Retail billionaire Brett Blundy lists superyacht after investment windfalls

Could it be the 61.5m yacht is already too small for Blundy?

Could it be that Monaco-based retail billionaire Brett Blundy is on the market for a bigger boat?

Either that or just cleaning house perhaps. Whatever it is, the retail powerhouse is soon to have near on $500m burning a hole in his pocket after a series of well-timed exits in recent months.

Add to that the prospective sale of his mega Northern Territory cattle station holdings, which at over 1.32 million hectares is on the market with a price guide around $230m.

Sure does make the $170,000 in directors fees his BBRC collected at Lovisa and Accent over the past year seem insignificant.

Cartoon by Rod Clement

While retailers across the country grapple with the reopening of locked-down economies, Blundy has been riding the wave of the e-commerce boom – each of his five currently listed investments clocking significant share uplift over the past year and boosting his on-paper wealth.

That’s not including his recently exited stake in youth fashion retailer Universal Store – for which he reaped $84m in proceeds last month in a sale brokered just as his major stake came out of escrow.

Not a bad return for just nine months on the market, especially considering he already took out $46m in the IPO.

That was followed by his $91m sale of Aventus shares, too, but it was his major stake in the Eloise Monaghan-led Honey Birdette that has been the most lucrative after the group’s sale to Playboy settled in early August.

Blundy’s 62 per cent stake in the group reaped a rough $275m return in cash and PLBY shares.

If the lingerie retailer can exceed its revenue targets in the current financial year, there’s potential for a further bonus in PLBY shares as well, though the recently settled FY20 accounts made for a true-up of only $US100,000 ($139,000).

Blundy’s Walhallow Station is currently on the market. Picture: Supplied

... Along with his luxury super yacht Cloud 9.

All these retail moves are of course orchestrated from his home base in Monaco, where his four-storey “ultimate palace” penthouse just so happens to overlook the city’s prestigious Port Hercules, host to none other than the Monaco Yacht Show over the past week.

Margin Call told you previously of James Packer’s prized superyacht IJE joining the show as the most expensive boat on display at an eye-watering $280m.

Turns out Blundy was showing his own vessel, a somewhat more modest Cloud 9, with its own beach club, helipad and glass-bottomed infinity swimming pool.

The billionaire is said to have only taken delivery of the superyacht in April, making the purchase from former oil exec Ayman Asfari and promptly renaming it in the fashion of his former yacht, also known as Cloud 9.

But could it be that at 61.5m, about 13.5m shy of his previous, Blundy is already looking to upgrade?

The Sanlorenzo-built vessel is on the market for about $95m and was recently shown as part of the luxury yacht show alongside the likes of Packer’s IJE or the 85m Victorious yacht owned by New Zealand’s richest man, Graeme Hart.

Plenty of upgrade potential there.

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Holding up well

While Brett Blundy sells out, it seems holding on has been a wise move for Universal Group chief Alice Barbery.

The Brisbane-based exec has maintained links with the casual apparel retailer since her first full-time role with the group, then led by founders Greg and Michael Josephson, in 2009, helping to amass holdings of more than $16m in shares.

Universal Store chief Alice Barbery.

According to the group’s just-lodged annual report, that makes her the largest individual shareholder, with the founding Josephson brothers already well and truly sold out.

It is a stake largely accrued without too much of her own funds, with the group acknowledging a limited recourse loan of $900,000 remains outstanding at the end of the financial year.

Only last week the retail chief, also a recently appointed board member of the National Retailers Association, sold $500,000 worth of shares on the market as means to “modestly rebalance her portfolio”.

A far larger portion remains held up in escrow until the release of next year’s results.

Whether she makes like Blundy and cashes in at the first opportunity, guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Well-heeled Bunnies

It may be the working-class club, championed by Opposition LeaderAnthony Albanese, but there’s no doubting there’s plenty of wealth in the orbit of NRL championship contenders the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Backed by Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe and Crown Resorts’ James Packer in equal stakes of 37.5 per cent, the duo each have their own representatives on the board.

South Sydney Rabbitohs chairman Nick Pappas with Labor leader Anthony Albanese and state member for Maroubra Michael Daley.

In Crowe’s corner, his friend and business associate Keith Rodger, who some may recall was also alongside his mate at the unveiling of the $400m plan for a new film studio in Coffs Harbour, better known as Bananawood.

Rodger’s wife Blainey North also happens to be the interior designer tasked with kitting out Packer’s soon to be settled new apartment at Crown Barangaroo, as well as key parts of the rest of the Sydney casino such as its spa and “vitality pools” – connections perhaps forged over the beloved bunnies, we’ll never know.

Rusty’s mate and so-called “accountant to the stars” Anthony Bell gets a look in as well.

Meanwhile, in Packer’s crew, his former CPH finance boss Stephen Bennett, now of MA Financial, as well as Samuel McKay, once head of consumer for the billionaire who has since gone on to launch his own private equity outfit, Point King Capital, though he maintains links to Melbourne’s wealthy Myer family.

The club is chaired by Nicholas Pappas, a lawyer and also chairman of Bank of Sydney.

With the addition of a few other directors the likes of John Borglund, Luke Curry and Nikolas Hatzistergos, the board sure makes for a motley crew, with combined net wealth well exceeding the median.

If, like in Albo’s case, there was a requirement to live within the club’s bounds, however, the majority of the appointed representatives would be deemed ineligible.

At Margin Call’s count, just one of the 10 directors, including alternates, live within South Sydney Rabbitohs’ country, with a lion’s share perhaps better placed to barrack for the Chooks.