Rio Tinto cops a Grylling on job cut plan

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Back in September, Rio Tinto iron ore boss Chris Salisbury took the extraordinary step of urging his entire workforce to flood the inbox of WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls with emails complaining about his proposed mining tax.

That’s the one that would raise $3 billion a year (at current production levels) from Rio and Andrew Mackenzie’s BHP ­Billiton through a proposed $5-a-tonne tax on iron ore.

WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls.

Salisbury even told employees that Rio would make time during work hours for them to write to Grylls, using tablets and computers that would be made available in crib rooms.

Grylls said at the time the campaign against him was getting out of hand.

“I have received threatening emails and expect to get many more,” he said.

But every cloud has a silver lining and every cunning plan by a Rio executive at the moment seems to blow up in their faces. Grylls says he is now receiving plenty of juicy insider tips from disgruntled Rio employees who — thanks to Salisbury, bless the man — have his contact details handy.

“Rio Tinto, having given every one of their employees my email address, would be very, very concerned with what their employees are telling me about the internal workings of their business,” he said yesterday, as he questioned why Rio was slashing 500 jobs in WA after a period in which its profits were boosted by a higher iron ore price.

Remember the WA Nats leader’s brother Nathan Grylls works for Jean-Sebastien Jacques’ Rio at its Channar iron ore mine in the Pilbara as a “production operator”, handling ­machinery.

Hope team Rio haven’t forgotten about him.

It would be wise to keep him out of the “Marked 500”.

A bob each way

Boral’s union-busting American CEO Mike Kane didn’t want to tell us how he voted in the presidential election on November 8.

Boral boss Mike Kane.

Fair enough.

Although, in defence of our line of questioning yesterday, he hasn’t always been shy on the subject.

Back in March when Kane was asked about what a Donald Trump presidency would mean for Boral, he told CNBC: “I’m a lifelong Republican — over 30 years voting Republican. And … ah … ah. I’m still not sure what his policies are.”

It seems the haze has cleared.

Yesterday Boral revealed a $3.5 billion purchase of US-based construction group Headwaters. Kane apparently now has a sense of Trump’s America and — for Boral, at least — the outlook is tremendous. Amazing. Big league.

For what it’s worth, back in June, when Kane was honoured at the American Australian Association and US Studies Centre’s 10th anniversary benefit dinner, some of the black-tie attendees got the impression Kane was, for this strange campaign, a Hillary Clinton guy.

That may have been wishful thinking. Or it’s possible Kane is one of those Trump supporters who worried about admitting as much in polite company.

After all, former PM John Howard (who had declared: “I tremble at the thought of Trump being president”) was Kane’s fellow honoree at the Westin that night.

Much clearer was Kane’s position on the Democratic candidate, as he made clear in that March CNBC interview after revealing his Trump confusion.

“I do understand what Hillary Clinton’s policies are and they’re clearly frightening to me as a business person,” Kane said.

It’s OK, Mr Kane. The terror has passed.

Little gets bigger

Former Essendon chairman Paul Little continues to cruise away from the chaos he left at that drug-addled AFL club and is climbing steadily up the Rich List, to certified billionaire status.

Former Essendon chairman Paul Little. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian.

Good news from Dan Andrews’ Victorian government yesterday continues that sunny trajectory.

Little’s ferry service — which runs from Portarlington near Geelong to Melbourne’s Docklands — has been guaranteed by Andrews (with the generous support of Victorian taxpayers) for at least three years.

That’s great news for the 68-year-old Little, as he tries to turn the ferry service into a tidy little earner. His Port Phillip Ferries business — now operating with some form of safety net — is investigating other routes from the eastern side of the bay into Melbourne.

Also in his portfolio is a lucrative real estate business and his VIP terminal at Melbourne Airport. Luxury air travel is a subject the Gulfstream 650 owner is across.

All up, the Little fortune was last valued at $870 million. Most of that comes from proceeds from Toll Holdings, the global logistics giant he founded and which was sold to Japan Post last year for $6bn.

It’s proof that failure — of however high profile — needn’t define a person.

Good news for the 34 current and former Essendon team players who were suspended after the inglorious doping debacle.

SurfStitch battle

It would not have escaped the attention of close watchers of embattled online retailer SurfStitch that Shannon Finch from King & Wood Mallesons was among the crowd attending last week’s annual general meeting in Sydney.

John Ho at the Hearts and Minds Conference in Sydney. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian.

SurfStitch switched to Mallesons earlier this year after being previously advised by Herbert Smith Freehills.

And given the penchant of Mallesons to play hard ball, there is a view that SurfStitch may look to turn up the legal heat on spurned suitor Crown Financial, which sent an open letter to the SurfStitch board, shareholders and media ahead of last week’s meeting.

Crown — which has 10 per cent of SurfStitch and made a low-ball 20c-a-share takeover offer earlier this month — demanded more detail about the retailer’s financial position, inventory levels, brand rationalisation program, asset writedowns and risk management.

The board managed to see off Crown at the AGM.

And there could yet be another round to come in the battle. Certainly SurfStitch shareholder, Hong Kong-based fund manager John Ho, who was in Australia 10 days ago for the Sohn Hearts & Minds conference, will be looking on with interest.

Ho, who once made a fivefold return on investment on Chinese internet retail giant Alibaba, has previously claimed SurfStitch had similar potential. For now, he is still waiting.

CBRE exodus

If you’re selling buildings for a living in Sydney and not copping a Christmas bonus that’s all about to change.

International real estate guru Rick Butler. Picture: Elenor Tedenborg.

The game of musical chairs at the top end of the industry just got a bit racier with news that a big chunk of CBRE’s Sydney-based institutional sales team decamped yesterday.

This is a big shock for the firm — known as the Green Machine — that has long prided itself as being top dog on the national real estate scene.

At least five top operators in a team that sells office towers to all comers (so long as they bring the fattest wallets and the readies are outside of the Middle Kingdom) are believed to have walked.

Some insiders were left stunned. Others had seen the writing on the wall since long-time international real estate guru Rick Butler parted ways with the firm earlier this year.

While the departees appear to be headed to (less) green fields, word from various bunkers is that there are no hard feelings.

And with a mix of those charmed to stay or lured to go, it looks like a healthy bonus season has arrived for those in commercial property land.

Briggs on board

Even though we flagged it in Friday’s column, we’re still a bit surprised. Scott Briggs said yes. For his sins, Briggs is the NSW Liberal division’s new honorary treasurer.

Scott Briggs, the NSW Liberal division’s new honorary treasurer. Picture: Richard Dobson.

Acting NSW Liberal president Kent Johns’ state executive unanimously approved Briggs on Friday. Of course they did!

They must be stunned Briggs, the former Nine commercial director and founder — only a few months ago — of his own private equity firm, Pacific Blue Capital, said yes.

Briggs — who is also a consultant to James Packer’s private company CPH — is known to many in the political world as the man who helped get Malcolm Turnbull into the seat of Wentworth in 2004.

If the Turnbull government is going to beat Bill Shorten and go around again, it’s going to need — in addition to its backbench behaving itself — enough cash to run a decent campaign.

With Briggs on board, that just became a lot more likely.