Forbes Rich List Includes Billionaires Richard Chandler, Graeme Hart
In the Forbes Rich List of 2015, New Zealand’s representation includes two billionaires – Graeme Hart and Singapore-based investor Richard Chandler. The 55-year-old Waikato-raised philanthropist was ranked at No 603 in Forbes’ latest list with a real time net worth at US$3.8 billion.
Chandler relocated to Singapore in 2006 and started his personal investment fund Chandler Corp that ultimately became a huge success story. According to Chandler Corp.’s website, “we look to invest in businesses that create social value and drive national prosperity”. Chandler has been traversing in a niche of emerging markets from Hong Kong in the 1980s to Brazil, Russia and India in the new millennium.
In his business philosophy, Chandler reportedly owes a lot to his mother Marija. Hailing from Croatia, Marija met her New Zealander husband Robert Chandler in 1955 and they jointly founded the New Zealand luxury department store Chandler House in 1972.
In 2015, Chandler made news when he invested US$99 million for an 80 per cent stake in Vietnam’s largest private hospital group Hoan and picked up a minority stake in The Medical City, a chain of hospitals and clinics in the Philippines. His other assets include a 19 per cent stake in Canada-based InterOil Corporation with its operations extending to Papua New Guinea.
Hart was ranked at No 195 on the list. “Hart accumulated a packaging empire using leveraged buyouts to pick up underperforming businesses that make everyday products like milk cartons, water bottles, paper and foil,” his Forbes profile says.
Original article by Kalyan Kumar, International Business Times, May 18, 2015.
