Packer still waits for payday

Cartoon: Peter Nicholson

The Rob Rankin-chaired Crown Resorts board meets today and we hear the gathering may finally agree on a new remuneration package for James Packer and his band of Consolidated Press Holdings executives.

Crown’s independent remuneration committee — Geoff Dixon, Harold Mitchell and John Horvath — has been considering Packer’s request, first made in August last year, to break with family convention and draw a salary from the listed casino company.

But there is now a suggestion that Crown may stick with the status quo and not grant Packer — who was recently valued at $5 billion and is no longer on the board — a salary. It had been mooted that the casino group was going to pay Packer $10 million a year.

A change of heart may have something to do with grumblings among fund managers.

Remember fundie Marcus Fanning dumped Colonial First State’s Crown shareholding a couple of months back citing governance issues.

Colonial First State criticised the $US100m purchase by Crown of 20 per cent of the Nobu restaurant chain (which is backed by Packer’s buddy Robert De Niro) and the purchase of 50 per cent of Packer’s Ellerston farm for $60m.

Colonial First State said both deals “raised concerns about the governance, risk appetite and independence of the board”.

Still, it seems a certainty Crown will agree to handsomely pay Packer’s executives at CPH, namely CEO Rankin — who, to tangle things, is also Crown chairman — and finance man Mike Johnston.

While Rankin is based in Hong Kong, CPH’s Aussie execs are now ensconced in the premium ANZ Centre on Pitt Street, Sydney after the Packer family recently ended its 40-plus year association with number 54 Park Street.

ASX says no

It’s not only James Packer who is having grief in the gaming business.

Rick Holliday-Smith’s ASX has recently thwarted attempts to reinvent two listed shell companies as gambling businesses.

Martin Dalgleish had planned to repackage Celsius Coal as Favourit and was trying to raise $7m. But the ASX said no. So Dalgleish, a former Packer family lieutenant, now has to refund all the applications.

Tony Sage in Perth last year.

It’s also been hard cheese for Fe, an outfit chaired by colourful Perth entrepreneur Tony Sage. Sage had cooked up a plan for Fe to pick up a gaming licence from Norfolk Island — the upstart Pacific Island that has fallen out with the Turnbull government.

But Holliday-Smith’s ASX said it could not be satisfied that Fe would be legal in the jurisdictions in which it planned to do business.

Behind closed doors

Malcolm Turnbull raised more than $100,000 for the Liberal Party on his tour of Perth yesterday. The PM also did his bit to shore up four West Australian seats that are teetering towards Labor.

PM Malcolm Turnbull at the $10,000-a-head lunch at John Schaffer’s Claremont home. Picture:Colin Murty/The Australian.

Turnbull starred at a $10,000-a-head lunch with 11 Perth business leaders, including Chevron’s new Australia managing director Nigel Hearne, former Howard government minister Ian Campbell, Midland Brick heiress Marylyn New and Hall & Prior aged-care boss Graeme Prior.

The lunch was held at Perth businessman John Schaffer’s home in the wealthy suburb of Claremont. It was organised by Schaffer’s sister Danielle Blain, a former WA Liberal state president.

Asked on his arrival, Prior said he was not concerned about the cost of the lunch because the election campaign was “very important”.

Federal Liberals director Tony Nutt couldn’t have scripted the answer better himself.

Meanwhile Lucy Turnbull and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop hosted their own $2000-a-head fundraising lunch at the city’s Hyatt Hotel.

WA will be one to watch on July 2. The Liberal Party is facing losses in the key seats of Cowan, Burt, Swan and Hasluck, with Newspoll predicting a swing against the party of about 7 per cent in the former Coalition stronghold. Bloody Colin Barnett ...

Estia sits pat

Just so everyone is clear — no, Paul Gregersen’s embattled aged-care provider Estia is not beginning refinancing talks this week.

That’s despite what you might have read from Deutsche Bank.

Yesterday morning Deutsche’s daily market wrap broke the news that EHE (Estia’s ASX ticker) was “to begin refinancing talks this week”.

What a scoop! Only they aren’t. Earthmoving equipment maker Emeco (with the ticker EHL) is the one with the refinancing talks.

Was it an attempt to cause heartburn for Matthew Grounds’ rival investment bank UBS, which floated Estia in late 2014? More likely it was a cock-up.

Anyhow, Emeco closed the day up 6.5 per cent, while Estia fell 4.5 per cent.

Rev heads

Don’t be fooled by the slick party videos produced by employees in the real estate services business: the real glamour industry in Australia is aged care.

Maserati owner Areti Arvanitis, the wife of Estia Health founder Peter Arvanitis, with her pride and joy.

Just have a look at Areti Arvanitis, the blonde half of the self-made entrepreneur couple behind the UBS-backed Estia Health. The brunette half is her partner, Peter Arvanitis, Estia’s founder, former CEO and now director.

You may have read in publications by investment management firm VGI and elsewhere that Peter gets around in a red Lamborghini (the pictured red Aventador LP7000-4 Roadster with a “V ESTIA” number plate).

Areti is also a fan of luxury sports cars.

Here she is with the black Maserati GranCabrio MC she bought as a birthday present to herself.

“Our cars are a reward for what we have worked to achieve,” she told The Weekly Review back in 2014.

Yes, we’re a bit jealous of the car. And how about those tight black leather pants? You could almost wear them to a Colliers staff party.

Areti Arvanitis in her husband Peter’s red Lamborghini.

Off the page

Shayne Elliott’s ANZ got a bit of its own back yesterday in its Victorian Supreme Court battle against Pankaj and his“wifey” Radhika Oswal.

Pankaj and Radhika Oswal leaving court in Melbourne last week. Picture: AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy.

The bank claimed that millions had flowed from the couple’s Burrup Holdings business into their private interests, including the construction of their Four’N Twenty pie-laced Perth mansion, “Taj on the Swan”, Radhika’s chain of vego restaurants and their children’s school fees.

While the court may have moved on, we aren’t ready to leave behind ANZ’s streetfighting former head of risk Chris Page, who gained infamy for his racially charged and sexist emails that have been central to the Oswals’ case.

Not long after Page penned his series of emails concerning the Oswals to various executive colleagues, including then chief Mike Smith, he was awarded a gong in the The Asian Bankers leadership and achievement awards for “outstanding achievement for risk management”. It’s not clear to us if Page’s celebrated chokehold helped win the thing.

Speaking of banking awards that jar a touch with media reports, we are late in recognising Ian Narev’s Commonwealth Bank, which, despite the recent scandal surrounding its life insurance business, has been named insurer of the year by Money Magazine. Go figure.