To make it onto the NBR Rich List, your net worth needs to be at least $50 million. This year we have identified some rising stars who are likely candidates in future years.
Trading rundown properties after mowing the lawns and giving them a lick of paint was the precursor to much bigger things for Mark Francis who now presides over one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing property syndication companies.
Having started out in a home office in 2001 with a single building in Hamilton, the publicly listed Augusta Capital now has more than 3000 investors and $1.8 billion of assets under management, with a vision to become New Zealand’s leading property funds management business.
“I started it with no reputation, no brand, ran some ads in the NZ Herald – that was my startup capital really,” Francis says. “I wanted to build a sustainable business, a long-term cashflow business, so that’s where I combined my knowledge of real estate and a finance degree and put those two together – then property funds management is a pretty logical output.”
Augusta Capital has a market capitalisation of near $100m and Francis is the largest shareholder with a 16.7% stake worth about $15m. He owns property worth more than $20m and has also been involved in residential subdivisions in the Warkworth area.
A strong believer that “we’re here for a good time, not a long time,” Francis wants to build Augusta’s funds under management to $5 billion within five years. “You need to get in front of the right people who are going to believe in you; you’ve got to have a credible story; and you’ve got to be a believable person with passion about what it is you’re pitching.”