Roxy Jacenko hubby Oliver Curtis facing insider trading trial

Cartoon: Peter Nicholson

The on-again-off-again trial of celebrity PR Roxy Jacenko’s stockbroker hubby, Oliver Curtis, for insider trading is on again, with a procedural hearing before the NSW Supreme Court due in about three weeks.

Luckily Curtis is in peak fighting form, fresh from a family jamboree that took in Paris and St Tropez by private jet and a Mediterranean cruise on Irish tax exile Bono’s yacht, Cyan.

Curtis, son of Lynas founder Nick, was able to go on the jaunt after his trial, set for November last year, was delayed for reasons that can’t be reported. It now seems likely to start next year.

The holiday — and Curtis’s QC habit — look expensive, but his entrepreneurial four-year-old daughter has helped keep the family’s financial wheels turning selling a branded line of hair bows.

As the family is renting a $130,000-a-year fab pad in North Bondi after selling their Woollahra pile for $8.1 million, no doubt every penny helps.

Letting off steam

Veteran corporate raider John Spalvins is getting amongst it again. The 79-year-old former Adsteam boss was among unhappy investors letting rip during a stormy AGM for poorly performing copper miner Aditya Birla yesterday.

Spalvins is among minorities who’ve seen the share price tumble from $1.95 on listing in 2006 to just 14.5c.

Indian metals company Hindalco controls the board with 51 per cent of shares. It buys all Aditya’s copper and charges it a processing fee.

Hindalco reckons it’s all done at market price, but Spalvins told the meeting it was “a long way from acceptable levels of transparency”.

The company’s also suffered from accidents at its WA site and the cost of closing, reopening and then closing again its Queensland mine.

Spalvins knows all about company collapses, having presided over Adsteam during a debt-fuelled roll-up binge that ended with liquidation in 1991.

No doubt seeing red, former Penfolds owner Spalvins told chairman Debu Bhattacharya he “must assume responsibility for that destruction of ... minority shareholders’ value”.

Hindalco used its stake to push through the re-election of Bhattacharya and director Jagish Chandra Laddha, but wasn’t able to stave off a first strike on the remuneration report.

Cellar dwellers

Which top pollie, CEO or investment banker has the best wine collection?

We find out tonight at a gala at Sydney’s Ivy ballroom raising cash for Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Top brass have dusted off their best bottles for the “CEO Cellar’’, to go under the hammer at the annual Diamond Event.

The 42 bottles take in plenty of famous labels, but the real challenge will be to guess which wine came from bigwigs including Darren Steinberg of Dexus, Peter Allen of Scentre, Simon Rooney of JLL, Josh Cullen of CBRE and Nick Collishaw of Centuria.

Outside property, UBS boss Matthew Grounds, private equity guru Tim Sims, Kerry Stokes confidant Warwick Smith, Luminis banker Simon Mordant, Grant Samuel veteran Ross Grant and Orora chief Nigel Garrard are also in.

Kiwi PM John Key has put up his best pinot, matched by Tony Abbott’s Clare Valley shiraz, and retiring Aussie cricket captain Michael Clarke has tipped in a special bottle, a Penfold’s 389 — the same as his Test number.

ASIC’s bank interest

ASIC boss Greg Medcraft and deputy Peter Kell are putting out a report sledging interest-only loans this morning.

In typical ASIC fashion, the guilty banks won’t be named and shamed — but has Brian Hartzer’s Westpac accidentally outed itself? It tightened interest-only loan rules on Monday.

Seeking solace

AFL commish Paul Bassat didn’t get to bask in the glow of Tuesday’s mega rights deal for long, brought down to earth yesterday morning by a savage share slump at Seek, where he’s CEO, following a surprise profit downgrade.

His efforts to end a torrid analyst call also failed, with a voice booming “You’ve got to be kidding, there are more questions!’’ Bassat promptly reopened the airwaves.

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