Nine out of puff on mergers as exec exits

Illustration: Rod Clement

After its high-stakes merger with Fairfax, it seems Nine has run out of puff in the M&A department, this week losing commercial managing director Alexi Baker.

Only seven months after the management shake-up that saw her promoted to chief of Hugh Marks’ top brass, Baker this week resigned — Margin Call hears it was a move to pursue a new challenge.

At the time of her promotion in February, alongside the appointment of Chris Janz to chief digital and publishing officer, Marks told staff, in a memo seen by Mumbrella, that the shift would see Baker work closely with him to focus on operating benchmarks for the newly merged groups.

But perhaps working closely with Marks wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

The move surely was not for lack of management prowess, given Baker was one of several senior execs, including program director Hamish Turner and now radio boss Tom Malone, volunteered by Marks in 2017 to take on the group’s “Stanford University-style” management program, costing $20,000 a head.

Baker’s exit follows the departure in July of group CFO Paul Koppelman, who quit for personal reasons, effective immediately.

We hear Baker will stay on until the end of the year, with the strategy team now set to report to Koppelman’s replacement, former Velocity CFO Maria Phillips.

Mr Fix-it stays coy

John Henry Alexander has always been something of a mystery man in James Packer’sworld, often referred to as the billionaire’s “Mr Fix-it”. It is a reputation he has long relished.

The mystery continued on Thursday afternoon during Alexander’s appearance before ­Patricia Bergin’s gaming inquiry, when the former newspaper man-turned-corporate executive best known as “JA” mostly produced curt “Yes” and “No” answers — sprinkled with the odd “I do not recall” — to a barrage of questions about the arrests of Crown Resorts staff in China in 2016. Mystery even surrounded what he actually did at Crown for a number of years. From 2014 to 2017, when Alexander was employed by Packer’s private company Consolidated Press Holdings, he acknowledged he had “no specific duties”.

James Packer in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

“I was on call to help when required,’’ he said. “I don’t believe I had a specific title … Most of my efforts were focused on Crown.”

But Bergin did not let JA get away with a simple “No” answer when asked about Packer’s surprise decision to quit the Crown board at the end of 2015.

Pressed by the commissioner about whether he ever actually asked Packer why he left, Alexander replied: “I think he was keen to hand over responsibilities to somebody else. He had seen Mr Rankin (then Crown chair Robert Rankin) could provide some value-adding restructuring moves for the company.”

JA also revealed that Packer left the board to take the executive title of president of international strategy for Crown “to drive new opportunities for the company globally”, which is the first we’ve heard of that fancy title. But it was only 12 months later that Packer decided to return to the board as a director after the China arrests.

The only bit of colour from JA came when he was asked about his loyalty to Packer, which he acknowledged was always his first priority.

“I like to think I am a loyal person by nature,’’ he said with a tiny grin.

Carey finds voice

With James Packer making headlines for his impending inquiry appearance, it seems former flame Mariah Carey is jostling for the limelight.

Mariah Carey. Picture: Ellen

The pop diva is rumoured to be joining the judging panel for popular reality-TV show The Voice after it was snatched from Nine by Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network.

Carey is said to be a replacement for long-time judge Delta Goodrem, and would be a key name in the refreshed line-up at its new home, alongside Big Brother host Sonia Kruger.

Oh to be a fly on the wall for those negotiations!

Recall that it was only two years ago that Stokes bagged Carey extensively in public, describing her as entitled “beyond anything I could have comprehended”.

Stokes spoke candidly about how he had stepped in to stop Carey and Packer’s lavish Tahitian wedding, and even faced legal threats from the singer.

Now of course, the situation is a little different. Carey has a memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, to plug — with no mention of Packer mind you — and Seven is ever desperate for a ratings winner. It could be a win-win for both parties.

Sonia Kruger

If all else fails, December is approaching … Lord knows we could all do with another rendition of All I Want for Christmas is You.

Agency men upbeat

Ailing real estate group The Agency will be having hard chats with lender Macquarie this week, as it grapples with its finances after reporting another hefty annual loss, this time more than $10.4m.

With only a cursory glance at letters from chairman Andrew Jensen and managing director Paul Niardone in Thursday’s annual report though, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

The seasoned salesmen were upbeat on the state of the market, with sales up and revenue booming, even as its shares were halted to renegotiate with its lenders and plot yet another capital raise.

We knew real estate agents could be good, but this is a whole new level. No wonder, then, that the group’s board and execs are filling their pockets.

Chairman Jensen took home $187,008 this year, partly for his role as chairman, but also in his capacity as the firm’s chief operating officer — a $350,000-a-year role he has held since February.

It seems the whole group is multi-tasking — with MD Niardone pocketing $360,755 this year, as well as $59,000 paid out to his PR firm, Chapter One Advisers.

Executive director Matt Lahood, a former heavy-hitter at John McGrath’s eponymous real estate group and described as being “synonymous with Australian real estate”, meanwhile took home $545,434, including more than $20,000 in a car allowance, and a further $44,050 in “advance commissions”.

Mitchell Atkins, one of the largest shareholders in the group through his Magnolia Equities, got a $30,170 payday for his role as director, as well as more than $92,000 in prepaid interest, legal fees and costs for a five-year $150,000 loan.

All that while the company’s debt levels approach more than $13.8m.

The latest refinancing round comes after the group got a five-month extension in March, on strict terms that it was to check in weekly with its lender, Macquarie.

Top agent Ben Collier, one of the founding four, is one of the biggest individual holders of the group, with a stake of more than 9 per cent — worth about $950,000 at the market price of 3.5c a pop — but takes a larger slice of sales commission than most rival agents.

No doubt he’ll be joining Macquarie in giving the group a grilling.