Graeme Richard Hart (born 1955) is a New Zealand businessman and the richest person in New Zealand. He prefers to stay out of the general media and makes few public appearances.
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 strong cash management, cost-cutting and restructuring with other businesses. Since his 2006 purchase of Carter Holt Harvey he has focused his acquisitions on 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.
Unlike other LBO investors however, Hart is not a believer of sharing the returns of the company, and does not allow any member of the board to get any share in the equity of the businesses. In this manner, he ensures that the risk and the substantial rewards of an LBO investment remain solely with him.
Forbes stated that Hart was the 178th richest person in the world as of March 2016.
Current interests
Rank Group
Rank Group Ltd is Graeme Hart’s private investment company. It is the 100% owner of Reynolds Consumer Products, Burns Philp and Carter Holt Harvey. Rank had assets of approximately NZ$3bn 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$3.2bn. The SIG division Combibloc 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$450M 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 player in the paper products business.
In March 2015 Reynolds Group Holdings completed the sale of SIG to Onex Corporation.
Hart’s “company vehicle” is a Gulfstream G650, registered N946JB.
Graeme Hart net worth: Graeme Hart is a New Zealand businessman who has a net worth of $7.2 billion. Graeme Hart has built his net worth as a leveraged buyout (LBO) private equity investor. He specializes in buying under-performing and under-valued companies with steady cash flows that can be turned around through strong management, cost-cutting and restructuring with other businesses. Hart does not share the returns of the company, and the members of his team do not get any share in the equity of the businesses. He wants the risk and the substantial rewards of a LBO investment remain solely with him. Graeme Hart lives in Auckland, New Zealand and he received his MBA from the University of Otago.
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