Beer baron's $545m tops rich list

Lion Nathan beer baron Doug Myers has taken line honours again as the country's richest person.

Mr Myers, whose cashed-up wealth is conservatively estimated at $545 million, heads off by a healthy $45 million merchant bankers Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite in the National Business Review's annual rich list, published yesterday.

For eight of the past nine years Mr Myers has been the country's richest man. In 1994, he was number two behind primary industry magnate Douglas Goodfellow.

Mr Myers sold most of his shares in Lion Nathan last May when the Japanese brewer Kirin bought into the company.

The 139 individuals and 36 families who qualified for the $10 million entry point in this year's rich list have amassed a minimum total wealth of $11.2 billion - up $1.4 billion from last year.

Unshakeably secure at the top of the list of rich families is the Wellington-based Todd family with an estimated $1.9 billion - nearly 13 times more than the next contenders, the Horton family, valued at $150 million.

Rich list editor Graeme Hunt said an otherwise dull investment market had been spiced up in the past two years by the activities of the dot.com Internet and technology companies, which offered excitement and hope.

However, although the new-technology economy had contributed to the significant rise in the minimum net worth of wealthy New Zealanders in the past year, traditional investments had contributed much more.

The most common emerging category this year was "cashed up" - a sign that well-heeled New Zealanders were taking their money and if not running, then certainly thinking about it, Hunt said.

Another notable feature was the absence of Sir Ron Brierley from the top 10 wealthiest individuals for the first time in years.

Film director Peter Jackson leads the emerging rich list. He is said to be earning an eight-figure fee for the Lord of the Rings trilogy being filmed in New Zealand.

That fee and future royalties are likely to make him seriously wealthy, according to the NBR.

Other emerging wealthy individuals include Eagle Boys pizza boss Gavin Cook, pharmaceutical innovator John Kemp, car-rental entrepreneur Owen Mills, car retailer John Fairhill, advertising guru Kevin Roberts and Bruce Hancox, who built his name as a corporate raider with Brierley Investments.

Only three sportsmen are worth enough to be included in the main rich list this year, two of them yachties and the third a golfer.

Yacht designer Bruce Farr is worth an estimated $15 million, former America's Cup skipper Chris Dickson is worth $14 million and masters golfing legend Sir Bob Charles is worth $13 million.

They are the only three to break through the $10 million threshold required to make the main list.

The 44-strong sporting rich list includes only two women - retired athletes and sports promoters Anne Audain and Allison Roe, worth $2 million and $1 million respectively.

The richest rugby player is All Black wing Jonah Lomu, worth an estimated $5 million.

Hunt said serious wealth had eluded all but a handful of Maori.

The Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, refused to discuss her wealth but the rich list estimated it at $9 million, saying her personal fortune was unaffected by bungling and infighting which had seen Tainui tribal assets slashed by $40 million to $170 million.

Close behind Dame Te Ata was Wayne Walden, managing director of Farmers-Deka and Skari Developments, who "earned a mention" with his estimated $8 million to $9 million.

Quiet, low-profile Maori achievers, brothers Api and JoJo Hemi, made their estimated $20 million with the development of Japanese car imports.

The Treaty of Waitangi settlement process had been kind to some Maori, including specialist treaty lawyer Donna Hall, wife of High Court judge and Waitangi Tribunal chairman Justice Eddie Durie. Her earnings over several years from treaty settlement legal fees could be $10 million, said the rich list.

The Waitangi Fisheries Commission chairman, Sir Tipene O'Regan, deputy Sir Robert Mahuta and former commissioner Sir Graham Latimer were in the $1 million to $5 million zone.

- NZPA