Packers to sell off Ellerston horses

2015-10-09 James Packer singing boat pony 9mgFIN.jpg Peter Nicholson Nicholson's View cartoon

James Packer’s dismantling of his late dad’s polo legacy will continue on Saturday at the family’s multi-million-dollar Hunter Valley facility, Ellerston, with the auction of the tail-end of the billionaire’s pony stock.

It is believed that polo identities from around the world have already picked over the extensive stable of Packer horses in recent months, so that this weekend’s sale of 115 horses and 23 embryos is the last of an estimated 500 horses offloaded.

Packer’s mother Ros had recently stepped in to preserve at least some of Kerry Packer’s passion after James earlier this year sold half of Ellerston to the listed Crown Resorts (which he half owns) for $60 million.

Mrs Packer, her daughter and Packer family foundation chair Gretel, and Gretel’s newly-single 20-year-old daughter Francesca will be at the auction, but it seems unlikely James will show.

James, who played polo when he was younger, has this year stepped aside from the chair of Crown, opting instead for a roving $10 million-a-year executive role that suits his international lifestyle with pop diva partner Mariah Carey.

Landmark Equine will run the pony run-out from 11am at the property, which Crown is to use as an exclusive resort for high rollers from Packer’s under-construction Sydney casino.

Pony buyers must pay cash when the hammer falls and lead the horseflesh away pronto.

The auction action coincides with the tail-end of a week-long polo tournament at the Ellerston fields next to Kerry’s grave, with local teams duking it out for the Archibald Cudmore and Ellerston Spring trophies.

Ellerston is a considerable financial drain on the Packer empire, having made a $21.1m loss in FY14, well up on a $2m loss previously.

Its balance sheet has livestock at a net market value of $5.8m.

Pratt sprat grows up

Paula Pratt, the youngest daughter of late cardboard box king Richard Pratt, has come of age, celebrating her eighteenth birthday with a black and white party in Sydney to end a year that saw the schoolgirl settle her claim to a bigger slice of her billionaire father’s fortune.

The backyard bash saw French champagne and vodka flow for the young private school crowd, who sucked on Middle Eastern hookahs as they were entertained by a DJ, sustained by takeaway pizza and watched by low-key security.

But it does not appear that her mother Shari-Lea Hitchcock, Richard Pratt’s long-time lover, was at the party.

Paula’s father died in 2009 aged 74, leaving his wife Jeanne in Melbourne as executor.

Soon after, Hitchcock sued the estate, claiming she and Paula had not been adequately provided for in the will.

The stoush settled for a secret amount this year, with Paula ditching her Hitchcock surname in favour of Pratt.

Malaysian malaise

Incoming ANZ boss Shayne Elliott is in Honkers tweeting up a typhoon as he meets and greets smiling staffers. But don’t expect happy snaps if he gets to Kuala Lumpur, where ANZ owns a quarter of Malaysia’s AmBank.

It’s been caught up in a scandal with PM Najib Razak, sovereign fund 1MDB and some unexplained payments into Razak’s AmBank account.

One solution for Elliott could be to sell ANZ’s stake, possibly to Bank of China.

Meantime, ANZ is keeping a close eye with three reps on the board: Elliott (audit committee), Aussie boss Mark Whelan (risk management committee), and HR guru Suzette Corr (rem committee).

Add three ANZ execs on secondment, including CFO Mandy Simpson and chief risk officer Nigel Denby.

Over at Macquarie, Nick Moore has become unusually generous to his rivals.

Macquarie could handle a $400m capital raising like the one announced yesterday solo, but this time the fee love is shared with JPMorgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which provide lines of credit to help Moore fund the $8.2bn Esanda buy.

They call them Bruce

AWE has joined the growing list of Aussie energy companies seeking a new boss, like Santos and Beach (but not yet Origin). It may be constrained though, given its policy since 1997 of only appointing MDs and chairmen named ‘‘Bruce’’. Bruce Clement (who replaced Bruce Wood in 2010) will step down next year, chairman Bruce Phillips (who replaced Bruce McKay in 2010) said today. AWE founder Bruce Phillips (same one) was MD before Bruce Wood. It’s all very Monty Python University of Woolloomooloo.

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