Suncorp-Metway's new chief executive, Patrick ''Montgomery'' Snowball, seems ...

Max Moore-Wilton … playing a familiar tune by the Doughnut Tribe. Illustration: John Shakespeare

Suncorp-Metway's new chief executive, Patrick ''Montgomery'' Snowball, seems reluctant to let go of his memories as a British army tank commander.

''My polite message to those who seek to target us is: 'Get your tanks off our lawn','' said Snowball in his address to shareholders at yesterday's annual meeting.

Snowball explained his career as an ''armoured soldier'' taught him about decision making and the ''value of clarity of thought'' . The Suncorp chief also got shareholders wondering who he was talking about when he said he had a ''determination to execute in a timely and efficient manner''.

CBD is looking forward to see what battlefield formations Snowball might come up with in the event of a takeover attack. Will Snowball don battle fatigues? Snowball also attempted to show that he - or at least his speechwriter - had a sense of humour.

''As you have no doubt worked out by now, I have about the best surname one could ever wish to have were one to be leading a company with SUN in its name.''

Another chief executive not to mess with is Caltex's Julian Segal, who allegedly learnt some sharp-shooting skills from the Israeli Defence Force.

TANGLED WEB

The independent directors of Macquarie Media must be exhausted after bullying their manager, Macquarie Group, into agreeing to a proposal to internalise the management of the radio network, which reported an impressive $85 million loss last financial year.

Just weeks after independent directors of Macquarie Airports (MAp) intimidated Macquarie into taking $345 million to go away, the Bermuda-based MMG has announced a plan to follow up with a $40.5 million payment to the silver doughnut.

Again the radio network's executive chairman and head disc jockey, Max ''the Axe'' Moore-Wilton - also the chairman of MAp - has been forced to stand back from the negotiations.

Macquarie Group's two big bananas, Nick Moore and Michael Carapiet, were also left out of the MMG negotiating team. This meant they could only be on the Macquarie side in the talks.

In proving the independence of the ''independent'' MMG directors in the talks, the media group noted some of them had been appointed by Macquarie and that its independent chairman, Michael Hamer, was also on the board of the Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund.

It noted the independent director Bob Richards also served on the Macquarie Special Situations Fund. According to MMG, another independent, Tony Bell, despite being the former head of the MMG-owned Southern Cross Broadcasting, ''has the ability and willingness to operate independently, objectively and to challenge the boards and management of MMG''.

''The measures announced today represent a significant step in the development of MMG,'' explained Leon Pasternak, another independent chairman and partner from the law firm often used by Macquarie, Freehills.

Macquarie Group is at risk of exposing itself to more media scrutiny after agreeing to shed its management rights over its listed fund. It is believed some of MMG's radio stations, such as Coffs Harbour's 105.5 Star FM and Hobart's Heart FM, will now looking to step up their hard-hitting coverage of Macquarie Group.

MMG's chief executive, Mark Dorney, is so excited about the future of the media group that he will stay with Macquarie, leaving it to his right-hand man, Rhys Holleran, to take the reins if shareholders approve the company's internalisation plan.

BRISBANE TOLL

Celebrations will no doubt be in full swing at Macquarie and Deutsche Bank today when they are welcomed as the two largest shareholders in the massively successful listed toll-road company BrisConnections.

The banks will take a collective 81 per cent stake in the company, whose security price for its two instalments has surged from $2 to 17c.

The stake comes courtesy of Macquarie and Deutsche assuming ownership of the 276.5 million securities defaulted on in the listing of the second $390 million instalment of the road, which has kept Macquarie's lawyers, Freehills, busy this year.

Macquarie at least has recouped some recent costs. On Tuesday the Federal Court judge Arthur Emmett ordered the banned company director Jim Byrnes to pay the silver doughnut $185,000 in legal costs. The costs stem from the failed $1.3 billion class action Byrnes tried to launch against Macquarie and the managers of BrisConnections in April this year.

JIMMY HOUDINI

Byrnes had a near miss in another court hearing yesterday.

Set to face a grilling in the witness box at the NSW Supreme Court, he pulled off a legal Houdini - avoiding having to answer questions about whether he was in contempt of court - in relation to a case where he is suing a former business partner.

Byrnes skipped having to answer probing questions about whether he had forwarded a copy of a court transcript to business associates, thanks to some deft out-of-court negotiations.

Forwarding a transcript is not usually an offence. It is just that this time the transcript contained confidential details he had sworn to keep secret.

A finding of contempt of court would have landed Byrnes in hot water because he is still serving a three-year good behaviour bond over an unrelated altercation involving a baseball bat and a broken window in the office of the lawyer Hector Ekes three years ago.

At the time Byrnes blamed his behaviour on a ''brain snap''.

Yesterday's case relates to a dispute over a garage full of classic cars in the Philippines.

It was brought by two companies run by Byrnes's wife, Gina. They are BFT Custodians - which stands for Byrnes Family Trust - and BMT Custodians - Byrnes Motor Trust. They are suing one of Byrnes' former business partners in a Phillipine classic car company, Classic Autocraft, over who owns which cars.

The Byrnes family trusts are trying to stop the former business partner from selling or ''dealing with'' about a dozen classic and collector cars, including a ''Dino'' Ferrari, which is a classic Ferrari from the late '60s and early '70s. The cars are in the Philippines.

The trust also wants an order that the cash from the sale of other cars through the British auction house Coys last October be paid to the court until it is decided who it should go to.

The former business partner, who has asked not to be named, says Byrnes still owes him $165,000 in legal costs from two previous legal skirmishes.

For the record, Byrnes gets around town in a black Chrysler with dark tinted windows and the number plate ''0''.

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