It’s the Summer of George, with the word around town that the former Bank of Queensland boss is set to add an interest in a Sydney restaurant to his burgeoning business interests.
Various members of the Sydney scene told this column George Frazis is about to team up with Public Hospitality Group boss Jon Adgemis in an expansion from high finance into fine dining.
This comes after the former BOQ boss and now operator of George Capital Finance Solutions played matchmaker between Adgemis’ PHG and the owners of some serious real estate in Sydney’s CBD.
Adgemis is planning the little eatery to be the latest expansion of his PHG, which boasts among its 22 properties a number of Sydney landmarks, including The Strand Hotel and Noah’s backpacker hotel in Bondi.
Frazis, who most recently made headlines when he was sacked as BOQ CEO after chair Patrick Allaway decided he’d do a better job of it, is expected to take a slice of the operation being planned between the two.
Adgemis, KPMG’s former deal rainmaker, is expected to make some big announcements about PHG in the coming weeks, amid some wild speculation from some corners of the media about a debt deal being hammered out over the restaurant and pub operation.
Frazis said it was all too early to talk about how things were going on the other side.
The Bondi denizen quietly updated his LinkedIn account in recent weeks to announce his role as founder and supremo of George Capital Finance Solutions.
He boasted George CFS offered a “powerhouse team of Australia’s best finance experts” and “delivers customised finance solutions for businesses and individuals”.
“Regardless I can’t disclose clients,” Frazis said.
Frazis might be glad he got clear of BOQ, which announced it would slash 250 jobs and take a $79m hit in September.
Allaway was left holding the hand grenade, with BOQ slapped with a $50m capital charge from APRA along with all manner of grief.
Magnis move
What better place to land as a former director of Australia’s choppiest battery and graphite mining play, Magnis Energy Technologies, than a $30m venture capital and private equity operation headed by two-time Brownlow medallist and Sydney Swan Adam Goodes.
Readers of this column may be familiar with one of the ASX’s most interesting companies, Magnis, known for its directors dining with members of Sydney’s organised crime community and consistently failing to impress shareholders for 15 years.
Magnis, which is set to host its AGM next week, is now facing the loss of its flagship battery factory after failing to pay just about everyone.
But one former director, Zarmeen Pavri, who resigned from Magnis in December 2021 after nine months in the job in the wake of police raids and what could charitably be described as a sh..storm surrounding the formerly $500m ASX darling, has turned up on the advisory board of Goodes’ venture capital operation.
Pavri, who previously worked as executive director at investment house Pengana, will advise Goodes’ on his Black Excellence Fund.
She joins BlackRock managing director Christopher Hall as an adviser.
This is alongside former investment banker Ming Low, the now chief investment officer at the Black Excellence Fund, and George Mifsud, who brings some experience from the Indigenous Defence & Infrastructure Consortium to the table.
The Black Excellence Fund claims it will invest in renewable energy, eco-initiatives, defence tech, cyber security, biotech, life sciences, health and wellness, and infrastructure.
Who knew Goodes, the subject of the massive mural in Sydney’s Surry Hills, was keen to invest in the military industrial complex?
But despite announcing the fund five months ago, in a message laden with pathos, with Goodes remarking on “our collective aspiration is to rectify the historic lack of access to capital and mentorship Indigenous entrepreneurs have encountered”, nothing has been seen yet of the $30m play.
The website still boasts it’s all Coming Soon. We hope so.
Millionaires island
Like straightening a bowl of spaghetti, Macquarie is trying to unpick its corporate structure one step at a time after the prudential regulator in Australia made a mess of its very nice tax haven.
Court filings from the Cayman Islands reveal the Millionaire’s Factory has been stung by changes in the regulatory rules from our friends over in APRA, who with a stroke of the pen have put the £18.9m ($36m) stashed away in accounts in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, outside the bounds of capital standards.
As you may know, Macquarie is a creature that leaves money in its wake, but often seeks to do so in the most financially advantageous way.
Macquarie even admits its many-headed nature in the name of one of the entities involved in this financial fracas, with the aptly named Hydra company, incorporated in Jersey, now no longer classified as an “extended licensed entity” under the new rules.
This brings us to the “humble petition” of Macquarie Investments (Singapore), the Cayman Islands-headquartered arm of the Millionaire’s Factory, which is petitioning to reduce its capital and send the money up the line.
Our friends want to take the current operation, with its £13.1m capitalisation and shred it to just £11.
We hope Macquarie put it to good use.
Pay up
And in news from the never-ending lawfare between Mayfair 101 boss James Mawhinney and the corporate regulator, Justice David O’Callaghan has ordered ASIC to pick up the bill after a recent round of squabbling.
Mawhinney and ASIC locked horns in October after the regulator tried to introduce new penalties in its case against the Mayfair boss.
But ASIC was slapped down by Justice O’Callaghan, as the case was supposed to be a rerun of Mawhinney’s first unsuccessful trip that saw him saddled with a 20 year ban on raising funds.
We doubt this is the last anyone hears from these two.
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