NZ rich get richer in NBR Rich List led by Hart; Drury's wealth grows fastest

Thursday 25th July 2013

New Zealand's wealthiest added $3.5 billion to their worth in the latest NBR Rich List, with packaging baron Graeme Hart on top and Xero founder Rod Drury achieving the fastest growing fortune.

The combined worth of those included in the 2013 list reached a record $60.4 billion, about 79 percent of the total capitalisation of the NZX's main trading board. Hart, who has built a global packaging empire following his acquisition of Carter Holt Harvey, was worth $6.4 billion, up $400 million from a year ago.

Richard Chandler, the global investor who built a diversified portfolio with brother Christopher before dividing their assets in 2007, ranked second, with his worth falling $1.3 billion to $3.7 billion. The Todd family was third, rising by $200 million to $2.9 billion, followed by the family of booze baron Michael Erceg, up $100 million to $1.6 billion.

Among newcomers were Victoria Ransom, who sold her Wildfire Interactive business to Google last year for a reported US$250 million and was valued at $300 million.

Hamish Edwards, a co-founder of NZX-listed Xero, was worth $105 million as he benefited from a 2,000 percent increase in shares of the cloud-based accounting company. Xero chief executive Drury's wealth rocketed to $400 million from $120m million a year ago.

Wellington's property and sex industry bosses John and Michael Chow made the list with a fortune estimated at $50 million each.

Kiwis returned to the top of the list after foreigners were excluded from the 2013 line-up. In the previous year the list included Russian mineral mogul Alexander Abramov.

Rounding out the top 10 were the Goodman family with $1 billion, Michael Friedlander on $950 million, Owen Glenn with $900 million, Stephen Jennings on $900 million and Douglas Myers on $880 million.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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