CBD

Paul Keating's former piggery business partner,

Al Constantinidis, will not be a happy camper. Constantinidis's plans to make a quick buck by redeveloping an old dairy farm at Windsor into polo fields and an equestrian centre for cashed-up horse lovers now seems to be further away than ever.

His Achilles heel appears to be an estimated $22 million in loans Constantinidis took out from the Mark McIvor-headed Gold Coast finance firm Equititrust.

Constantinidis has failed in his attempts to remove a receiver, David Clout, who was appointed to three of Big Al's companies by Equititrust in March after he defaulted on loans. MFS's former chief operating officer, David Kennedy, is now in the same role at Equititrust and is taking a personal interest in the matter.

Keen-eyed readers will remember that Kennedy allegedly had a heated discussion with Constantinidis and his staff at Windsor Turf in March, leading to a four-hour stand-off that ended when police intervened.

In the latest courtroom tussle, Constantinidis tried unsuccessfully to overturn the receiver's appointment by relying on a rarely used part of mortgage law which protects farmers. But Justice Reg Barrett ruled that he just wasn't enough of a farmer to qualify because the loans he took out were to redevelop the land.

The plan, had it taken off, could have been lucrative, given that the dairy farm is close to polo properties owned by the gambling mogul James Packer and property developer Andrew Roberts.

SET FOR TAKE-OFF

The competition tsar, Graeme Samuel, is not going to let a little thing like a volcano get in the way of his eagerly awaited trip to meet fellow regulators at the crossroads of Europe and Asia later this week.

After all, Samuel has already gone out of his way to make the conference in Istanbul. He brought forward the release of his decision to block National Australia Bank's takeover of AXA Asia-Pacific to Monday so that he and his sidekick at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Jill Walker, could fly out for Istanbul tomorrow.

A spokesman for Samuel said

the pair were still scheduled "at

this stage" to attend the gathering

of like-minded souls, which kicks

off on Friday. We suspect numbers might be a little lighter than at the regulators' previous bashes.

Meanwhile, AMP insisted yesterday that its chief executive, Craig Dunn, who is in London

as part of an investor roadshow,

was not stranded there despite Mother Nature's unlucky hand.

The insurer said Dunn was scheduled to leave London on Friday

but admitted that "whether he makes that flight ... is another

question".

NARROW SQUEAK

At least some bigwigs have a happy story to tell. It turns out that Virgin Blue's chief planespotter-designate, John Borghetti, made a lucky escape from London just before the Icelandic ash cloud closed European airspace last week.

Not so lucky is Richard Branson, the airline's dominant shareholder, who might miss the London marathon on Monday. Sir Rich has been in training for the marathon for months but has so far been unable to fly back to his homeland from his private Necker island in the Caribbean. Virgin Group's Sydney spokeswoman, Danielle Keighery - who is herself stuck in London - said Borghetti had left last Wednesday "with hours to spare" before Eyjafjallajokull blew its top .

The company's Asia-Pacific boss, David Baxby, has also been stuck in Abu Dhabi, unable to get back to Geneva. The avid cyclist might want to consider alternative transport.

JOYCE GROUNDED

Qantas's chief executive, Alan Joyce, has no plans to copy his second cousin, Willie Walsh. Joyce's fellow Irishman, who happens to be the boss of British Airways, was aboard a test flight that ploughed through an ash cloud earlier this week. But Qantas insisted yesterday that it would not be flying test flights, preferring to leave that to Joyce's daredevil cousin.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the airline would be instituting a freeze on staff travel when flights to Europe do resume in order to clear the huge backlog of passengers - and that includes Joyce.

Meanwhile, a bevy of anxious corporate flyers will be descending on an Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon today to get a personal travel update from Joyce. Attendees include Macquarie's chief banana, Nicholas Moore, Coca-Cola's chief bottler, Terry Davis, Optus's chief telephonist, Paul O'Sullivan, and the BrisConnections chairman and Rothschild bigwig, Trevor Rowe.

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