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FRIENDSHIP FORGED IN FINANCING FURNACE
Australian Financial Review
September 17, 2012 Monday
First Edition
"The first time I met Charis he was working for New Zealand's NZI. I
thought he was a pretty bright guy and then he turned up at Macquarie.
Our relationship was forged in fire. We did some of the toughest PPP
(public-private partnership) deals the country has ever seen. When you
work with somebody in that situation and you look around the room at
3am during heated negotiations with the government or the banks and
you see who is still standing, that is when you really get a measure
of people.
Charis was leading the infrastructure finance team at Macquarie. We
started with the Melbourne CityLink project. I had been working on
that project during Labor and then Jeff [Kennett] came in and said this
is a go-er but it has to be private-sector financed and it has got to
have full electronic tolling. 'Oh my God', I thought, and said 'yes,
certainly Premier, we will be able to do that' with fingers crossed
behind my back and away we went. It was an enormously complex project
because it was not only a PPP, but it had a listed vehicle, Transurban,
being created at the same time. Michael headed the team and we had debt
and equity and underwriters, short-term and long-term people. It was a
nightmare. He was just terrific. He is extremely inventive. He always
found a solution to a problem. Michael could also get quite angry
himself at times. I remember him letting go at one of the major banks
in Australia at one time. I've always said this about Armenians. It
takes five Jewish people to make one Chinese and it takes 5 Chinese
to make one Armenian. They are the smartest guys in the world, there
is no doubt about it. They have been traders for 3000 years and they
just know how to put a deal together. When you have been to the wall
with somebody you do develop a lot more respect for them. The thing I
love about Charis is he can relax as well and have a bit of fun. Even
in the darkest moments when things are just appalling and one of the
major banks is threatening to pull the plug, Michael will come out
with a cracker of a line which will save the moment. One time during
deep negotiations with the government in Victoria things were on the
line. It was 11pm on a wet Melbourne night, cold, and we are walking
down Flinders St to the office of the (CityLink) Authority.
There is myself and Charis and Mike Kerslake from Westpac. We are all
rather short people and all feeling a bit depressed ahead of another
long night and Charis looks across the pavement and says 'Talk about
the attack of the killer dwarfs'. That is classic Charis. Everyone is
a bit down and a bit depressed and he comes out with a line like that.
Michael has a lovely family. You get to know the family and that
builds the bond further. We love sport. I am trying to get Charis
involved in AFL. Fundamentally he is an intelligent guy and he will
realise that rugby league is just a boof head game and get over it. I
never call him or have lunch with him when I don't laugh."
"When we first met, Tony was the senior guy and I was the up and
comer. Transfield, really through Tony and Guido Belgiorno-Nettis,
were the first guys who gave me my big shot. He was the icon. I was
not 30 years old at the time, so I was a kid relatively speaking. Tony
was the man. He wasn't all that friendly at the time, I must admit. He
actually complained to my boss and got me back from a family holiday.
He called up and said 'I want you to come back' and I said 'Come on
Tony, I am on holidays'. He called up my boss and whinged and the boss
called up and said, 'Michael this is one of the biggest deals we are
doing'. I came back. Tony was the guy who did all the big projects.
Infrastructure in the late 1980s was just a term and no one was doing
it. It was not sexy at the time, it sort of became sexy in the mid
to late 1990s, and it was bloody hard. These deals took three to five
years to do. You have to remember at the end of these periods you can
bloody lose. If you lose a deal about two years of your life is gone.
We were just lucky we won the Melbourne CityLink. The life of people in
the sector is a series of failures punctuated by the occasional success
so you better enjoy those days because they don't happen that often. We
both love boxing. Several years ago we went to Vegas to watch a fight,
to see an Armenian-Australian boxer called Vic Darchinyan. He came out
for the Olympics here and has been a triple world champion. I always
said to him if he fought in Vegas I would come and see him. I happened
to be in the US and I said to Tony would you like to come and he said
yes. My wife came as well and the three of us went to see the fight
in Vegas. He headlined and he won. I call Tony The Good Shepherd. No
one has been born in more places in Australia than Tony. No one has
been to more schools than Tony. Every time you go to see a government
on a deal Tony is from that state. 'I went to school in Victoria,
I grew up in Perth, I spent my childhood in Brisbane'. We do go to
sport together but he is way too busy. He is certainly the most vocal
BCA president. I think it is an age thing. He is not scared to say
what he thinks. There is no bullshit about Tony.
What you see is what you get. Why I like working with Tony is that he
sees the whole picture and that is a real skill. It is so rare. This
guy is like the workaholic champion and for him to take on the BCA
he really believed the business voice was not being heard in the
appropriate way. He is out there. The way I look at it, I have 2000
weekends to go and the last 500 are going to be crap."
Responding to Tony's comments about Armenians, Michael says: "Oh Tony,
you are going to get a lot of pizzas and kebabs I think and you are
going to get your car serviced for free."
Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd (pictured
right), 68, has been involved in some of Australia's biggest
infrastructure projects and has chaired Transfield Services since
2005. Former Macquarie Capital executive chairman Michael Carapiet,
54, ran the bank's infrastructure funds and helped drive the company's
global expansion. Armenian-born Carapiet, known as "Charisma" by some
colleagues and "Charis" (short for "charisma", pronounced "karas") by
Tony, retired from Macquarie last year. He chairs the NSW State Super
fund. The two met more than 20 years ago during tough negotiations
over financing infrastructure deals and became close friends.
MIchael Smith
Australian Financial Review
September 17, 2012 Monday
First Edition
"The first time I met Charis he was working for New Zealand's NZI. I
thought he was a pretty bright guy and then he turned up at Macquarie.
Our relationship was forged in fire. We did some of the toughest PPP
(public-private partnership) deals the country has ever seen. When you
work with somebody in that situation and you look around the room at
3am during heated negotiations with the government or the banks and
you see who is still standing, that is when you really get a measure
of people.
Charis was leading the infrastructure finance team at Macquarie. We
started with the Melbourne CityLink project. I had been working on
that project during Labor and then Jeff [Kennett] came in and said this
is a go-er but it has to be private-sector financed and it has got to
have full electronic tolling. 'Oh my God', I thought, and said 'yes,
certainly Premier, we will be able to do that' with fingers crossed
behind my back and away we went. It was an enormously complex project
because it was not only a PPP, but it had a listed vehicle, Transurban,
being created at the same time. Michael headed the team and we had debt
and equity and underwriters, short-term and long-term people. It was a
nightmare. He was just terrific. He is extremely inventive. He always
found a solution to a problem. Michael could also get quite angry
himself at times. I remember him letting go at one of the major banks
in Australia at one time. I've always said this about Armenians. It
takes five Jewish people to make one Chinese and it takes 5 Chinese
to make one Armenian. They are the smartest guys in the world, there
is no doubt about it. They have been traders for 3000 years and they
just know how to put a deal together. When you have been to the wall
with somebody you do develop a lot more respect for them. The thing I
love about Charis is he can relax as well and have a bit of fun. Even
in the darkest moments when things are just appalling and one of the
major banks is threatening to pull the plug, Michael will come out
with a cracker of a line which will save the moment. One time during
deep negotiations with the government in Victoria things were on the
line. It was 11pm on a wet Melbourne night, cold, and we are walking
down Flinders St to the office of the (CityLink) Authority.
There is myself and Charis and Mike Kerslake from Westpac. We are all
rather short people and all feeling a bit depressed ahead of another
long night and Charis looks across the pavement and says 'Talk about
the attack of the killer dwarfs'. That is classic Charis. Everyone is
a bit down and a bit depressed and he comes out with a line like that.
Michael has a lovely family. You get to know the family and that
builds the bond further. We love sport. I am trying to get Charis
involved in AFL. Fundamentally he is an intelligent guy and he will
realise that rugby league is just a boof head game and get over it. I
never call him or have lunch with him when I don't laugh."
"When we first met, Tony was the senior guy and I was the up and
comer. Transfield, really through Tony and Guido Belgiorno-Nettis,
were the first guys who gave me my big shot. He was the icon. I was
not 30 years old at the time, so I was a kid relatively speaking. Tony
was the man. He wasn't all that friendly at the time, I must admit. He
actually complained to my boss and got me back from a family holiday.
He called up and said 'I want you to come back' and I said 'Come on
Tony, I am on holidays'. He called up my boss and whinged and the boss
called up and said, 'Michael this is one of the biggest deals we are
doing'. I came back. Tony was the guy who did all the big projects.
Infrastructure in the late 1980s was just a term and no one was doing
it. It was not sexy at the time, it sort of became sexy in the mid
to late 1990s, and it was bloody hard. These deals took three to five
years to do. You have to remember at the end of these periods you can
bloody lose. If you lose a deal about two years of your life is gone.
We were just lucky we won the Melbourne CityLink. The life of people in
the sector is a series of failures punctuated by the occasional success
so you better enjoy those days because they don't happen that often. We
both love boxing. Several years ago we went to Vegas to watch a fight,
to see an Armenian-Australian boxer called Vic Darchinyan. He came out
for the Olympics here and has been a triple world champion. I always
said to him if he fought in Vegas I would come and see him. I happened
to be in the US and I said to Tony would you like to come and he said
yes. My wife came as well and the three of us went to see the fight
in Vegas. He headlined and he won. I call Tony The Good Shepherd. No
one has been born in more places in Australia than Tony. No one has
been to more schools than Tony. Every time you go to see a government
on a deal Tony is from that state. 'I went to school in Victoria,
I grew up in Perth, I spent my childhood in Brisbane'. We do go to
sport together but he is way too busy. He is certainly the most vocal
BCA president. I think it is an age thing. He is not scared to say
what he thinks. There is no bullshit about Tony.
What you see is what you get. Why I like working with Tony is that he
sees the whole picture and that is a real skill. It is so rare. This
guy is like the workaholic champion and for him to take on the BCA
he really believed the business voice was not being heard in the
appropriate way. He is out there. The way I look at it, I have 2000
weekends to go and the last 500 are going to be crap."
Responding to Tony's comments about Armenians, Michael says: "Oh Tony,
you are going to get a lot of pizzas and kebabs I think and you are
going to get your car serviced for free."
Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd (pictured
right), 68, has been involved in some of Australia's biggest
infrastructure projects and has chaired Transfield Services since
2005. Former Macquarie Capital executive chairman Michael Carapiet,
54, ran the bank's infrastructure funds and helped drive the company's
global expansion. Armenian-born Carapiet, known as "Charisma" by some
colleagues and "Charis" (short for "charisma", pronounced "karas") by
Tony, retired from Macquarie last year. He chairs the NSW State Super
fund. The two met more than 20 years ago during tough negotiations
over financing infrastructure deals and became close friends.
MIchael Smith