February 15, 1992
AUSSIES MAKE THEIR MARK IN MONACO
ERIC ELLIS
MONACO: Richard Wiesener's flat at 7 Avenue de la Costa, Monte Carlo, next door to the Princess Grace School of Dance, affords a view across the port of the fairytale Principaute de Monaco - a $1 million view, one might say.
Indeed, it's probably worth more than $1 million if you're a player in the Australian brewing industry - it's difficult to put a figure on what a pair of binoculars wielded by former Elders IXL heavyweights are worth when they are trained on an Alan Bond in full flight.
Wiesener won't be drawn on the story - "a boat is a very attractive place to do business". But a man who knows him well relishes the tale of how Bond sailed into town when he was solvent a few summers back and started deal-making, champagne flute in hand, from the deck of his boat.
"It was a superb view. You could virtually read the fine print of the contract," says the colleague. "You knew exactly who he was doing deals with and you also had a fair idea what sort of deals they were.
"At that time, you must remember, Bondy was in pitched battle with Foster's in the Aussie beer market. You couldn't put a price on that sort of intelligence.
"I have to say there were a few other things Bond was doing which wouldn't necessarily fall under the category of business."
The Bond story is now the stuff of legend for the 150-strong Australian community of in Monaco, a well-heeled bunch of suntans united by a common accent, a lack of French and an aversion to the taxman. (Some put the number at 550 registered with the Monagasque Government, with 150 or so actually resident. Australians form a disproportionately large percentage among expatriates and outnumber many Europeans for whom Monaco is a more natural refuge.)
Paramount among these tax exiles is Richard Wiesener. He and Australian Test opener Bob Cowper were the two fabled shadows behind the rise of John Elliott.
"People have called Monaco a tax haven and me a tax adviser. It's not and I'm not," explained an emphatic Wiesener, whose fortune is estimated at $200 million.
Alliance Maritime Investments occupies the fourth floor of George Cinq, the office-apartment complex at 14 Avenue de Grande Bretagne, known colloquially in the principality as "Australia House".
The Alliance office, employing seven Australians, is next door to the headquarters of AFP Group Plc, the controversial investment company that at various times has brought together some of the sharpest names in Australian paper-shuffling - John Elliott, Geoff Lord, Basil Sellers and Abe Goldberg. Despite attempts by AFP chairman and another Monaco resident, John Gerahty, to downplay the connection publicly at a meeting of AFP shareholders in London last month, it would seem the links remain strong. Secretaries and couriers scurry busily between the two offices carrying papers and files, suggesting links may be a little firmer than Mr Gerahty has indicated.
The traffic from both is similarly heavy down the lift to 1 Avenue des Citronniers, where the British-owned County Natwest Securities has its Monaco office.
Nothing particularly unusual about that, you might say, there are a number of stockbrokers servicing clients in the South of France.
However, what is unusual about this County office is that it spins not out of County in London but that its gold-plate shingle says County Natwest Securities Australia Ltd. Staffed by Australians, it exists purely to service the interests of the business community in Monaco.
(As clerks at the Australian Stock Exchange will know, County has been the most active broker in the shares of AFP and has traded literally billions during the life of the controversial cash box.)
The County office is run by urbane Sydney broker Kim Oxenham. Before setting up the County office in Monaco he was better known to Elliott-watchers as Richard Wiesener's right-hand man at Alliance Maritime. He left Wiesener's company about 18 months ago but decided he didn't want to leave Monaco. Arms were twisted and he set up what is perhaps County Australia's most exotic office.
It's is a sensitive subject for County. Simon Howe, Oxenham's right-hand man in Monaco, asked the Herald if we would mind not mentioning the fact that County had an office in Monaco.
"We are an institutional broker, and every time our name is mentioned in the press we get lots of mums and dads ringing us up and wasting our time. We are only here because National Westminster has an office here," Howe said.
Another Australian connection at George Cinq is three floors up at the Merida Investment Company. Inside, Australian flags are draped around a high-tech dealing room.
Little is known about this operation but its principal, Mark Johnson, recently shot to minor prominence with a starring role in last month's AFP London meeting, where he grilled Gerahty and AFP offsider Basil Sellers with half-an-hour's worth of curly ones about transactions involving Monaco shelf companies and AFP shares.
Gerahty shifted uncomfortably in his seat, Sellers perspired and muttered something about acting with total propriety before Gerahty told Johnson the issues he had raised could have been settled "in a more appropriate forum".
While some might argue few forums are more appropriate than a public meeting of shareholders, it was clear what Gerahty meant - Monaco.
Johnson says he has no connection with AFP other than Merida being a "small shareholder" in the company and that they were tenants in the same building. "I don't know them at all, socially or otherwise." But he is known to Oxenham, who has acted on Merida's behalf in dealing AFP shares, and has fallen out commercially with AFP.
Oxenham was another who raised some questions at the AFP meeting at London's exclusive Dorchester hotel. He obviously doesn't want to talk about it. When the Herald called, he hung up.
These connections are the subject of considerable tattle in Australian circles in Monaco. As alliances unravel in Australia, often with devastating effect, so too relations are strained in Monaco.
One-time partners Wiesener and Cowper have "fallen out in a big, big way".
"They don't even give each other the time of day. They hate each other's guts," says one who knows them both well. "It's been very hard for their wives".
Wiesener, Cowper and Gerahty are the highest profile Australians in Monaco. The Gerahtys have launched themselves vigorously into Monagasque social life and entertain frequently at their $15,000-a-month apartment in Le Formentor, on the beachside Avenue Princess Grace.
The Cowpers, Bob and Dale, live in the building next to the Gerahtys, on the 10th floor of Houston Palace. Although the Gerahtys and the Wieseners throw the most lavish, most eclectic parties, especially around Grand Prix time, the Cowpers are considered the "most down-to-earth and much more interesting".
Wiesener has a special status in Monaco among the English-speaking community as part-owner, with London's Capital Radio group, of Radio Riviera, the English-language station that broadcasts from the studios of the famous Radio Monte Carlo.
His managing director is Richard Yonge, a distant relative of former HongkongBank Australia boss James Yonge. His wife Shirley runs one of Monaco's most successful yacht brokerages, Camper and Nicolson, which does a lot of business with their fellow Antipodeans.
For an Australian blowing through town, the place to be on Friday nights is the beach bar in front of Cowper's building, Le Festival.
A typical gathering might include the Gerahtys, some of the jocks at Alliance Maritime and County, the Cowpers or the Wieseners and Shirley and Richard Yonge.
The motorbikers Mike Doohan and Wayne Gardner (and wife Donna) may drop in if they're in town, as may the tennis journeyman Mark Woodforde or Boris Becker's coach, Bob Brett.
Bill Mason and Kerry Wright of Reg Grundy could stick their head in, as may John "Jack-the-Slasher" Swain, who owns a few bars and restaurants with Bob Cowper at nearby Rocque Brun Village.
"Australians have a very good reputation here," says Kerry Wright, since September 1987 general counsel at Grundy Worldwide, which is "administered in accounting and legal terms" from George Cinq at 14 Avenue de Grande Bretagne.
"They are active members of the community and, unlike a lot of other expatriates who live here, most of them actually work here. Some of them have even set up a Monte Carlo Cricket Club."