Who is set to referee the battle of just who is the biggest financial backer of renewable power in Australia?
There’s been a $10,000 bet struck between Brisbane energy veteran Trevor St Baker and Sydney’s Double Bay billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
St Baker, who has a fortune estimated at $646m, claimed recently he was “investing more than anyone in Australia directly into renewables”. But Cannon-Brookes was having none of that and quickly posted a challenge on Twitter. “Really?! Trevor, I bet $10k (charity of your choice) that’s not true mate! Got proof?,’’ he tweeted.
Former coal baron St Baker accepted the wager, arguing he’s got more than $500m committed to clean-energy initiatives. His direct investments include $100m in electric-car-charging manufacturer Tritium. Plus in Evie Networks, which is building a chain of charging stations across Australia.
Cannon-Brookes is tied up in a few ventures, including the planned $20bn Sun Cable solar farm in the Northern Territory.
“Mike Cannon-Brookes’ parading around as an expert on the energy sector is a joke,’’ St Baker advised the Courier Mail’s City Beat columnist Anthony Marx.
But Cannon-Brookes’s spin doctor had advised Mike’s personal fund is over $1bn in investments made and growing fast.
“At least two-thirds of that is sustainability-related. And $0 is in coal,’’ he said.
St Baker, fresh from donating $150,000 to last week’s Vinnies CEO sleepout, says he’s keen for Cannon-Brookes to write St Vincent de Paul a cheque to help homeless women.
Reckon Kevin Mercer, the CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society Queensland, could also adjudicate the dispute. His CV says he’s had experience in the energy sector.
Pratt on top again
Anthony Pratt has again been selected by industry analysts as North America’s best CEO in the forest products sector.
Dubbed the containerboard and corrugated innovator, Pratt was selected as the Fastmarkets RISI 2020 North American CEO of the Year.
He is set to be honoured at RISI’s 35th annual North American Forest Products Conference, with the October event being virtual due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Analysts credited Pratt for his company’s work in using mixed paper to make recycled container board, and for his ongoing capacity growth program in the US that included the start-up of a new 400,000 tonne recycled container board machine in Wapakoneta, Ohio, last September.
US President Donald Trump visited last year when the new machine was started up.
The privately held Pratt Industries is the fifth-largest in North America, according to Fastmarkets RISI capacity figures. The runners-up to Pratt were Packaging Corp of America’s Mark Kowlzan and Cascades’ Mario Plourde.
Their RISI citation quotes insights into Pratt when he advised The Australian’s Richest 250 editor John Stensholt in January that he planned for two new recycled containerboard mill projects in the US by 2026, and continuing a business strategy dedicated to e-commerce.
“You have to be part of the internet revolution to be big. If you don’t, you’re doomed. Manufacturers have to be internet-savvy,” Pratt warned.
He noted that his goal for the company was to reach $10bn in revenue by 2026 in the US and Australia, up from $6.9bn last year that included $1.49bn in pre-tax profit.
Morris sale hopes
No Sydney expansion yet for his hospitality business, but it’s whispered that Melbourne billionaire Chris Morris wants to upgrade from his Milsons Point penthouse. The founder of the Colonial Leisure Group has listed it with $8.8m hopes.
The penthouse is the only one of the three atop the Latitude development not owned by Hollywood star Nicole Kidman and her country singer star husband, Keith Urban.
They didn’t seek it out last time when it was sold by former CoreLogic chief Graham Mirabito for $8m in 2017, but maybe this time it might suit Kidman’s mother, Janelle.
A new splash of art
For the past five years Sydney philanthropists Gene and Brian Sherman have regularly listed art works for sale by auction. The latest nine offerings are scheduled for auction by Deutscher and Hackett in
mid-July.
The works from the downsizing collectors include a painting, Nolan at Broome, by artist John Olsen that was exhibited at Sherman Galleries Goodhope in the early 1990s after Olsen took residency in the West Australian town. It has $180,000-plus hopes.
The works are drawn from their household collections and also from their storage facility, which Margin Call gathers holds some 900 works.
The auction will also offer some works from gallerist Ray Hughes’ estate, which has had several auctions since his death in late 2017.
D+H’s senior art specialist, Henry Mulholland, was an artist in the Ray Hughes Gallery stable, and has a long friendship with his son, Evan.
Apparently these few select works, which include a Colin McCahon last traded in 1987, were not stock but had personal significance to Ray and Evan so were earmarked for Mulholland to handle.
Burger bun fight
Sizzler has succeeded in stopping the marketing of a chicken burger on cheese bread, dubbed “The Sizzle”, in an interlocutory Federal Court trademark law suit. Collins Foods, owner of Sizzler restaurants, secured its injunction on Tuesday against Brisbane outlet Burger Urge.
Justice John Nicholas ruled they be restrained from using any of their logos in the marketing that had certainly been cheesy.
“The 90s were a simpler time. Hair and pants were both quite high, while interest in Pinterest was very very low. On any given Saturday night Sizzler was the place to be. This is our ode to the cultural icon.”
The matter has been listed for an August 21 case management hearing.
Burger Urge, which has been in prior intellectual property stoushes, had already changed the name from “The Sizzler” to “The Sizzle” after the first cease-and-desist letter in early June.
Barrister Cynthia Cochrane, briefed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, alleged Burger Urge had created the misleading impression its product was endorsed by the US chain, which arrived in Australia in 1985.
The Brisbane fast-food chain, started by Sean and Colby Carthew in 2007, faced action in 2018 from McDonald’s over its “Big Pac” burger product.
Grant’s new role
Former NSW deputy premier Troy Grant has taken his first non-executive directorship since quitting the Macquarie Street bear pit.
Grant has joined the board of ASX-listed battery manufacturing company Magnis Energy Technologies. The company, with plans to mass produce battery cells at gigawatt scale in Australia and the US, is chaired by Frank Poullas, with James Dack recently appointed its CEO.
Grant became NSW’s youngest deputy premier in 2014 serving alongside then premier Mike Baird. During his parliamentary career, his portfolios included police, gaming and racing, and the arts.
Since stepping aside from representing Dubbo for the Nationals, Grant has established a consultancy, where his clients included a big four auditing firm.
Grant said the green credentials that Magnis possesses — both upstream and downstream — in the production of lithium-ion batteries was the reason behind his new role.
“It’s an opportunity to lead the charge in the resurgence of local manufactured products.”
Dack and Grant have teamed up before at the Police Citizens Youth Clubs.
Cranbrook old boys clash over Luxe Listings deal
A court stoush featuring two private school boys, a hit TV show and an old gangster? Throw in some fast cars and rhyming slang and you’ve surely got the makings of a major movie.
Wesfarmers’ Catch killed off as boss swans in Switzerland
Rob Scott was conspicuous by his absence as yet another of Wesfarmers’ dud investments was put to the sword but why he was schmoozing at the Davos world forum is a head scratcher.