Cherries for pokies chief

PAUL ONEILE'S recent run at pokie concern Aristocrat Leisure has seen returns resemble a cherry, a bell and a pineapple.

So it's good to see the outgoing boss has at least managed three cherries for himself.

After earning around $5 million each year for the past two years, he's sitting on about 380,000 shares. At yesterday's close of $4.85, they are valued at about $2 million.

Three pears and a jackpot for Oneile while things turn pear-shaped for shareholders, given shares are well off their near $18 highs and back below $5.

Still, there was some fortuitous timing for Oneile, announcing his departure the day before a profit warning.

For a chap who spent the bulk of his career in the movie distribution industry, we couldn't help but wonder if he fancied Titanic and hoped to spring from the ship as it attempted to navigate a small iceberg.

"He is not jumping, and it is not sinking," said Aristocrat chairman David Simpson. "Let's get it right, this is a profitable company producing a good cash flow, it is not sinking and he is not jumping from a sinking ship. That would be the last thing that Paul would do. I know the man, that is the last thing Paul would do or want to do. He doesn't see it as a sinking ship and neither do I."

While icebergs are one-third above water and two-thirds below, Aristocrat's shares closed 20 per cent underwater.

Meanwhile, Mike Hawker's $2 million kiss-off from IAG should be enough to set up a modelling agency following his daughter's recent discovery by a magazine as the "next big thing". We suspect $2 million should be enough for a portfolio - a portfolio of pretty pictures if not a share portfolio long in insurance stocks.

Electronic hearth

These are tough economic times. And cash-strapped families have to make tough decisions about where to make cuts.

John Porter, the boss of regional pay TV operator Austar, for one, fancies families are hunkering down in the living room with their pay TV.

"Gathering together around the electronic hearth to enjoy Austar makes sense for families in regional Australia, even if they are cutting back on other items such as dinners out or nights at the cinema," Porter noted at yesterday's results.

And it's not just his opinion. Austar rolled out impressive research showing that Australians need pay TV when times are tough. Apparently more than 25 per cent of non-subscribers agree that in times like these, pay TV provides good value entertainment.

What's more, almost eight in 10 subscribers agree that in times like these, pay TV is a good way of keeping the whole household entertained. Enough to make us want to move to Wagga and sign up.

Meanwhile, Porter's offsider, Deanne Weir, pondered deeper mysteries - noting young chaps consume multiple media simultaneously before raising the thorny issue of what happens as boys become men.

"What they're doing - and it's amazing that teenage boys can do this because they tend to lose this when they become men - they multitask, they actually watch television while they surf the internet, while they're SMSing somebody."

Nikko offload

Gene Lorenz and Rob Nichols have bought the Citi-owned Nikko Principal Investments to set up their own private equity firm, Tasman Capital Partners. With Janine Middleton, the former Deutsche Bankers also picked up a stake in the Nikko assets, FleetPartners and Hirequip, along with Ironbridge Capital. Perhaps recent credit market turmoil and Citi's write-downs contributed to the desire to offload the business.

Top of the card

Tickets are on sale for the exciting upcoming heavyweight bout: Packer v Tchenguiz.

In the blue corner, the James Packer-backed Challenger Infrastructure Fund. Wins: sale of Nine to private equity. Losses: One.Tel.

In the red corner, British property gazillionaire Vincent Tchenguiz, a major Challenger Infrastructure stakeholder who's looking to wind things up.

The trash talking began over the weigh-in scales: Tschenguiz: "[Challenger] is promising investors jam tomorrow - but offers no assurance that it has the recipe."

There is no truth to suggestions a sleepless Packer said: "Cootchy, cootchy, coo."

Ringside seats are going fast for the August 28 meeting.

Welcome mat

Not every board on which Kerry Stokes wants a seat provides the resistance of West Australian Newspapers.

Former WA Premier Richard Court has joined the National Hire board as an non-executive director.

Court is a director of Stokes's WesTrac and "has a long association with [Stokes's] Australian Capital Equity".

We can only wonder precisely how long. Stokes controls about two-thirds of National Hire shares.

It's cold out there

It's about now that NAB's Ahmed Fahour may be starting to feel a touch nervous. NAB's Australian operations kahuna saw his name thrown in the ring as a candidate to succeed Geoff Dixon at Qantas. Sadly, he wasn't wanted. And now with speculation stepping up over successors to John Stewart at NAB, we couldn't help but notice that Fahour's name seems to have slipped out of the reckoning. Then again, those pushing Cameron Clyne's case are probably not doing their man across the dutch too many favours. We hear there are some geographical similarities between Auckland and Siberia.

Rubicon pop-up

Renowned bottom feeder Duncan Saville has popped up as a shareholder in the Rubicon Japan Trust, a concern having a few revaluation issues. Saville's Ingot Capital Management holds nearly 25 million securities or 6 per cent, valued at a little over $2 million.

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