John Borghetti ... no racing cars, but perhaps a role as a trolley dolly. Illustration: John Shakespeare
Former Qantas high-flyer John Borghetti's new role as the chief executive of Virgin Blue may finally give the airline veteran a chance to resurrect his long-abandoned formula four racing career.
The Italian Stallion was no doubt pleased to get a congratulatory call from Virgin Blue's largest shareholder, Richard Branson, early this week after he was chosen as chief executive. Borghetti may have even enjoyed the background noise on the phone call more than Sir Dick's voice. The Virgin Group boss was trackside at Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, watching his new Virgin Racing formula one team do some pre-season training. Borghetti yesterday confirmed he had already put in a request to drive one of Branson's cars, to no avail.
Borghetti, however, remained tight-lipped on the ''private bet'' he had with Branson concerning the future performance of Virgin Blue. He declined to confirm or deny whether it involved cross-dressing, car racing or money. The last time the Virgin founder attempted to have a wager with a former Qantas crew member was in 2004.
The then-Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon declined to enter the bet, which would have required him to wear a Virgin Atlantic female flight attendant outfit if his rival managed to launch flights from London to Sydney by Christmas of that year - which it did.
Branson recently entered into another cross-dressing bet with Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes. He will have to serve drinks as a female trolley dolly on an Air Asia flight if the Fernandes-headed Lotus F1 team finishes ahead of his Virgin team this season.
BUT WAIT …Virgin Group's Asia-Pacific boss, David Baxby, it turns out, was never in the race for the Virgin Blue job. Baxby was still pedalling around Kosciuszko National Park yesterday, on the fourth stage of the Tour de Kids Melbourne to Sydney charity bike ride with his brother and father.
Baxby reportedly sent out a message on Monday night confirming that the third, 176-kilometre stage, where he had started his hill climb into the Snowy Mountains, had been a ''brutal day''. Virgin Blue's outgoing boss, Brett Godfrey, conceded the announcement helped him justify his excuse for pulling out of the 1100-kilometre bike ride.
The former Olympic cyclist and now Colliers industrial property executive Stephen Wooldridge is believed to be setting a cracking pace in the tour. A Colliers operative said the peloton has been averaging 40 kilometres an hour. The pack is due to arrive in Sydney on Friday.
… THERE'S MORE
Virgin Blue also bucked its reputation yesterday as being more touchy-feely than its key rival Qantas. When the Flying Kangaroo's former chairman Margaret Jackson, chief executive Geoff Dixon and the Allco Finance deputy chairman Bob Mansfield celebrated the planned - then botched - private equity buyout of Qantas in December 2006, they expressed their joy in a mass hug before a press conference. ''I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, our customers a very Merry Christmas and our shareholders a very Merry Christmas,'' Jackson said.
So when it came to Virgin Blue's unveiling of its new chief executive yesterday, expectations were high. But, as it turned out, there were no hugs or kisses between Borghetti and the outgoing chief Brett Godfrey. All the two managed at the press conference was a quick handshake. They then proceeded to give Churchill-like victory (Virgin) salutes. In an attempt to blend into his new role, the normally impeccably-dressed Borghetti ditched the necktie at the media conference. ''I don't think I'll have any problems fitting into the culture,'' he explained. Borghetti said after the conference that he was yet to get a congratulatory call from the man who pipped him for the top job at Qantas, Alan Joyce. He said he had been too busy to check his messages.
POSTIE LOWY
The shopping centre top gun and Westfield deputy chairman David ''Maverick'' Lowy will next week take centre stage in the ongoing celebrations marking the centenary of the first powered flight in Australia.
Lowy has been booked to pilot a flight from Wagga Wagga to Temora on Tuesday to re-create one of the legs of the first airmail delivery in the country.
He is expected to fly an open cockpit 1930s former US Army Air Corps Ryan training aircraft from the collection of the Temora Aviation Museum, over which he presides. Australia Post will mark the occasion with the release of a stamp issue celebrating the seven-stage airmail delivery undertaken by the Frenchman Maurice Guillaux in 1914. For the record, the first powered flight in Australia took to the skies on December 9, 1909, when Englishman Colin Defries piloted The Stella at the Victoria Park racetrack (now a Landcom housing development site) in Zetland.
WATERLOGGED
Impress Energy failed to impress the market yesterday with its update on its Growler and Snatcher fields in the Cooper Basin. Due to the recent rains in central Australia, it warned that production from the wells may go down this year. It said it was ''probable that production from the Growler and Snatcher fields will remain shut-in for at least a further six to eight weeks''.
EXCUSE US
The property fund manager MacarthurCook has come up with a novel excuse for the late filing of its accounts. It seems a dog is on the loose in its offices, eating homework and other related paperwork.
After seeing shares in its listed Properties Securities and Industrial Property funds suspended on Monday after they failed to lodge their accounts, the manager confirmed yesterday it was all down to a ''technical problem''. Apparently, the company had notified the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about the change of its auditors from KPMG to Deloittes last month. But ASIC for some reason ''declined'' the resignation of KPMG due to the technical error.
At least the company released some unaudited accounts. For the half-year, the Property Securities Fund reported a $7.3 million loss. But the Industrial Fund managed a $4.2 million profit, compared to a $41.4 million loss in the previous corresponding period. Let's hope the new auditors are happy with the valuation of its property portfolio.
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