Pop star’s court stoush with mum; Virgin buyer impatient for return on investment

Vanessa Amorosi’s spat with her mother over money has found its way to court. Picture: Tim Pascoe

When business is a family affair, it can easily go pear shaped.

That seems to be the case for early noughties Australian pop sensation Vanessa Amorosi, whose lawyer Philip Solomon KC on Tuesday told the Victorian Supreme Court a public stoush over money and property with her mother – Joyleen Robinson – was “a matter of regret and disappointment”.

“It is always vexing for a family dispute to play out in court,” he said.

Solomon told the court Robinson had engaged “advisers” to set up protection structures to ensure the Absolutely Everybody singer would be secure in retirement following her successful career.

“Vanessa’s career was at a high in 2000 where she sang at the Olympics and at the years after where she released some highly successful singles,” he said.

“If different structures had been set out or if those who ought to have been protecting her had done so honestly, there wouldn’t have been a controversy 22 years later.”

Joyleen Robinson outside court. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Vanessa Amorosi, left, arrives for a hearing. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

After Robinson failed in her bid to have the case scrapped, the case is scrutinising ownership structures of two properties. One is a semirural property located on the outskirts of suburban Melbourne with 8ha of land. Amorosi is seeking 100 per cent ownership, or more than 50 per cent.

A company called Vanjoy was set up and purchased the property, while it also took in Amorosi’s income, sitting at $1.3m in 2001.

Another property – which is Amorosi’s home – is located in California, and is held by a trust called Lama Investment.

Amorosi was in court on Tuesday, seated in the same row – but not next to – her mother.

The court heard things started to go off the rails in or about 2015, when “the relevant tension that has culminated in the litigation” started.

Fans will have to tune in again on Thursday, when the singer is set to give evidence, for more details about that tension.

Bain impatient

When private equity wants its money back, there’s little that stands in its way – whether cash is there for the taking or not.

Bain Capital and its consortium partners paid $3.5bn to buy Virgin Australia out of voluntary administration in 2020, $730m of which went in as equity.

Most of that – 93 per cent – came from Bain, which has about $US180bn ($280.5bn) in assets under management around the world.

So it was a surprise to learn that the private equity giant, which wants to float the airline as soon as the market will have it, had Virgin Australia take out a $300m loan to help fund the $730m capital return to shareholders just ahead of the end of the 2023 financial year.

Virgin Australia chief Jayne Hrdlicka. Picture: Martin Ollman

Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka unveiled Virgin’s first profit in 11 years on Tuesday, a bottom line of $129.1m from $5.01bn in revenue thanks to a post-pandemic strong return to domestic travel and cost control.

Buried deep in Virgin’s 77-page accounts filed to the companies regulator on Tuesday are details of the secured loan, which matures in 2025, but which the airline says it will repay to lenders from the proceeds of a float. Bain, it seems, just wasn’t prepared to wait to get its money back.

The loan increased the airline’s interest-bearing liabilities by 13 per cent and lifted finance costs in the year by 50 per cent. The new loan helped Virgin towards a net asset deficiency of $1.3bn by the end of the year.

In private equity, patience is no virtue.

Not so level on points

Here’s a hole in the Qantas loyalty program that freshly nominated candidate to join the Myer board Olivia Wirth might want to plug.

It’s been brought to Margin Call’s attention that it’s not quite a level playing field when it comes to Qantas’s frequent-flyer program and dealings with Australia’s two department store retailers, Myer and David Jones.

Loyal Qantas customers cannot, as things now stand, hand over frequent-flyer points in exchange for gift cards to shop at Myer, which is now more than one quarter-owned by retail billionaire Solly Lew.

Traffic does run the other way though, with Qantas FF members able to earn points if they shop online at Myer via Qantas Shopping.

That’s different to the relationship Qantas has with DJs, now owned by private equity group Anchorage, where Wirth’s frequent flyers can buy DJs gift cards with points, as well as earn points via shopping.

Surely an easy fix to level the playing field as an executive of the airline and board member (elect) of Myer?

Dialling in at Optus

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin’s latest executive recruit at Optus, Danielle Keighery, is seeing out at least some of her time before she leaves Crown Resorts swanning about in the south of France with her family.

Keighery, who is used to dealing with crises for breakfast, will join the telco as managing director of brand, marketing and corporate affairs. Her recruitment follows on from the disastrous data hack suffered by the No.2 telco last year that exposed director of corporate affairs Sally Oelerich as being ill-equipped to deal with calamity as it unfolds.

Keighery had, we hear, been tossing up between another major job offer in recent months after two years at the Blackstone-owned Crown, which on Tuesday revealed the blueprint for a renovation of its Melbourne property.