David Gyngell’s life at Byron, On the hunt for hotter properties

Cartoon by Rod Clement.

Investment banker Jon Adgemis could have been forgiven for letting his mind wander yesterday from Hugh Marks, Peter Costello and the proceedings at Nine Entertainment’s annual meeting.

The KPMG partner has just settled on the $5 million purchase of Balmain’s iconic Exchange Hotel on Beattie Street in the harbourside suburb with a group of fellow investors that include South African-born pub and nightclub developer Greg Magree and residential and commercial property financier Kelvin Smith.

Adgemis, who is the trusted adviser of WIN Corporation’s Bermuda-based Bruce Gordon, already has an extensive portfolio of property investments, including a stake in the inner city Exchange Hotel on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.

Adgemis, who is dating model and singer Cheyenne Tozzi, is also on the march for land in Crows Nest, in Sydney’s north. With a consortium of investors, he’s seeking to amalgamate a range of sites near the planned underground railway station. A multistorey development capitalising on the new transport hub is being plotted.

To that end, an eclectic range of sites appear to have already been acquired, including retail and hospitality premises. The investors have also sized up bricks and mortar that once hosted a local brothel, White Cat on Falcon Street.

Magree was the freehold owner and developer behind high-profile, fashionable Sydney entertainment venues that have included The Piano Room, Fratelli Fresh and Porteno.

And, fun fact, Magree is also a close friend and associate of Kings Cross identity and nightclub owner John Ibrahim.

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

Flash Gordon

KPMG’s Jon Adgemis came along with Andrew Gordon to chairman Peter Costello’s Nine AGM yesterday in law firm Gilbert + Tobin’s newish Barangaroo offices.

Nine Entertainment Chairman Peter Costello and CEO Hugh Marks. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts.

The pair were representing Adgemis’s billionaire client and Andrew’s father Bruce Gordon, who is still to arrive from Ber­muda for his annual trip to Australia.

While he wasn’t in the room, the casting of his 14.9 per cent stake against Nine’s executive pay report made his presence felt.

Also not in the room but ­making their presence felt was Steve Smith’s hopeless Australian cricket team. They collapsed yesterday against the visiting South Africans before noon on the fourth day (after the second was rained out) — the latest misfortune for host network Nine.

Nine director and former CEO David Gyngell.

More popular was Nine director David Gyngell (the company’s former CEO) who scored the highest “yes” vote of the directors up for re-election.

“I think I can satisfy most of you that I haven’t got too many commitments,” Gyngell said, adding that between drinking cold beer at his Brunswick Heads pub and picking up his kids from swimming lessons, he watches more television “than probably all of you combined in this room”.

Gyngell invited those few shareholders who didn’t vote for his re-election to let him know their reasoning.

“We’ll have a chat afterwards,” said Gyngell.

“OK. Well perhaps you could take them outside,” said Costello, nodding to Gyngell’s Bondi biffo with James Packer in 2014.

Over the last 12 months, Gyngell’s most bruising experience has been with the Nine share price.

Since Hugh Marks took over the company last November, Nine stock is down more than 40 per cent.

That’s seen Gyngell’s pile of 4.878 million Nine shares depreciate from $8 million to about $4.6m.

Not that he was ratting on his successor. “The share losses could be attributed to some decisions that I would have made,” Gyngell said.

Playing housie

Scott Tanner, the boss of Bank of Melbourne (an arm of Brian Hartzer’s Westpac) failed to flog his luxury three-bedroom apartment in South Yarra on the weekend, which we can only put down to concerns over the calibre of the neighbours.

Bank of Melbourne boss Scott Tanner. Picture: Peter Ristevski.

Tanner bought the Domain Road abode for $2.7m at the end of 2009, and for the past short while he has rented it out for about $2000 a week.

The home in the exclusive block of seven known as Melbourne’s “Tower of Power” (every city has one) has now been listed for private sale with a price tag of $3.495m. That should help pay the outstanding mortgage over the property to Tanner’s employer Westpac.

Other owners in the distinctive building include outgoing BHP Billiton chair Jacques Nasser and former ANZ boss and enduring consultant Mike Smith, having been unable to sell his mansion on Toorak’s Hopetoun Road for $15m. Smith bought the “Tower of Power” apartment from former Olympic supremo Kevan Gosper.

Sale of Smith’s Toorak home, which comes with a pool and tennis court, fell through after a Chinese buyer was knocked back by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Smith has said that turned out to be a “fortuitous” as renovations to Gosper’s old apartment took “far longer than expected”.

Gotta love that optimism.

Court of appeals

Bargaining is under way at the Federal Court towards a new enterprise agreement and already the head of HR Darrin Moy has flagged that a “tight financial position” is going to make a pay rise nigh on impossible.

In a letter to staff Moy has foreshadowed a difficult process ahead and highlighted the need for productivity improvements.

He’s even offered a tutorial on what “productivity” means and provided examples of where it can be seen across the economy.

“Years ago a top of the range laptop cost about $5000 and by today’s standards it would be an absolute brick,” Moy wrote.

“Current laptops run rings around what was possible years ago and now cost about $2000.

“Airfares are a similar story.

“Fifteen years ago a flight from Sydney to Melbourne cost around $400. Then you stood in a queue to check in, brought a magazine for entertainment and knew you would be out of contact for the entire flight. Now the average airfare is $160.”

And the director of people, culture and communications goes on and on.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce. Picture: Ryan Osland/The Australian.

Funny, Qantas boss Alan Joyce has a strikingly similar take, outlined in the October edition of the airline’s QNews.

“Years ago, I bought a top of the line laptop that cost me about $5000,” Joyce writes, “by today’s standards it would be an absolute brick. My current laptop runs rings around it and cost about $2000.

“Airfares in Australia have been on a similar trajectory.

“Fifteen years ago a flight from Sydney to Melbourne cost around $400. Back then you stood in a queue to check-in, brought a good book for entertainment and knew you’d be out of contact for the entire flight.”

See what Moy did swapping “book” for “magazine”? Genius.

Joyce — who is also a board member of the Business Council of Australia — made his name in corporate Australia by taking on his heavily unionised workforce.

And to go by the Federal Court’s enterprise negotiations, the Joyce industrial relations revolution continues — with, or without, his knowledge.