Evans, begging the question of who else the pair will lure from their old stable. Evans has been enthusiastic in wooing key talent to his shop.

It’s the latest life change for Cameron, who last year sold his Kew mansion in favour of downsizing to boring Balwyn.

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