Coles lines up online

Coles Myer boss John Fletcher is believed to have donned the black polo neck for a closer look at unlisted online retail outfit Shopfast.

Frustrated at an inability to enact a petrol deal with the Dutchies at Shell, Fletch has logged on to the dot commer as he tries to keep up with the Joneses up ahead at Woolies.

Now that Roger Corbett has his foot on a strategic stake in Greengrocer.com, the Coles boss is believed to be eager to do the same at its four-year-old rival Shopfast.

Investors in the vehicle, which took to the heavens above Bondi on the weekend for a spot of promotional sky writing, include the Davids family, media heir Cameron O'Reilly, company founder Ross Whitehead, the Smorgon family, Tinshed Investments and American venture capitalist JW Seligman.

A sale to Coles would come as the operation is said to be on the cusp of breaking even, assisting the limping inhouse operations of Colesonline.com.au.

The Davids family has traditionally been advised by former Wentworth Associates principal David Gordon, these days operating out of Lexicon Partners.

With the assistance of the folk at CSFB, Shopfast has considered a sharemarket float as a possible exit for the foundation investors, who also include former McKinsey's associates David White and Michael Rennie.

A job for long tongs

The Cordiant share price isn't the only thing going up and down in the troubled world of Manhattan man David Hearn.

Negotiations with the Pacific Equity Partners buyout of Hearn's Aussie basketcase are set to strike the 11th hour, with a signing ceremony planned for this Friday should parties agree on final terms.

But things could still come a cropper between now and then given the volatile personalities around the table.

Former muffin-man Hearn, when head of Goodman Fielder, is said to have had less than tip-top relations with forceful PEP executive Rickard Gardell.

The pair met amid the private equity outfit's tilt at the (still) drifting food group back in early 2001.

Hearn has let the Bain-backed PEP in the door on the proviso he deals only with Gardell's fellow executive Tim Sims, who is likely to run a few laps around the ad man and his team in the coming days in an effort to trim some late value from the deal.

While the Cordiant boss handles the sale from the Big Apple, a team of finance execs have been dispatched down under to get the transaction over the line.

Suncorp in shade

Colonial First State's John Pearce has wasted no time in getting mileage out of the fund manager's new partner, Peter Morgan of 452 Capital, who has been flying around the country in recent weeks to help Pearce convince advisers that there's life after Chris Cuffe and Greg Perry.

It seems things didn't go entirely to plan on Friday morning, when Morgan listed Suncorp among 452's preferred stocks for the Queensland leg of the tour at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

Morgan apparently joked that it was dangerous to make such a call just half an hour before the Banana bank was due to report its half-year results.

His fears were well-founded, Suncorp's shares taking a hiding later in the day when the numbers proved not to the market's liking.

In a rare insight into what Morgan has been up to since leaving Perpetual, he listed Westpac, Boral, Santos, NAB, PBL and BHP Steel among 452's active positions.

The tour also allowed Pearce to wind down from an eventful few weeks and celebrate his 40th birthday on Thursday night at Echo restaurant.

On Suncorp, chief financial officer Chris Skilton still seems a little miffed to be overlooked for the top job if his quip at Friday's analyst presentation was any indication. Noting a $4 million expense for former boss Steve Jones, he glanced at new boss John Mulcahy: ``That's a one-off. I think it's a one-off."

Chicago discipline

Baycorp Advantage boss Keith McLaughlin raised the blood pressure of some very big investors with Thursday's latest profit revision.

Chicago fund manager Harris Associates cropped up as a substantial shareholder on November 18, about six days after Baycorp's first profit downgrade halved the share price.

Harris was apparently convinced by local brokers that the worst was over for the credit reference and debt collection group and as such it was a good time to buy in. Harris since lifted the stake to more than 7 per cent, according to the latest notice out last week.

The problem for McLaughlin and new chairman and one-time NAB executive Glenn Barnes is that Harris has a fine pedigree when it comes to shareholder activism and ousting management it doesn't like. Harris is most famous for leading the removal of Maurice Saatchi from the chairmanship of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1995.

Twigs reshooting

The now 40-year-old former Anaconda Nickel boss Andrew Forrest has dug himself up a new corporate plaything but has had to consign himself to the chilly wilds of Siberia to see out his twilight years.

A fearless Twiggy has hooked up with some old Anaconda mates to take a new mining vehicle to market with the help of Perth broker DJ Carmichael.

The still-to-be-created Siberia Mining Corp will search for gold north-west of Kalgoorlie.

Former Anaconda independent director Chris Linegar and old company executive Malcolm James will sit with Twiggy on the Siberia board as it seeks $2.2 million, with a prospectus to be lodged in the next week or so.

The company believes Forrest will bring ``experience and access to capital markets without parallel".