Something going on at Perpetual?

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Right, so let’s get this straight. Listed fund manager Perpetual’s No 2 stock picker Nathan Parkin has suddenly decided to pack in his well-paid job managing $6 billion in funds?

And the No 1 stockbroker at Perpetual, Paul “Skamma” Skamvougeras, was completely surprised by Parkin’s decision to leave the prized job?

And in doing so Parkin has just forfeited considerable short-term benefits (worth well over a million dollars)?

And Parkin — who all, including himself, agree is passionate about managing money — says he hasn’t got a new job lined up?

Right then. Something is certainly going on in Sydney’s Angel Place, where the fund manager is based.

The bluer than blue chip ASX-listed ­financial services group — which manages more than $29.4bn and is soon to be chaired by former ASIC boss turned vigneron Tony D’Aloisio — has known intrigue before.

As is to be expected of such a big investor in the local market, the departures of its former star stock pickers — whether John Sevior or Matt Williams or Charlie Lanchester — have all been the subject of considerable speculation.

But Parkin’s is a real shock. It comes only three days after this paper revealed a shuffle of shares in embattled aged-care provider Estia from Perpetual’s flagship high-performance investment fund into smaller superannuation funds over which it has discretionary power.

That story was not a good look for Perpetual.

It was also, we gather, not a favourite with Skamma. And the tension doesn’t end there. We’ve heard of huge rows between Parkin and Perpetual CEO Geoff Lloyd.

And it won’t be news to many in the market that Parkin has also been unhappy about the shop’s stock selection.

So with Skamma making the call on the backing of Estia, it’s fair to wonder if Parkin thought he should be in the top job?

Not that investors were ­terribly interested in the apparent internal mechanics.

Perpetual’s stock yesterday closed up 2.2 per cent to $47.84. No drama there.

No Xmas joy

The jig was up even before judge Robert Hulme said a word.

There was no video screen showing Cooma inmate Oliver Curtis, which portended bleak news for the Riverview Old Boy. And so it was. “Appeal dismissed,” said Hulme yesterday morning, with efficiency brutal for the festive season.

The convicted inside trader Curtis will not be coming back to North Bondi to wife Roxy Jacenko for Christmas.

So with only six months in prison left on his sentence — which will be whittled down to four remaining months by the time the court returns from its summer break — will team Curtis consider the final avenue of appeal with a tilt in the High Court?

Even though yesterday’s dismissal of his appeal in the Supreme Court was as emphatic as they come, Greg Medcraft’s corporate regulator ASIC won’t be betting against it.

Indeed, it would be a stunning break of precedent in this year’s long saga if the Cooma inmate’s businessman father Nick Curtis didn’t stump up for this last legal challenge — however bad the odds. Team Curtis has until early February to lodge the request to appeal to the highest court in the land. It won’t do much to shave the sentence, but the family’s honour might just demand it.

Giving a Gonski

ANZ chair David Gonski had his hands full yesterday with climate, Timbercorp and Aboriginal activists, and his patience was sorely tested when a banner was unfurled at the front of the meeting that read: “ANZ — Warming Your World. Climate Criminals.”

But Gonski could only laugh when Deborah Hart from Billionaires United stepped up to microphone No 1.

“What kind of succour will you offer us billionaire coal diggers?” asked Hart, wearing stockings emblazoned with Australian flags.

Her members’ ability to “trickle down” had been impaired, she said, even though “Trump loves us”.

Hart wanted to know Gonski’s plans to “protect us from these rolling tides of cutting-edge renewable energies”. “We have roaring 40s winds that are causing global worming,” she said. Yes you read it: worming

She went on: “People should worm in the privacy of their own homes. And coal investile dysfunction is sweeping across the planet. It’s a vile contagion — $5 trillion is the amount and we are desperate”.

Gonski lapped it up, saying this was the most amusing question he had heard in 40 years of business and countless annual meetings that he had chaired. “But I have a feeling there is no answer to your question,” Gonski said.

Hart was undeterred.

“Darling, we can frack later,” she said.

Banking on bankers

Lend Lease fancies itself as one of the top players in the retirement home industry and now the company appears to be setting out to house senior executives of the country’s big four banks.

This week word came down that the developer — an occasional sparring partner of James Packer’s Crown Resorts over the finer details of his Barangaroo integrated gaming resort — had appointed Westpac deputy chief executive Phil Coffey to its board.

He will be in good company with Commonwealth Bank chief financial officer David Craig at the top table since March.

Financiers in the departure lounge at NAB and ANZ should prepare themselves for when long-time Lend Lease chairman David Crawford finally steps down after his 13-year innings at the helm.

They seem intent on the full big four set.

Sherif won’t like it

The scuttling of the takeover of tin play Kasbah Resources due to a dodgy independent experts report from accounting firm BDO has been the talk of Perth’s financial circles in recent weeks, and it’s not without its funny side.

For those who missed it, Kasbah was forced to abandon its deal with Asian Mineral Resources — a company backed by Russian billionaire Vladimir Iorich — after a study of the BDO report by rival firm Deloitte found a “fundamental logic error” in BDO’s calculations.

Correcting the mistake found that the AMR offer was no longer fair to Kasbah shareholders, and BDO and its insurers are sweating on whether Kasbah will now come after them to recoup the costs wasted on the deal.

Naturally, every story about Kasbah (whose name reflects its presence in Morocco, where it owns a tin project) has taken a variation on The Clash’s 1980s classic Rock the Casbah.

But the links between the song and the situation go even deeper.

As any punk rock aficionado can tell you, the chorus goes a little something like this:

Shareef don’t like it

Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah

And the name of the author of the BDO report? None other than Sherif Andrawes. It’s almost too good to be true. We bet Sherif don’t like it at all.