Metrics is now a hotelier!
A rolling stone gathers no moss, and a rolling loan gathers no loss.
Last week was one of stark contrast for the Metrics industrial complex. On Tuesday, Metrics' 35 per cent shareholder Pinnacle Investment Management unveiled its financial 2026 profit result. Pinnacle's founder and CEO Ian Macoun used this opportunity, as ever, to mischaracterise his problem child as a prodigy.
Macoun told The Australian Financial Review's Jonathan Shapiro that increased scrutiny of the private credit sector by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was a "good thing" for Metrics because "there will be a sorting of the sheep from the goats". He added that "Metrics has invested in strong and diverse origination [capability], which we think is the secret to being a good private credit manager."
Also on Tuesday, we learned Metrics has appointed receivers to Wahlburgers, a chain of restaurants owned by the Mustaca family (to whom Metrics extended nearly $700 million of credit, before foreclosing on a large chunk of it last month); and Metrics revealed yet another ingenious pivot at Sir Stamford at Circular Quay – a flagship project in a quagmire entirely of Metrics' own making.
That would be the Macquarie Street relic against which Metrics lent $187 million to JDH Capital, the failed development company of Jean-Dominique Huynh, he of the monogrammed Gucci tracksuit. JDH paid $211 million for the site in September 2022, so the Metrics loan was struck at a kamikaze loan-to-value ratio of 88 per cent (though of course Metrics relied on an incredible $260 million valuation). A compelling argument can be made that the site is barely worth $187 million.
