Leftovers for the doctor

IT IS FAIR to say Dr John Hewson has had an eventful time in the boardrooms of Australia.

The former prime ministerial aspirant's stint as executive chairman of Elderslie Finance ended shortly before the company went belly up.

And he was chairman of Natural Fuel, a biodiesel company, before resigning after a plunge in the company's share price, citing corporate governance concerns. Network Entertainment, of which he was founding chairman and for whom he helped raise $12 million in 1996, went into administration after just seven months.

And as chairman of the dotcom hopeful CBD Online, well, you get the point.

So we thought we would cut the good doctor a break by letting him know that there is a big fat cheque with his name on it waiting for collection at the corporate plod.

According to ASIC's online database of unclaimed money, the tidy sum of $86,111.07, being proceeds of the compulsory acquisition of shares in Rinker Group, remains unclaimed after more than a year by Votraint No 997 Pty Ltd.

The sole director of the company? John Robert Hewson.

Oh, and there's $200 for the investment in the Olympic Stadium that you might want to pick up while you're there.

Jam! Now!

Macquarie's defence of the $487 million Archer Capital takeover bid for the bean-counting software firm MYOB has got off to a cracking start.

One would think it would be a cinch fending off a bid 34 per cent lower than one you batted off 10 months earlier.

The MYOB chairman, the former Guinness World Records holder, Macquarie's Melbourne ambassador, and Takeovers Panel president, Simon McKeon, was on the case yesterday when he said he suspected the offer could be "opportunistic".

McKeon may need to chat to his shareholders.

MYOB's second largest shareholder, Guinness Peat Group, said the company promised "jam" when it fended off the earlier offer in February.

"I have no doubt that what shareholders would prefer is to have jam today," said the GPG head honcho Gary Weiss.

Cheer squad

Among those with nags running around Flemington in the Spring Carnival meeting tomorrow are the Credit Suisse operatives Adam Lennen and Stephanie Charles, who, with Tim Rourke of GE, have a stake in a little bloke, Barbaricus, in the Crown Mackinnon Stakes.

It is drawn alongside Gerry Harvey's Zagreb. Harvey will be hoping for a little better form than his lame retailing operations of late.

Meanwhile, Dr Ed Bateman of Primary Healthcare has the aptly named Glowlamp in the Longines Wakeful Stakes. He is chasing a winner's purse of $180,000.

The boss of Riversdale Mining, Michael O'Keefe, formerly of Glencore, will be cheering on his Moatize in race three, trying to get his mitts on the $150,000 purse. And a special Swiss-backed joint venture project is the highlight of race eight. David Trude of CSFB and Mark Burmeister of UBS will be cheering on Absolut Glam in the Myer Classic, hoping to get something from the $300,000 winnings that is not sent straight back to the Swiss Government's bailout program.

Full house

The BHP Billiton boss Marius Kloppers popped into the Westin yesterday to give a speech to the Securities and Derivatives Institute.

Despite BHP describing it as an event focused on retail investors, it was dominated by tables from decidedly institutional operations like Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and Macquarie. The Klop must have felt like he was preaching to the converted because at one point he paused his speech and noted: "I see many old friends here in the audience today".

The old faithfuls included Vicky Binns, the gun mining analyst at BHP's house broker, Merrill Lynch (or is that Bank of America these days?), who is notably absent from the week-long analyst tour that BHP is hosting in Western Australia and South Australia this week.

The Westin's ballroom was filled to capacity, so much so that one notable guest did not enjoy a seat at any table. One of BHP's lead investment banking advisers on the Rio Tinto deal, David Feetham of Gresham, only rated a seat on a stackable chair next to the audio-visual system.

Meanwhile, Paul Skinner has confirmed he is leaving Rio next year when his contract expires, or earlier if the Klop has his way. Whispers suggest he is off to BP.

By some fluke

Commercial television is renowned for being a rough and tumble affair.

So we were relieved the observations by Channel Nine boss David Gyngell about Seven's David Leckie were in good spirit.

At an advertising industry lunch yesterday Gyngell was asked about Leckie's comments that Nine's ratings were a fluke this year. "I have huge regard for David Leckie," the Gynge began, before a short explanation of Nine's ratings that ended with: "The only thing that's fluky is that David is still alive."

Amid the loud guffaws, given Leckie almost fell off the perch earlier this year, the Gynge muttered: "He was still alive when I spoke to him this morning."

And on James Packer's decision to walk away? "James is my oldest friend in the world, and I couldn't be prouder to say that, but he's a better mate than he's a boss." He would say that now, wouldn't he?

Before you stop

Best not have too big a lunch next Tuesday. Just 30 minutes before the race that, groan, stops a nation, there's a fair chance there might be some work to do. Something about the Reserve Bank and a rate cut. Damn credit crisis. Perhaps those Wednesday morning announcements were not such a bad thing.

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