Rupe wants our money

We're not quite sure that many of the fund managers around town would like to be referred to as sheep.

But they were called just that. And by the Sun King himself, last night, at a private JB Were function for about 70 of its most important private clients.

Murdoch, who addressed the gathering and sat on the dais with sons Lachlan and James, David DeVoe, Peter Chernin and Were's host Terry Campbell, and then stayed on for the free drinks, said he would rather have his share register full of retail investors. That is to say, he would rather own the company 100 per cent himself, but as that wasn't possible, retail investors were next best.

The address was part of a News Corp campaign to attract retail investors.

Board capers

It's quite remarkable just how straight a straight shooter Maree Callaghan is.

She has certainly told all and sundry up and down the state just what a direct character she is. She's said no to factionalism and promised to depoliticise the NRMA's conflict-ridden board.

Imagine, then, our confusion when we noticed that the replacement director for one of the vacancies created by the departure from the board of Nick the Nice Whitlam and Anne Keating, which the very straight Maree has recommended to the board, is none other than Gordon Douglass.

His first board meeting may be today the last meeting before the special general meeting next Thursday if the board appoints him.

This is the same Gordon Douglass, of Jarretts Lane in Kangaroo Valley, who was a signatory to the requisition notice for a special general meeting to rid the board of Richard Talbot and his cronies.

That's the requisition that elle presidente reckons is a debacle. She told Sky News that ``there's no use for it [the requisition] apart from troublemaking and a great cost to the NRMA ... a distraction for all of us, very disappointing".

Almost elected

The dreams of shareholder errant Stephen Mayne almost came true yesterday, when for one spine-tingling second it looked as if he might have a real shot at a seat at King Rupert's round table.

Standing for election as a News Corp director, Mayne's pleas for News to adopt a policy of editorial independence and improve its corporate governance found many a sympathetic ear in the Hyatt Regency ballroom in Adelaide yesterday.

It was so hard to tell whether there were more hands raised for or against Mayne's election that Rupert was forced to call for an actual hand count. It came up 79 votes in favour of Mayne and 86 against.

Acknowledging the vote was ``very close", Murdoch asked shareholders: ``Would anyone like a recount?"

A ripple of excitement ran through the room: would Stephen Mayne force the media mogul to a poll?

But mindful of the Murdoch family's Cruden and its 30 per cent voting stake in News Corp, Mayne graciously decided not to waste everyone's time. As Murdoch pointed out, Mayne would have lost by a landslide on the proxies anyway.

It was a case of deja vu when shareholders were asked to approve the issue of options to non-executive directors. Rupert again called for a count, and this time there were 85 yeas and 73 nays.

The proxies were 2:1 in favour of the options issue. Rupert revealed Australian institutional investors had been split 50-50, whereas ``98 to 99 per cent" of US investors were in favour of the proposal.

Age catching up

Viagra, a new young wife and baby, and black satin shirts unbuttoned to the navel notwithstanding, Rupert is getting old.

While looking as dapper as any chairman worth billions of dollars would in a navy suit and tie, the 71-year-old Sun King was displaying a few signs of old codgerdom at yesterday's annual meeting.

Murdoch stumbled on more than one occasion over figures, forcing company secretary Keith Brodie to come to his rescue. And at the post-AGM press conference both Murdoch's sight and his hearing appeared to be failing him. Squinting at the jostling media throng, Murdoch often asked for the questions to be repeated.

At one point, son Lachlan stepped in to help his Dad.

When asked if Gemstar would release a revised set of accounts now it had a new management team, Rupert was momentarily stuck for a response, before the Sun Prince whispered in his ear: ``That's a matter for the Gemstar board", which Rupert duly repeated out loud for the hacks.

The Murdoch boys

On Tuesday, Kerry Stokes's boys were in the spotlight, yesterday it was the turn of the (somewhat more powerful) Murdoch boys, who made the trek to Adelaide, distinguishing themselves from half the News Corp directors who didn't bother.

Exchanging jokes and whispers during the meeting, Lachlan and James appeared the best of friends right down to their matching haircuts (cut close on the sides and spiky on the top). At the press conference afterwards, Lachlan even sat with his arm casually draped over the back of James's chair.

But while Lachlan appeared to be suffering a slight cold yesterday (perhaps brought on by the freezing South Australian temperatures), he definitely looked healthier and more relaxed than his younger bro.

The boys were a study in contrasts: the short, stocky and tanned Lachlan leaned back in his chair throughout the meeting, while the tall, pale, thin and bespectacled James sat hunched forward, often squinting up at his father.

On the subject of the Murdoch progeny, he has five kids, not four, as the hand-out said yesterday.