Graeme Hart Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth

What is Graeme Hart’s Net Worth?

Graeme Hart is a New Zealand businessman and investor who has a net worth of $10.6 billion. Graeme Hart has long been ranked as New Zealand’s richest person, with his fortune largely built on a global packaging empire. Hart’s wealth comes primarily from his private company, Rank Group, through which he owns major packaging and paper businesses.

Through his private investment company Rank Group, Hart acquired numerous packaging and consumer goods companies, including Carter Holt Harvey, Burns Philp, Graham Packaging, Pactiv, Reynolds Consumer Products, and SIG Combibloc. His strategy typically involves buying underperforming companies with strong market positions, reducing costs, and improving operations.

Hart is known for avoiding publicity while executing large deals financed through significant debt. His packaging conglomerate has become one of the world’s largest, focusing on aluminum foil, beverage cartons, and food packaging products.

Early Life

Hart was born in 1955 and raised in New Zealand. Graeme dropped out of school (the very same one that Russell Crowe attended) at the age of 16 to become an auto body repairman and tow-truck driver.

In 1976, he founded Hart Printing Company, hired two employees, and was off and running. He applied and was accepted to the University of Otago’s MBA program, one of only a few applicants without an undergraduate degree (or, in Hart’s case, a high school diploma).

Graeme’s grad school thesis offered a glimpse into his future and laid out his plan for Rank Group. He wrote a treatise on finding cheap, easy-to-run, underperforming businesses that produce products people use every day. Moreover, the focus of his thesis was on how to use leveraged buyouts to acquire those assets. He then went on to write about how to cut costs, consolidate operations, and then either take the company public or sell at a profit. This became the blueprint he would follow on his way to becoming a billionaire.

Rank Group Business Empire

After college, Hart bought and merged four party supply companies in the mid-80s. This created a monopoly on the party supply market in Auckland. He sold the company at a profit and reinvested his profits into a safety clothing company. It was also at this time that Hart founded Rank Group and sold shares in it on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. When the stock market collapsed in 1987, he took Rank Group private.

Hart scored when he was able to buy New Zealand’s government printing office in 1989 for half its book value, just $12 million. He then proceeded to buy New Zealand’s largest bookstore chain for $42 million in 1990, then scooped up other chains in Australia. He then consolidated and sold them for a profit.

The next company caught in Graeme Hart’s crosshairs was Australian spice and yeast manufacturer Burns Philp. He bought a 20% stake for $200 million in 1997. Initially, this looked like it would turn into a major misstep after Burns Philp posted a 73% write-down. Hart’s investment in the spice maker was subsequently reduced to one-tenth of its original value. But Hart would prevail in the end when he negotiated a new round of funding with bankers. Five years after his original investment in Burns Philp, the company accepted a $2 billion takeover offer from Goodman Fielder, an Australian food company. Hart doubled his profits and sold his shares in the company in 2005.

From 2002 to 2012, Hart, through Rank Group, acquired 12 companies with a combined value of $14 billion. Those companies include Graham Packaging, which handles Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft, Heinz & Procter & Gamble, and Dopaco (which supplies Burger King and Wendy’s). Those two behemoth acquisitions are now part of the Reynolds Group. Rank Group also owns all of UCI and Autoparts Holdings, which make and sell car parts.

Notable Rank Group acquisitions include:

• 2003: Through Burns Philp (a food company in which he held a major stake), Hart launched a hostile takeover of Goodman Fielder, a large Australasian food conglomerate. He later sold off parts of Goodman Fielder at a significant profit, recouping cash for new deals.
• 2006: Acquired Carter Holt Harvey, a major forestry and wood products company, for approximately $1.8 billion.
• 2007: Added major packaging firms to his portfolio, including Blue Ridge Paper Products and SIG Combibloc, making Rank Group one of the world’s largest packaging companies.
• 2008: Purchased Alcoa’s Packaging & Consumer division for $2.7 billion, renaming it Reynolds Packaging Group.
• 2010: Acquired Pactiv Corporation, the maker of Hefty trash bags, for approximately $6 billion, uniting Reynolds and Pactiv under his ownership to create a packaging powerhouse.

Through these and other deals, Rank Group built a vast business empire spanning packaging, paper products, and, previously, food and consumer goods. Hart typically finances acquisitions with significant debt, then improves the acquired companies’ efficiency and cash flow to pay down loans. In 2020, he began monetizing parts of his empire by floating Reynolds Consumer Products in a public offering, using proceeds to reduce debt. His track record of buying low, restructuring, and selling high has made him one of the most successful leveraged buyout investors from the Asia-Pacific region.

Real Estate Holdings & Yachts

Hart’s wealth is also reflected in his real estate and luxury assets. He owns a sprawling clifftop mansion in the Auckland suburb of Glendowie, valued at over $60 million. This estate, which he began assembling in the 1990s, has been lavishly developed with features like terraced lawns and a private banquet hall. He also owns a $14 million beach house on Waiheke Island and a 40-acre, $16 million Aspen estate.

In addition to property, Hart has invested in superyachts as part of his luxury purchases. He took delivery of a 102-meter explorer yacht named Ulysses, complete with a helicopter hangar and helipad. He has commissioned multiple mega-yachts over the years, underscoring his penchant for high-end assets. Hart also reportedly owns a private Gulfstream jet for his travel, befitting his status as a billionaire investor.

Personal Life & Philanthropy

Despite his massive fortune, Graeme Hart keeps a low public profile. He is married to Robyn Hart, and the couple has two children. Known to shun media attention, Hart rarely gives interviews or public speeches. The family largely stays out of the limelight, residing primarily in Auckland and enjoying relative privacy afforded by their wealth.

Hart has engaged in philanthropy and community initiatives in a generally discreet manner. In 2018, he and his wife donated NZ$10 million to fund a low-cost dental healthcare facility in South Auckland, the largest single donation in the University of Otago’s history. This new dental teaching clinic aims to provide affordable care to underserved communities, reflecting the Harts’ willingness to give back. He has been recognized for contributions to education and health causes, and in 2022, he was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.

Other Financial Interests

Beyond his core packaging and paper businesses, Hart has ventured into other sectors and investments over the years. During the early 2000s, through Burns Philp, he controlled various food and consumer brands. After taking over Burns Philp, he orchestrated the sale of assets like Uncle Tobys and Bluebird Foods, leaving Burns Philp as a cash-rich shell that provided Hart with capital to reinvest in new opportunities.

In more recent years, Hart has also diversified into real estate development, purchasing residential land in Auckland for housing projects. This expansion into property development indicates his broader investment horizon beyond manufacturing and packaging. He maintains interests in forestry through Carter Holt Harvey and previously in consumer goods. Overall, Graeme Hart’s financial interests span a wide range of industries, but they consistently reflect his philosophy of finding value in undervalued assets and leveraging scale and efficiency to generate wealth.