Millionaire sportsman, media star and businessman Shane Warne has left behind an in-train, multimillion-dollar property development in fashionable Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula.
Amid the fortune that the former Aussie spin bowler had amassed from his sporting and media career, Warne only 18 months ago paid $3.6m for an undeveloped block of almost 2000sq m of prime Portsea real estate.
The larger-than-life spin bowler hadn’t needed the assistance of a mortgage to finalise the land deal, on which he had plans to build a mega mansion at an estimated cost of $5m.
In typical Portsea style, Warne had bought the land in August 2020 via a neighbours’ subdivision to sell off their clay tennis court and accompanying pavilion.
Just five months ago Warne, who had owned several mansions in bayside Brighton, had received the next phase of planning approval to build his dream home.
Plans for the home are believed to have featured a bowling alley, a wine cellar, jet ski storage, a gym, games room and home theatre.
The contemporary Portsea home was to feature a guest wing and was to all have been built around an in-ground swimming pool.
Last Friday’s death of the sporting great, however, now means the future of the dream residential development is in limbo.
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Staying afloat
The Chinese-owned, consistently loss-making Port of Darwin is continuing to trade as a “going concern” only thanks to a fresh letter of financial support from its Chinese government-backed owner, the Shandong Landbridge Group.
Documents filed with the Australian corporate regulator and seen by Margin Call reveal that the critical north Australian infrastructure, which is owned by a local subsidiary to the Chinese parent, Landbridge Infrastructure Australia, lost $55.6m in the 2021 financial year.
Landbridge bought the port from the NT government via a 99-year lease six years ago for $506m and since then has failed to turn a profit.
Cumulative losses for the group now total about $205m, with Shandong being forced to sign a “letter of support” indicating that it will provide sufficient financial assistance to the port operator at least for the 2022 financial year.
Without this letter of comfort, the company’s auditor, PwC, would have been unlikely to sign off on the Landbridge accounts prepared on a going concern basis.
Chinese parent Shandong is controlled by Chinese billionaire Ye Cheng, who has strong links to the Chinese Communist Party.
The businessman is also a director of the group’s Australian subsidiary company.
Ye, 61, is estimated by Forbes to be worth $US1.6bn ($2.18bn). His Shandong Landbridge Group, which is headquartered in the city of Rizhao in Shandong Province, is active in petrochemicals, logistics, trade and, of course, ports.
Since balance date a new local chief executive to the Landbridge Australian operations, Matthew Wallach, has been appointed. Wallach’s arrival follows the departure of Michael Hughes, who had been with the group since 2014.
In the year, the port company moved to write off the value of its massive debt by $38.4m.
Its non-current borrowings at balance date were $666m.
Revenue in the year was virtually steady at $53.8m, up from $51.9m.
“Whilst port facilities and operations have not been interrupted by Covid-19 throughout the financial year, trade volumes and vessel traffic through the port has been impacted,” the local accounts reveal.
The port supports the import and export of bulk dry goods, raw minerals, petroleum, livestock, vehicles, containers and general cargo. It is also the main terminal for cruise ships that dock at Darwin and supports the defence industry by providing berthage for the Australian Navy.
Awarding the lease to the Chinese has been controversial. However, a recent Defence Department review found there were no national security grounds sufficient to recommend a government intervention to overturn the lease.
The accounts reveal that without the financial support of its Chinese parent, any decline in Landbridge’s cashflow could be dire for the local company.
“In the unlikely event that the group experiences an unexpected shortfall in cashflows, the group has received a letter of support from Shandong Landbridge Group Co Limited, the parent company, that it will provide sufficient financial assistance to the group as and when it is needed to enable the group to continue its operations and fulfil all of its financial obligations,” the accounts state.
Nothing like having friends in high places.
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Dream on hold
Maybe institutional broker Campbell Taylor should think about sticking to his knitting and drop his ambitions to moonlight as a residential property developer in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
After a more than two-year process that began with signing application forms in December 2019, Taylor, who runs the Sydney institutional sales desk and is a director at financial services shop Taylor Collison, has had plans for his dream home in Vaucluse knocked back by Woollahra Council.
Along with his fashion creative partner Sarah Curtis, Taylor had been seeking permission to spend $3.5m to build a new home for the pair’s family on Olphert Ave, not far from Parsley Bay.
Curtis runs her own eponymously named retail and wholesale hat business, Sarah J Curtis.
The couple originally bought the site in 2017 for $4.5m with the help of a mortgage from ANZ. They had planned to knock down the old place that was already there in favour of a new build to accommodate their family.
But on Monday night the council rejected the couple’s repeatedly modified architecturally designed plans, following several objections to the development.
Back to the drawing board.
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