PwC witnesses a voluntary exit as senior assurance and audit partner retires after 35 years

A senior assurance and audit partner at PwC has left the troubled firm via retirement after an almost 35-year career helping clients in heavy industries and financial services.

Exiting PwC Australia right now after decades at the coal face might raise some eyebrows amid the firm’s still unfolding tax scandal.

No matter, senior assurance and audit partner Matthew Lunn has done just that, electing to leave the troubled firm via retirement after an almost 35-year career helping clients in heavy industries and financial services, with many of Australia’s largest banks among his lead client engagements.

While several former senior colleagues have been unceremoniously frogmarched from the firm this year after their connection to the scandal hanging over the consulting and tax division’s misuse of confidential government information was determined, Lunn was confirmed as leaving voluntarily on Thursday.

While PwC was happy to confirm Lunn was no longer with the firm, a spokesman said there was a “firm policy” to offer no comment “on personnel matters”.

PwC flagged last month it expected almost 70 partners would retire from the firm this year, as it looked at closing off its lucrative retirement benefit scheme in the latest in a series of shake-ups at the already rocked firm.

This comes after PwC cancelled its intake of partners this year.

This column questioned why some partners seemed to have disappeared from PwC’s website, in similar moves to what took place some weeks earlier with partners who were subsequently named and shamed over the tax leaks.

But PwC’s spokesman assured Margin Call that no more partners were being scrubbed. We shall wait and see, however, whether another round of ritual bloodletting is about to unfold.

Word around town is Kevin Burrowes, who put his feet under the desk on Monday as PwC’s new local CEO, is already considering how to deal with issues around a number of partners at the firm.

This column’s eyes on the inside have reported that a number of whistleblower complaints have already landed in Burrowes’ lap, with perhaps a little internal score-settling taking place.

Gurner’s St Moritz eatery on downhill slide

Property squillionaire Tim Gurner and his uber luxury $540m St Moritz development in St Kilda have been dealt a fresh blow.

The fancy restaurant at the base of the The Esplanade apartment building has been forced to close due to a lack of custom. The establishment’s tenant – high-profile restaurateur Cameron Northway – has blamed the closure on Melbourne’s winter.

Margin Call understands that the doors of the fashionable Loti Bar and Restaurant have been locked since July 9, with residents of the building informed of the closure via email.

“We are exploring other options to utilise the space in a manner that will benefit the St Moritz community. It is our aim to have the venue operating again for the summer months,” the note to residents said.

Tim Gurner’s St Moritz development in St Kilda.

It is not clear, however, whether the venue will continue with Northway’s restaurant as its tenant. Margin Call understands all options are being considered for the future of the site. The Gurner Group’s general manager of property and hospitality, Gerald Ackroyd, is named as nominee on Loti’s Victorian liquor licence, although Northway controls the entity that operates the eatery.

Northway will be known to Sydney foodies as the co-founder of Bondi restaurant and bar Rocker. He has only just opened a new venue atop the newly developed Goldfields House in Melbourne’s South Yarra, which for now seems to be surviving the cold that has so affected his St Kilda operation.

The restaurateur has recently been reported as stepping out with fashion entrepreneur and founder of activewear brand PE nation Pip Edwards.

Billionaire Alex Waislitz and millionaire media proprietor Anthony Catalano had settlement of their multimillion-dollar bespoke luxury apartments in the development long delayed, while Gurner himself is still holding an apartment in the building that he has been trying to sell for $15m.

It is believed that abode has now been taken off the market until the demand for Melbourne beachfront real estate picks up.

Tech fix

If Telstra boss Vicki Brady gets tired of telcos, she could have a crack at writing comedy.

Brady channelled British noughties sitcom The IT Crowd on Thursday when her team of techs advised exasperated mobile customers to turn their phones on and off again after they lost data following a software upgrade.

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

After all, it worked for the hapless corporate suits in the hit TV show.

But after toggling airplane mode on and off – Telstra’s suggested fix for the glitch – some customers still couldn’t use their smart phones, iPads and other connected devices.

The notification was buried on the Telstra app under its ‘‘get help’’ section, which we note has been rebadged in the corporate’s traditional blue and orange livery – the colours the carrier used way back when.

This on the same day Telstra axed another 500 jobs, with Brady carrying on her predecessor Andy Penn’s objective to slash the telco’s costs by $500m.

Mobile rivals Optus and TPG must have been laughing out loud indeed.

Change of heart

Surprising for a fund manager used to making definitive decisions, but Watermark Funds Management founder Justin Braitling looks to have had a change of heart when it comes to embracing the northern beaches lifestyle.

In September last year Braitling committed to pay $5.6m for a slice of Palm Beach, settling in October with the assistance of a mortgage from Westpac.

The beach house on Barrenjoey Rd is Pittwater waterfront, with lush lawns leading down to the water’s edge.

Justin Braitling is leaving Palm Beach. Picture: Hollie Adams

But, after less than 10 months, Braitling has his beach shack back on the market, apparently having had a change of heart when it comes to getting out of the eastern suburbs.

Almost a dozen interest rate hikes by outgoing central bank boss Phil Lowe can certainly focus one’s mind.

Thankfully the fundie will still be able to breathe in the sea air.

Braitling and his artist wife Silke Raetze, who calls her husband her “Mr Motown”, live in a $10m-plus mansion on Coolong Rd in Vaucluse.