Holmes à Court

"To that end, Stokes put a deal to Fairfax in mid-1987 that valued what would become the Seven Network at around $700 million; he proposed paying a third cash, a third in shares and a third on credit. It seemed a sensible compromise — what he calls ‘real’. (Fairfax had cemented its hold on Seven by buying Melbourne’s HSV7 from Holmes à Court shortly after Murdoch sold it to him.) The supercilious Fairfax executives had amused Stokes when he’d dared buy their Canberra station six years before. Now they astonished him with their unworldliness. Mr Falkingham of the pinstripe suits and patronising manner had gone but he might have handled the sale better than his successors did. Stokes thought the ‘pretty nice combination’ of cash and shares upfront and the sustainable terms he was offering would appeal to a realistic seller. So he was dismayed to get a telephone call at 11 p.m. one night from a Fairfax advisor, Tony Bourke, to say they had done the deal with another bidder: former business reporter Christopher Skase, one of the more colourful figures in a colourful era. When Stokes asked why Skase, the Fairfax man said: ‘He’s got cash.’ When Stokes heard that Skase had given an undertaking to pay nearly $900 million for the network, he almost laughed."

"Unlike most of his contemporaries, Coppin did not make his fortune in property deals. He had sold insurance in Victoria and stuck to what he knew best. He made big money, though he would lose plenty of it in other ventures. He founded Western Underwriters then sold out to QBE, but stayed in the business. He sold insurance for just about everything, which attracted an interesting cross-section of potential clients. Among them were Holmes à Court and Laurie Connell, two men who loathed each other but who had one thing in common, according to Coppin: they delighted in cheating their insurance broker."