Craig

"Commercial property investor Sir Bob Jones is scathing about Rainbow Properties and says the company had no idea what it was doing. He says people are inclined to think that the commercial property field is simply a matter of bricks and mortar, but to invest successfully involves an understanding of intangible things including history and context. His company has worked out its own formulas, he says. ‘We’ve found it terribly easy to make vast sums of money. Some years after Rainbow Properties had gone, Craig said to me, “You know, I never really understood commercial property. I just don’t get it.” It’s a very revealing remark. Craig is sort of black and white. He’s a puritan. It’s hard to imagine him running rampant in any sense. He’s always under control. And I don’t think it’s because he is concerned about what people think, he’s just highly self-controlled and is probably quite content with life. He’s low on ego count.’"

"‘It’s standard negotiating practice,’ says Gibbs calmly, thinking back on the episode. ‘You come to a deal, do due diligence and then say to the customer, “Oh, hell, I didn’t know that the debtors were running three days late and that the ink was low in the inkwells and there were a couple of other things that were a bit nasty actually, mate, so I don’t think I’m prepared to offer that much now, let’s call it $80 million,” type of thing. I’ve been through that enough times to know that it’s just a game. But Craig wasn’t in a position to put more money in. He may even have borrowed against what he had. I haven’t a clue, but I did know that he wasn’t in any position to go very far without getting this deal. We had play money in there, but he had all his capital.’"

"As with John in Australia three years earlier, Craig’s hiring may have been a surprise to a few people who had thought Steve Ridgway’s successor (Steve had been Virgin Atlantic’s CEO for twelve years) was probably going to come from within the airline. Again, though, like in Australia, we opted to take someone from a big legacy carrier – it wasn’t the first time we went fishing at American, having hired David Cush from there to head up Virgin America some years earlier."

"*We agreed on $108 million, a bloody good price, and they said, ‘Well, we have to refer to our HQs and consult before we give you the final answer,* *but basically we’ve got a deal.’ Then they came back with the classic tack and said, ‘Oh dear, the due diligence was not as thorough as it should have been and our boards have told us we can’t go that far.’ So they offered us 20 per cent less. I knew that they really wanted it, but they were just trying it on. I said to Craig, ‘No way!’ Then I dictated a letter from our lawyer responding to the offer, which had only one line: ‘Your offer is of no interest whatsoever to our clients.’ We were losing money and they were still offering us $80 odd million. Craig was a bit nervous, but, sure enough, the phone line began to buzz a few hours later and we got the full amount.* Heatley concedes that Gibbs was a much better bluffer. ‘We were in a weak position,’ he says, ‘and Alan convinced them we were as strong as an ox; he knew they were just being bullies, trying to chisel us, and that they’d give way if we held firm.’"