53-611: Graeme Richard Hart (born 1955) is a New Zealand billionaire businessman and the country's richest person. He prefers to stay out of the media and makes few public appearances. As of March 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$ 9.7 billion . Much like other leveraged buyout (LBO) private equity investors, Hart has a preference for buying underperforming and undervalued companies with steady cash flows which can be turned around through better cash management, cost-cutting and restructuring with other businesses. Since his 2006 purchase of Carter Holt Harvey he has focused his acquisitions on
106-508: A New Zealand timber giant, Carter Holt Holdings. Sir Richard Carter, a great-grandson of Carter Consolidated's founder Francis Carter, led the combined company. In 1986, Carter Holt Harvey was formed as industrial companies Alex Harvey Industries and Carter Holt Holdings merged, resulting in one of New Zealand's largest companies – which continued to be led by Sir Francis Carter. The glass operations were divested to Australian ACI Glass. The combined company went on, five years later, to acquire
159-412: A billionaire. The top 10 universities produced just 99 of the top 400 billionaires combined, significantly less than the total number of billionaires who were not college educated. Military service produced 21 billionaires, more than any single university. Very few college-educated billionaires pursued business interests in their field of study, with the exception of computer science majors. All twelve of
212-586: A fire during refit at a New Orleans shipyard. In 2012 the Ulysses was put up for sale for $ 49-million . Hart has a new 107-metre (351') long yacht under construction at Kleven Verft [ nn ] in the community of Ulstein in Norway. This yacht will be particularly well suited to sail under off-shore rough conditions something the Kleven Verft ship yard specialises in. The yacht will also include
265-486: A helicopter deck, a hangar, and accommodation for up to 60 persons. Hart's latest 107-metre (351') "expedition yacht," formerly named Ulysses , was completed and eventually launched on 3 September 2014, in Ulsteinvik , north of Oslo, at the Kleven Verft shipyard. In 2017 it was reported that he purchased a new 116 metre (380') explorer yacht, which was named " Ulysses ", after his 107 metre (351') yacht , formerly of
318-465: A legal action against a number of cladding manufacturers due to issues with building cladding allowing water to leak into school buildings. Confidential settlements were subsequently reached with Australian manufacturers James Hardie and CSR , but Carter Holt Harvey fought to have most of the claim struck out as it was outside of 10-year limitation period set by the Building Act 2004. When this
371-588: A more environmentally friendly option to the Copper Chrome Arsenate (CCA) which was the preservative typically used to treat timber used in outdoor structures such as decks, sheds, barns, etc. Approved by the Timber Preservation Authority it was used between 1979 and 1985 with Carter Holt Harvey its biggest user. Others were Pinex Timber Products Ltd (a subsidiary of CHH) and Prolog Industries Ltd (the processing branch of
424-577: A net worth of at least $ 100 billion. According to the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report 2019 report released in November 2019, there are currently 2,101 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, from 66 countries, with a combined net worth of $ 8.5 trillion. Also according to the report, billionaires have a substantial positive impact on the sustainability and success of companies controlled by them. Billionaire-controlled companies listed on
477-551: A planned initial public offering in 2015, valued at potentially NZ$ 1 billion, which would not put what was formerly New Zealand's largest company in the top 20 by market capitalisation today (the smallest market capitalisation on the Standard & Poor's / New Zealand Exchange 20 index as of 2016 was approximately NZ$ 1.5 billion). Alkyl Ammonium Chloride (AAC) was developed by the Forest Research institute as
530-404: A result of death or divorce, including Julia Koch , and Jeff Bezos 's former wife MacKenzie Scott . From 2014 to 2019, the number of female billionaires grew by 46%. That is more than the number of male billionaires in the same period (39%). As of 2019 there were 233 female billionaires in the world, compared to 160 in 2013. Billionaires come from a very wide number of backgrounds. A review of
583-679: A retail chain of bookstores as well as office and stationery concerns. He has since sold off these interests. Rank Group Ltd is Hart's private investment company. It was the 100% owner of Reynolds Consumer Products until a public share offer in 2020, and is the owner of Burns Philp and Carter Holt Harvey . Rank had assets of approximately NZ$ 3 billion in cash after selling the assets of Burns Philp and floating Goodman Fielder in 2004. In December 2006 he agreed to purchase International Paper 's drinks packaging business Evergreen Packaging for NZ$ 725 million. In May 2007 he bought Swiss packaging company SIG for NZ$ 3.2 billion. The SIG division Combibloc
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#1732787493562636-519: A three-way merger with LJ Fisher Co, a steel roof tiles manufacturer, and the New Zealand activities of Australian Consolidated Industries, a diversified conglomerate. The result was Alex Harvey Industries – a sprawling corporation encompassing operations in glass, plastics, steel, wood and paper products. Meanwhile in 1971 the operations of sawmill company Robert Holt & Sons and forestry and wood-products focused Carter Consolidated merged to form
689-501: A total enterprise value, including net debt, of approximately US$ 4.5 billion. This acquisition increased Rank's growing profile in the US. Earlier in 2011, it agreed to buy the automotive consumer business of Honeywell International (the FRAM group) for US$ 950 million. In March 2015 Reynolds Group Holdings completed the sale of SIG to Onex Corporation. Since 2018, Hart and his son Harry have been
742-595: Is a privately-owned New Zealand –based company controlled by Rank Group Limited, the corporate vehicle of the country's richest man, Graeme Hart . Based in Auckland , New Zealand, the company has three main divisions: Woodproducts New Zealand and Woodproducts Australia, which are both major Australasian manufacturers of wood -based building products ; and Carters, a New Zealand chain of trade-focused building supply stores. The company traces its history back ultimately to three namesake companies. The first of these
795-671: Is now headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois , USA. While this business is within the packaging industry, it is not paper packaging related, being mostly in the aluminium foil and plastic closure business. Since the purchase from Alcoa, Hart has cut more than 20% of the workforce within Reynolds, mostly through plant shutdowns, including the flagship Reynolds Wrap Foil Plant in Richmond, Virginia and restructuring efforts. This has resulted in significant savings and profit margin jump for
848-455: Is the second largest food and drink carton packaging company in the world after Swedish giant Tetra Laval. In August 2007 Hart completed his US$ 450 million purchase of US paper packaging company Blue Ridge Paper Products of North Carolina which he intends to merge with Evergreen Packaging of Arkansas. These acquisitions make Rank Group the world's second biggest company in the paper products business. In March 2015 Reynolds Group Holdings completed
901-581: The Advertising Standards Complaints Board of misleading advertising over the previous two years over the effectiveness of its Laserframe timber used in building house frames. Laserframe is an untreated kiln-dried, chemical-free timber that the company claimed in a brochure performed similar to H1 treated pine timber. CHH collecting any outstanding brochures and destroyed them. In 2013 the Ministry of Education launched
954-639: The global population of 400 million. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people between the World's Billionaires increased by $ 500bn (£350bn) to $ 1.76tn. More recently, in 2017 an Oxfam report noted that just eight billionaires have as much net worth as "half the human race". However, the Oxfam report has been criticized for considering debt as negative wealth, which leads to wealthy people with large amounts of debt to be considered poor or not wealthy. These aggregated statistics for billionaires include
1007-630: The Australasian market for: tissues and paper towels, under brands such as Purex, Sorbent and Handee; nappies, under the Treasures brand; and hygiene products such as Libra pads and Tena incontinence products (under Sancella, a 50–50 joint-venture with SCA ). The consumer operations, with 2004 sales of approximately NZ$ 765 million, was sold to Swedish Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) for NZ$ 1 billion in 2004. The then fourth-largest listed company in New Zealand by market capitalisation
1060-716: The Australia and New Zealand packaging business, Kinleith Mill , Tasman Mill and the Penrose paper mill, were sold to a Japanese joint-venture between the Oji Paper Company , one of the largest pulp and paper manufacturers in the world, and the Japanese government-backed INCJ . The new company name is Oji Fibre Solutions . Oji already had operations in New Zealand, with investments in Hawke's Bay forestry assets under
1113-676: The PanPac Forests name as far back as 1971 (with over NZ$ 180 million of investments into PanPac since then, including a major upgrade in 2012). The NZ$ 1.04 billion sale was announced at the end of April 2014, with the consortium taking full ownership of the assets in December that year. An initial public offering on the New Zealand Exchange was tipped for Carter Holt Harvey around April 2015, which, at an estimated valuation of NZ$ 1 billion, would have made it
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#17327874935621166-679: The Rank Group Limited. Billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency , usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar , euro , or pound sterling . It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultra high-net-worth individual . The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became
1219-493: The US. Hart says he lacks interest in making money for its own sake. He describes his personal wealth as a "by-product" of what he does. While Hart prefers to keep a low profile in the general media, he was notable for the launch of his 58 metre (190') luxury motor yacht Ulysses at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour in January 2006. The yacht was valued at nearly $ 100 million and took five years to complete due to it being gutted by
1272-559: The age of 40, while the list of American-only billionaires, as of 2010, had an average age of 66. Different authorities use different methodologies to determine net worth and to rank them, and not all information about personal finances is publicly available. In 2019, Forbes counted a record 607 billionaires in the U.S.. Over the course of the 2020s, depending on the source and the year, the world's richest person has been reckoned to be Jeff Bezos , Bernard Arnault and family, or Elon Musk . In 2019, 19 people became billionaires. Four were
1325-429: The assets of far-larger New Zealand Forest Products , which was "the largest industrial undertaking in New Zealand" managing 200,000 hectares of forest land and annual sales of NZ$ 200 million in 1981 (nearly NZ$ 850 million in 2016). This made Carter Holt Harvey, by a comfortable margin, the largest company in New Zealand. However, with CHH burdened by debt from the massive purchase, American International Paper took
1378-1008: The company, allowing him to issue more debt on behalf of the company in October 2009 and get a high return on his initial investment. In November 2009 and May 2010, Hart, through additional debt financing has combined the packaging groups he owns into Reynolds Group Holdings Limited. RGHL is the combination of four operating segments: SIG (a beverage packaging manufacturer headquartered in Zurich ), Closure Systems International (a plastic bottle cap manufacturer headquartered in Indianapolis ), Evergreen Packaging (a beverage packaging manufacturer headquartered in Memphis ), and Reynolds Consumer Products (an aluminium foil and other packaging materials manufacturer) located in Lake Forest, Illinois. While
1431-421: The computer science major billionaires worked in computer science, while only half of engineers worked in engineering, and less than a quarter of finance and economics majors ever worked in finance or economics. The most common field for billionaires to enter was sales and military service. According to a 2016 Oxfam report, the wealth of the poorest 95% dropped by 38% between 2010 and 2015, due to an increase in
1484-434: The education and work histories of the top 400 billionaires shows little correlation between education and success. Nearly 30% of billionaires do not have a college degree, greatly exceeding any other educational background. The most common field of university education was finance and economics, which only contributed to a combined 15.5% of billionaire educations. There is little correlation between any university and becoming
1537-680: The equity market returned 17.8 percent, compared with the 9.1 percent of the MSCI AC World Index . According to the authors of the report, this Billionaire Effect is connected with smart risk-taking and willingness to plan and invest for the long term. The majority of billionaires are male, as fewer than 11% (197 of 1,826) on the 2015 list were female billionaires . The United States has the largest number of billionaires of any country, with 536 as of 2015 , while China , India and Russia are home to 213, 90 and 88 billionaires, respectively. As of 2015 , only 46 billionaires were under
1590-540: The largest flotation on the NZX that year. However, weakness in the Australian economy prompted Carter Holt Harvey to put its listing plans on hold two months later, with the company's board deciding they would not have "the necessary levels of confidence required" to accurately forecast the earnings outlook of its Woodproducts Australia division, one of its three divisions. The Australian newspaper instead speculated that
1643-561: The majority shareholders in Walter & Wild, a holding company specialising in New Zealand food brands including Alfa One, Aunt Betty's, Greggs , Hansells, Hubbard Foods , Thriftee, Teza and Vitafresh. Graeme Hart has multiple residences in New Zealand, including in Auckland , Queenstown , and Waiheke Island . Hart also owns an island in Fiji , as well as two properties in Aspen, Colorado in
Graeme Hart - Misplaced Pages Continue
1696-542: The mayoral campaign of Wayne Brown in the 2022 local body elections . He has also made donations to the New Zealand First and ACT parties. During the 2023 New Zealand general election On 18 September, Radio New Zealand reported that Hart had donated a total of NZ$ 700,000 to centre-right to right-wing parties including National, ACT and NZ First. Of this amount, National had received NZ$ 400,000, ACT NZ$ 200,000 and NZ First NZ$ 100,000 from Hart and his company,
1749-433: The much larger food group Goodman Fielder before relisting it through an IPO. Following the sale of its yeast and spices business to UK firm Associated British Foods , Uncle Toby's to Nestlé for NZ$ 1.1 billion and Bluebird Foods to PepsiCo for NZ$ 245 million the company became largely a cashed up shell. In December 2006, Hart completed a AU$ 1.6 billion takeover of the 42 per cent of Burns Philp he did not already own. After
1802-538: The operations are spread around the world, the RGHL corporate headquarters are located in the same office building as Reynolds Consumer Products in Lake Forest, Illinois. On 17 June 2011, Reynolds Group Holdings announced its intention to acquire all of the outstanding stock of Graham Packaging Company, Inc, headquartered in York, Pennsylvania. The acquisition was completed on 8 September 2011 for $ 25.50 per share (in cash), for
1855-634: The opportunity to purchase a 16% stake that year. Their stake gradually increased until a controlling interest of around 50.5% was finally acquired in 1995. Carter Holt Harvey was listed on the New Zealand Exchange with International Paper as the controlling shareholder until 2005. The company, as of 2005, had over 10,000 staff, forestry assets, diversified wood, pulp and paper manufacturing plants and retail operations across Australasia, as well as several Chinese factories. They formerly were involved in consumer products, with leading positions in
1908-402: The paper packaging sector. His largest acquisition to-date was for Alcoa 's Packaging & Consumer group in 2008 for US$ 2.7bn, later renamed Reynolds Packaging Group . He does not directly manage his businesses, and is focused mostly on the financing related to re-capitalization of the companies. Forbes stated that Hart was the 274th richest person in the world as of March 2022. In 2022, Hart
1961-399: The purchase he began restructuring the struggling company starting with the sale of CHH's forests to US-based Hancock Timber Group for up to NZ$ 2 billion. Hart has also sold CHH's head office property, various sawmills and packaging plants for over NZ$ 300 million. In 2007 he announced the sale of CHH's building supplies business which some estimate could fetch NZ$ 2.3bn, but was unsuccessful in
2014-764: The real reason the IPO was put on hold was to consider an offer by Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers and its subsidiary, Australasian hardware-chain behemoth Bunnings , for CHH's Carters building supplies chain to consolidate Bunnings' position in building supplies across both consumer and trade markets. A spokesman for Carter Holt Harvey, when approached by Fairfax Media for the Stuff online news site, said that he would not comment on speculation. As of April 2015, Carter Holt Harvey consists of three divisions – Woodproducts New Zealand and Woodproducts Australia, manufacturers of timber-based building products estimated to have about 50% of
2067-456: The sale of SIG to Onex Corporation. Hart's company vehicle is a Gulfstream G700 , registered N71Z. Burns Philp and Company Limited was an Australian and New Zealand food manufacturing company dual listed on the ASX and NZX. Hart has been the chairman since September 2004 and a member of the board of directors since September 1997. In 2003 Burns Philp performed a A$ 2.4 billion hostile takeover of
2120-605: The same name, had been sold. In December 2018, the Hart Family made a $ 10m donation to the University of Otago to go towards opening their $ 28.2m dental teaching facility in South Auckland. In February 2022, Hart donated eight tractors, 30 fishing boats and a container full of breakfast food to the people of Tonga following the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami . Hart donated over $ 58,000 to
2173-445: The selling of it. Hart had also been seeking a purchaser for the packaging side of CHH since October 2010. In April 2014, CHH announced the sale of its Pulp, Paper & Packaging business to a Japanese consortium for NZ$ 1.037 billion, with the deal closing in the second half of 2014. In 2008 Hart paid US$ 2.7 billion for Alcoa (AA) Packaging & Consumer group. He spun off the company and renamed it Reynolds Packaging Group , which
Graeme Hart - Misplaced Pages Continue
2226-489: The state-owned New Zealand Forestry Corporation). Unfortunately once in use it was found to unsuitable for use with some timber failing within five years. Users of AAC lodged a total of $ 7.43 million in claims. In November 1992, the New Zealand Government and the timber companies (including CHH) agreed essentially to equally share the costs of settling these claims. In 2003 the company was found guilty by
2279-496: The strength of the New Zealand dollar and rising freight costs. The sale was completed that year and Carter Holt Harvey entered a new era under private ownership. Carter Holt Harvey has been significantly downsized since its reign as New Zealand's largest company ended in the 1990s. The splitting of the company reached its heights under the control of Graeme Hart, after 2005. Barely a year after being taken private, 250,000 hectares of Carter Holt Harvey's 290,000 hectares of forest land
2332-815: The structural timber market in New Zealand and 30% of Australia's – together with heavily trade-focused building supplies chain Carters, with approximately 50 outlets operating in New Zealand selling a wide range of products targeted at builders. The New Zealand Herald , in an April 2015 article, estimates Carter Holt Harvey to have around 5,000 employees and an annual revenue of roughly NZ$ 2 billion. It operates four milling sites in New Zealand – in Tokoroa , Kawerau , Nelson and Whangārei – as well as two Australian mills, in Yarram , Victoria and Caboolture , Queensland, and nine frame and truss plants. It was, ahead of
2385-515: The successful takeover Burns Philp was delisted from the ASX and NZX. The deal gave him total control of A$ 2.9 billion of Burns Philp cash, net of debt, which he could then use to further build on his Carter Holt Harvey empire. Hart sold Burn Philp's 20% stake in Goodman Fielder for NZ$ 675.8 million in October 2007. In 2006 Hart paid NZ$ 3.3 billion for Carter Holt Harvey (CHH), a New Zealand timber and paper business. Soon after completing
2438-564: The time a small "party hire" company servicing the greater Auckland area by integrating multiple acquired companies. Hart gained a big break when he purchased the Government Printing Office for less than its capital value in 1990. The purchase was 1.4x earnings and Hart was provided generous payment terms. Then New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange initially refused to sign off on the transaction. The following year he bought Whitcoulls Group which at that time included
2491-461: The total number of known billionaires and the net worth of the world's wealthiest individual for each year since 2008. Data for each year is from the annual Forbes list of billionaires, with currency figures given in U.S. dollars. Data since 2018 also includes the Wealth-X billionaire census which typically finds higher numbers than Forbes . Carter Holt Harvey Carter Holt Harvey Limited
2544-454: The world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916. As of April 2024, there are 2,781 billionaires worldwide, with a combined wealth of over US$ 14.2 trillion, up from US$ 12.2 trillion in 2023. According to a 2024 Oxfam report, the world's top 1% of earners own more combined wealth "than 95% of humanity". As of October 2024, seventeen people have reached the status of USD centibillionaires, meaning that each has had
2597-459: Was Robert Holt & Sons, a Napier -based company founded in 1921 (though Robert Holt's steam-powered sawmill began operations in 1872). The second was Carter Consolidated, whose sawmill ventures began under Francis Carter near Levin in 1896. Alex Harvey & Sons was the third – with humble beginnings manufacturing milk churns in Auckland. On 1 April 1969, Alex Harvey & Sons entered
2650-591: Was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame . Hart worked as a tow-truck driver and as a panel beater after leaving school at 16. He attended Mount Roskill Grammar School , located in the central suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand. In 1987, Hart completed an MBA from the University of Otago . His research thesis, as part of the MBA, outlined his strategy to grow Rank Group Limited, at
2703-648: Was rejected by the Supreme Court with costs being awarded against CHH, the case proceeded and is due to be heard in court in 2020. The Ministry wants Carter Holt Harvey to pay all the costs associated with removing and replacing faulty Shadowclad cladding on approximately 800 buildings, with the estimated repair bill reported as being between NZ$ 1 billion and NZ$ 1.3b. In 2014 the Fair Go television program found 24 property owners who believed they had been supplied faulty or substandard Shadowclad material. This led to
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#17327874935622756-639: Was sold to American forest manager Hancock Timber Resource Group (controlled by Canadian investment manager Manulife Financial ). The forests, with an estimated book value of NZ$ 1.5 billion, were located in Northland , Auckland, the Central North Island, the Hawke's Bay and Nelson . Its dairy farming and other properties were also sold separately for approximately NZ$ 500 million. In 2014, Carter Holt Harvey Pulp & Paper, encompassing
2809-486: Was taken into private hands by Rank Group Investments Limited, controlled by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart . The lock-in offer of NZ$ 2.50 per share for International Paper's 50.5% stake valued it at around NZ$ 1.65 billion, with the company valued at approximately NZ$ 3.5 billion. Carter Holt Harvey's last year in public ownership involved a 77% drop in net profit, which the company blamed on challenging trading conditions such as difficulties in export markets,
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