Transurban chief Charlton has plan B for ACCC

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

Competition tsar Rod Sims is poised to cast judgment on Transurban’s bid to build and operate Gladys Berejiklian’s $2 billion WestConnex project.

And should the decision not go the toll road giant’s way, its straight-talking boss Scott Charlton has a few tricks in his repertoire to fire back at the watchdog.

The towering Texan’s first job after completing an electrical engineering degree was designing laser guidance systems for smart bombs.

It’s a fair bet he’s getting ready to lob one at Sims if Transurban doesn’t get its way in Sydney.

In fact Margin Call hears Charlton has been telling fundies on his post-results roadshow that he’ll definitely appeal a red light from the ACCC on what is one of the biggest deals in the $27bn company’s history.

Charlton’s also been talking about his tenure at the toll roads giant.

We understand he’s indicated that after more than eight years in the top job, he doesn’t want to go anywhere before 2022.

That’ll be a decision for Transurban’s next chairman. The incumbent Lindsay Maxsted is tipped to be gone from the post within a year.

Maxsted and Charlton are close.

The chairman appointed the former investment banker Charlton to the top job after previous boss Chris Lynch left to join Rio Tinto.

Maxsted, who will run his eighth Transurban AGM in October, revealed in 2016 he was unlikely to serve another full three-year term.

At the time the decision by the horse lover, who also chairs Westpac, was linked to his run at the BHP chairmanship — one of the few boardroom races Maxsted didn’t win.

Coming of age

She may not be as rich as her siblings, but things are falling into place for Paula Hitchcock Pratt, the fourth child of late box mogul Richard Pratt.

The billionaire’s youngest child, his daughter to mistress Shari-Lea Hitchcock, is set to turn 21 at the end of next month.

And the Kambala-graduate’s coming of age will be celebrated with more than just a fancy party.

Recent moves show a reported $100 million inheritance is being transferred her way.

Her wealth to date has been controlled by a trust company established to look after the money she was granted from her dad’s multi-billion-dollar estate.

Businessmen overseeing the young Pratt’s inheritance — the subject of a court battle that was settled in 2015 with Pratt’s widow Jeanne Pratt — include Credit Suisse Private Wealth’s Michael Napthali and lawyer Andrew Fairley.

Ahead of Paula’s milestone birthday, the waterfront house in Watsons Bay — bought for $5m 15 years ago and in the control of Shari-Lea’s parents Allan and Shawne Hitchcock — has just been transferred into Paula’s name.

Other assets are expected to follow from her trustees.

The young Pratt, who is studying at the University of Sydney, also owns a farm in the village of Cambewarra near Nowra on the NSW South Coast.

The land is held via her Cambewarra Holdings vehicle, of which the young Pratt is a director.

Last year she added to the land holding, outlaying just under $1m.

Speedy departure

It seems erstwhile big four CEO-in-waiting Antony Cahill couldn’t get out of NAB fast enough.

Late on Monday, Andrew Thorburn’s pinstriped team told the market the stunning news: his most trusted executive, who was appointed as chief operating officer by CEO Thorburn exactly two years ago, was taking off.

“Mr Cahill’s last day with NAB will be Friday 14 September,” NAB told the market in its ASX statement.

That might be the last day Cahill is paid.

But well-informed sources tell Margin Call that Cahill — who last year earned $3.1m at the bank — left NAB’s 700 Bourke Street bunker in Melbourne’s Docklands on Monday evening.

We understand Cahill packed up his hot desk for the last time, cleared his locker (yes, even members of NAB’s senior executive team have lockers) and left the squat, 63,000sq m building.

He won’t be coming back.

Cahill’s departure to a gig working with Visa in London — on the other side of the world from Kenneth Hayne’s royal commission — was a shock to his NAB colleagues, particularly Thorburn.

“He’s taking it hard,” one pinstripe wearer told Margin Call.

Cahill’s exit means Thorburn has lost two of his closest confidantes at the bank in the past nine months.

Last December, Thorburn’s chief-of-staff Rosemary Rogers — who the CEO described as “an institution at NAB” — left in intriguing circumstances.

That matter, now in the hands of authorities, is yet to be resolved.

Whatever must chairman Ken Henry make of it all?

Food for thought

Julie Bishop is staying on in parliament — but she’s keeping an elegant distance from the Victorian Liberals “Outer Eastern Gala Dinner” this Thursday night.

Fair enough too. Four of the six Victorian MPs Bishop was scheduled to be lending her star power with for the $100-a-head fundraiser backed Peter Dutton in last week’s destruction. Those disloyal four are Cities Minister Alan Tudge, backbencher-once-again Michael Sukkar, longtime backbencher Kevin Andrews and ongoing backbencher Jason Wood.

Instead of Bishop, her replacement as Liberal deputy leader Josh Frydenberg will take over keynote honours at the function in Melbourne’s east. The Queen is dead, long live the King. Or something like that.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage