New Zealand’s wealthiest man Graeme Hart took part of his packaging empire to the Nasdaq in February 2020, selling 41.17 million shares in Reynolds Consumer Products for $US26 each.
Shares in the company jumped nearly 6% immediately after trading began.
Hart still controls around three-quarters of the business, which makes Reynolds Wrap, Hefty Trash Bags and other waste, cooking and storage products, all household names in the United States.
As his business interests go through a phase of rationalisation, Graeme Hart’s property portfolio appears to be heading in the other direction.
In June 2019, the week of his 64th birthday, he reportedly became the owner of a $US34 million ($51m) penthouse apartment in the gleaming new XI building on the New York waterfront.
The deal tops the $US31.5m he paid for a 16ha estate near the Colorado ski resort of Aspen in July 2015.
Hart’s other property interests include large estates on Waiheke Island and a long-term lease on the 9.7ha Fijian island of Eori, 54km northwest of Nadi.
In 2018 he also took delivery of a 116m superyacht, built in Norway and fitted out in Bremerhaven – the latest of his vessels to bear the Ulysses name. The ship is equipped for long expeditions and its luxurious accommodation for 66 people includes a helipad.
The luxury properties are the fruits of a career in leveraged buyouts whose huge deals included the purchase and sale of bread and butter group Goodman Fielder, packaging company SIG Combibloc and the breakup of forest products company Carter Holt Harvey.
Yet, for all Hart’s golden touch, not every deal turns out a winner and this year’s exit from the US auto parts business is likely to have been more of a relief than a celebration.
In March his Rank Group sold Illinois-based spark plug maker Fram Group to another US parts company, Trico, for a reported $US310m.
Although no details of the deal structure were released, the number is believed to have been a lot smaller than the $US950m Rank paid for the company in 2011.
Rank had managed Fram in consort with another Illinois company UCI, acquired for $US375m plus assumed debt of $US605m in late 2010, but UCI’s debt burden proved too large and it fell into the hands of its creditors in 2016.
The Fram sale leaves Rank with its big packaging interests in Reynolds Group Holdings and the remains of Carter Holt.
Reynolds did not have a great year either, posting a loss of $US5m for the 12 months to December, although the numbers improved in the first quarter of 2019.
As of March 31, the book value of Reynolds’ equity was $US1.8 billion – a figure dwarfed by its $US11b debt. In the world of leveraged buyouts there are few bigger players than Hart.
His business philosophy, as told to Otago University students last year, is: “Be bold. That means buy as big as you can, borrow as much as you can, and then work the asset as hard as you can.”
The speech was on the occasion of his honorary degree award, 30 years after receiving his MBA from the same university.
Hart has previously commented on the value of his experience at Otago and in December he put money on it with a donation of $10m, the largest in the university’s history.
The money is targeted at a new dental teaching facility in South Auckland.
Hart’s own business lessons began after driving tow trucks and working as a panelbeater when he started his first business aged 18 with the help of a loan from his father.
That first printing business was a small step but it was influential in a much bigger step when he bought the Government Printing Office in 1990 – the deal that launched him into the big league.
“Why was I the buyer? Because I used to own a printing company,” he said. “When you deal with people in your life, sometimes they have a profile of what they want you to look like. Work out what that is – and fit it.”
After the Printing Office came Burns Philp, then Goodman, Carter Holt and a string of packaging companies, each acquired with hefty helpings of debt.
Hart’s philanthropic activities are focused on education and children’s health. He and his wife Robyn have been described as “quiet but generous philanthropists.”
Causes they support include the Starship Hospital, Children of Fiji and children of Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.
The Harts have two children, Gretchen and Harry, and four grandchildren.
Last year Hart and son Harry bought a portfolio of consumer foods brands, including Hansells and Hubbards, combining them into their company Walter & Wild.
In the image above Graeme Hart is seen alongside his wife Robyn Hart.
2018: $9 billion