The clever fellas from Byron Bay who have now sold their corporate baby TripADeal lock, stock and barrel to Qantas are rolling around in money.
The national carrier led by Vanessa Hudson on Thursday revealed it had paid $211m for the 49 per cent of the online travel agency that it didn’t already own. Qantas first jumped onto the TripADeal share register in May 2022 in a deal that was championed by former Qantas frequent flyer boss Olivia Wirth, who now runs Myer.
The final buy out of founders Richard Johnston and Norman Black is the first insight we have had on how much the pair have made from the venture, which also benefited from an injection of equity from Robin Bishop, Ben Gray and Simon Harle’s BGH Capital back in 2020.
The Qantas mop-up deal values TripADeal at about $430m. Records show that Johnston and Black each now have 11 per cent of the company, so that their final deal towards exit will net them $47.4m each. There have also been other payments along the way as they sold down to Qantas and BGH for undisclosed amounts.
BGH has 27 per cent of TripADeal – can’t you just see Bishop, Gray and Harle booking a budget break in Bali alongside the masses – so that the transaction lands their funds with $116.3m.
Boy done good
And it seems Richard Johnston, who it has been reported was working out of his laundry in Bali before the idea for TripADeal was born, has front-loaded his spending in anticipation of the windfall to come from the final Qantas deal.
In the past year he has spent just over $10m soaking up two adjoining properties across the road from Belongil Beach, both of which have a home on them, one much more expansive than the other. One cost Johnston and his partner Claire Alexander – the properties are in her name – $7.5m and the other $2.6m.
All of which means that the jetsetting couple (Alexander goes by the username of Jetsetmuma on Insta) have too many residences in their beloved Byron, so one is now for sale.
That also happens to be beachfront, this time Tallows, and will set a buyer back between $4m and $5m. Oh happy days.
PwC manoeuvring
We told you earlier in the week of PwC Australia boss Kevin Burrowes’ decision to sever his official ties with local PwC corporate entities that form the accounting and consulting firm’s down under operations.
Burrowes joined the board of PwC Australia’s three nominee companies when he was sent to Oz mid last year from PwC in Singapore and before that London, to steer the outpost through the fallout from its tax scandal and keep it contained to our shores.
But recently, Burrowes, who has the title of CEO, mysteriously resigned from the boards, at the same time extricating himself from the duties required of a director as outlined in the Corporations Act and administered by ASIC.
But look, Burrowes, who for the past week has been offshore on business (just as the Senate’s final damning report into the integrity of consultants was released), does not seem so afraid of director’s duties in the UK and at entities that sit higher up the PwC food chain.
It’s not hard to find Burrowes’ appointment as a director of a UK company called PWC APA Ltd, which he joined on August 8, not long after he was sent to Australia.
On that board, he sits alongside the bosses of the other chiefs of PwC operations throughout the world, including Hong Kong and China, Brazil, the US, Mexico, Japan, India, Singapore, Canada, Argentina and South Korea.
The new head of PwC in New Zealand Andrew Holmes is the latest to join the clutch of international heavy-hitters, having become a director of UK-based vehicle after his internal appointment to the top job in April.
To Burrowes, Australia really does seem to be on the nose.
Libs living large
It can get tricky, the life of a blow in.
Case in point – newly minted Member for Cook Simon Kennedy, who won the seat in the Sutherland Shire last month following the retirement of former prime minister Scott Morrison.
Family man Kennedy, 42 and who is a former partner at management consulting firm McKinsey, had been wanting to get into the federal parliament for some time.
He had a crack for the Libs in Bennelong in 2022 when former tennis great John Alexander retired, but failed, so went back to his nice life in Sydney’s beachside eastern suburbs for a while before the Cook opportunity came up.
But shopping around for a seat to fill has its downside. Kennedy and his wife Nila and their two children have just moved into a rental property at Woolooware, inland from Cronulla, presumably so they can say they are part of the community Kennedy has been elected to represent.
But now the couple have to find a tenant for their Maroubra home (the political territory of the ALP’s Matt Thistlethwaite), but which you’d think wouldn’t be too hard given the state of the Sydney rental market.
Alas, the Kennedy home is not one for the every man. Sitting right on the oceanfront with breathtaking views over Lurline Bay, the home is being offered by a local agent for $2700 a week amounting to annual income north of $140,000.
As backbencher Kennedy is paid a base salary of $225,742.
The rental is a sweet top up.
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