Even squillionaires need friends.
And Melbourne packaging billionaire Raphael Geminder knew just who to call for help with the future of his listed but consistently underperforming Pact Group empire this week.
Stepping up was low-key Sydney eastern suburbs businessman and investor lan Wolman along with his wife Janine, who have already played an instrumental role in the now unfolding pitch to privatise Pact Group.
The Wolmans, who live harbourside on Point Piper’s Wolseley Road in a mansion Wolman a couple years ago talked about selling for his dream price of $100m, have been part of Geminder’s stock exchange journey with Pact from the start.
A decade ago, as part of the Pact float, Geminder bought Wolman’s Cinqplast Plastop Australia packaging business in exchange for shares in the new listed company.
On Tuesday, it was the Wolmans who sold Geminder the shares required to tip Geminder’s private Kin Group beyond 50 per cent ownership of Pact, as the launch pad from which the businessman announced his $234m takeover bid to take Pact private on Wednesday.
Geminder – married to FionaGeminder – the daughter of late packaging billionaire Richard Pratt, established Pact after buying some assets from his father-in-law’s company Visy, which is now run by Geminder’s brother-in-law Anthony Pratt.
The Wolmans sold Geminder 850,000 Pact shares from their self-managed Spider Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd at the offer price of 68c in an off-market trade that cost Geminder less than $600,000. Bear in mind, Pact floated at $3.80 a share in 2013. Ouch.
Wolman now runs his financial interests out of his S&J Capital. Along with his soon-to-be cashed out remaining stake in Pact he has investments in hospitality and real estate.
Wolman is also a part owner and a director of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
His twenty-something daughter Jodine is backed by her dad in online shopping platform Sortd.
Geminder’s offer price for Pact values his stake at $117m.
He only needs to find that again to bring a full privatisation to fruition.
Financial adviser to the deal Macquarie, we are sure, will be able to come to the party with that.
Nothing to sneeze at
Mike Sneesby looks to be relaxing into and feeling pretty comfortable in his slot as CEO of media company Nine Entertainment.
He’s just forked out $10.45m to settle on his and wife Ursula’s new luxury eastern suburbs mansion, with the family all moved in and enjoying the delights that adjacent Centennial Park has to offer.
Now into his third year as boss of Nine, Sneesby is making more than $3m a year – we will know the exact amount of his pay when the Peter Costello-chaired $3.3bn media giant issues its 2023 annual report in a few weeks time.
Sneesby has bought what was billed as his new resort-style home literally just a few doors up the road from Commonwealth Bank chief Matt Comyn and his wife Lucy-Ellen, whose renovation we have told you about previously. The Sneesbys bought their home with the assistance of a mortgage to Comyn’s shop. Very neighbourly.
The Sneesby’s new Randwick home, which they bought at the end of June from Anytime Fitness franchisee Troy Dimich, is a major expansion from the Darlinghurst apartment the couple have lived in for several years.
At Randwick it’s all about the Palm Springs vibe behind the home’s traditional Federal facade, with five bedrooms, a pool, cabana and obligatory fire pit. A slice of California in Sydney’s east.
The Sneesbys also have a much smaller investment property in Elizabeth Bay that they rent out for $600-a-week.
Set to come in handy as Sneesby seeks to pay for his new abode are the 117,791 new Nine Entertainment shares he was handed by Costello a couple of weeks ago under the company’s short-term incentive plan.
The Sneesbys now have almost 765,000 fully paid Nine shares that are worth $1.55m, plus the media exec has another 1.5 million performance rights yet to vest. All the boss needs from here is for profit at the group to return to growth.
Gone but not forgotten
To be sure, new Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson can do with all the help she can get.
The hospital pass she’s copped from predecessor Alan Joyce means the 30-year veteran of the national carrier is bracing on all sides for impact.
To assist, she’s roped in cloaked crisis manager Andrew Butcher of Bespoke Approach – a veteran of News Corp and former personal spokesman for Rupert Murdoch and his family.
Butcher’s been brought in to bolster the airline’s corporate affairs boss Andrew McGinnes and his team amid what has evolved into a genuine reputational crisis for the $10bn airline.
Whether Butcher, however, can save chair Richard Goyder at this late stage may take some kind of miracle.
Butcher was on deck helping PwC until earlier this year until he pulled the plug amid the firm’s unfolding tax scandal. He withdrew from the situation after more than a decade’s relationship with the firm as it became apparent views were diverging on how to best handle the crisis.
His Qantas gig will be tricky too, with management at the carrier historically finding outside advice culturally confronting.
Toorak toffs
Semi-retirement can be an expensive pursuit, with Melbourne billionaire Michael Heine having taken almost $100m off the table from his stake in Netwealth in the past month.
Latest is a $50.5m off-market share sale by his Heine Brothers vehicle, which is also a quarter each owned by his sons Nicholas and Matthew, with the latter now sole boss of the company his Dad founded.
The septuagenarian remains an executive director of the listed financial services group after stepping down as MD almost a year ago.
Maybe some of the liquidated funds are to go towards the ongoing renovation that Heine and his wife Kylie have been undertaking on their $22m Toorak mansion on prestigious Clendon Road.
It’s the sort of street where folks want to keep up with the Joneses. The Heines are directly opposite the Myer family estate, Cranlana House, and just up the road from Paul Little and Jane Hansen.
The original estimate for the project back in 2021 was $2m, but there have been myriad amendments to plans since so a blowout seems likely.
Medical skirmish gets pulses racing
Most lawyers will tell you their work doesn’t save lives, but a case starting on Monday could prove the exception.
‘The scapegoating of business has to stop’: literal alarm at corporate Oscars
Seats were in short supply at business’s equivalent of the Oscars, but the speeches didn’t miss and at least one big name couldn’t wait to hot-foot it out of there before the dessert plates were even cleared.