So farewell then Robert Rankin, whose shortlived stint as chairman of James Packer's listed Crown Resorts gambling company and chief executive of Packer's private Consolidated Press Holdings investment vehicle serves as a reminder that perhaps there is some merit in Angus Aitken's sexist contention that investment bankers aren't great at running other people's companies.
Rankin, of course, isn't completely gone.
The former Deutsche heavyweight remains on the boards of Crown and CPH, but it's hard not to view the events of last week as anything other than a serious demotion. Packer, who understands corporate politics better than almost anyone, has gone out of his way to talk up his "friendship" with and "respect" for Rankin yet his words are only slightly more convincing than Rio Tinto's assertion that last year's decision to sack two executives over the miner's African payments scandal "does not pre-judge any external inquiries into the matter".
Questions about Rankin's focus on the operational side of Packer's empire have been raised in some reports which noted the ex-banker's decision to remain in Hong Kong rather than Australia, where Crown's main casinos are based.
And the appointment of John Alexander, an executive who made his name cleaning up Packer's PBL Media before its remarkable pre-financial crisis sale, as new Crown chairman suggests the billionaire wants someone prepared to get stuck into the nitty gritty.
But sources familiar with the Crown business say at least one of Rankin's strategic decisions made life interesting for Packer. Before Packer sold down Crown's stake in its Macau joint venture and ditched plans to build a casino in Las Vegas in December – a deal that replaced previous plans to spin off the company's international operations – he tried to find a partner to help him realise his long-held ambition to privatise Crown.
Private equity firms Blackstone, TPG and Apollo as well several Canadian pension funds are understood to have held talks with the Packer camp in December 2015, when news of the proposed transaction broke.
During discussions with the firms, it is believed Rankin requested that CPH be paid a management fee to run Crown once it was delisted. These sort of management fees are not uncommon in private equity-style deals, but it was a point of contention for potential investors who already had concerns about other aspects of the deal, such as bolshie owners of a chunk of Crown debt.
Some investors even walked away from discussion with the distinct impression Rankin – rather then Packer – was less willing to budge on the fee issue.
Investment bankers as successful as Rankin are paid very well, but a Crown privatisation presented him (as part of CPH) with an opportunity to make some serious money.
Unfortunately for him, a hardline approach with the fee structure did not pay off. And it now seems he has lost out again as Packer opts for executives such as Alexander, who will attempt to grow Crown by maximising its operations rather than deal-doing.
