Robert Holmes à Court
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Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court (July 27, 1937, Johannesburg, South Africa - September 2, 1990, Perth, Western Australia) was an entrepreneur who became Australia's first billionaire before dying suddenly of a heart attack in 1990. He was a distant relative of The Lord Heytesbury.
He was one of the world's most feared corporate raiders through the 1980s, having built his empire single-handedly from virtually nothing to a diversified resources and media group with an estimated worth prior to the 1987 stockmarket crash of about $2 billion. Shareholders in his flagship company Bell Resources enjoyed enormous investment growth.
Holmes à Court died of a sudden heart attack in 1990. Having died intestate, his estate was divided equally among his widow Janet, and their four children. Robert and Janet had married in 1966. The family company Heytesbury Holdings continues today as one of the largest private companies in Australia, and Janet Holmes à Court is Australia's richest woman. The eldest son, Peter Holmes à Court is now a major investor and entrepreneur in his own right after having divested his ownership in Heytsbury. Janet ran Heytsbury herself from the time of her husband's death until 2005 when she retired. Another son, Paul Holmes à Court has since taken over as chief executive. Robert's other children are Simon and Catherine.
In 1977, Robert's brother Simon disappeared in mysterious circumstances in Africa[1]. His abandoned car was found more than 1000 km from his home and where he was last seen in Botswana. Author Geoff Elliott wrote a book about the disappearance called: The Other Brother, The Search for Simon Holmes á Court (North Sydney: Allen & Unwin 2005 ISBN 1741143241).
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[edit] Early life and studies
Holmes à Court was born in Johannesburg but spent much of his early life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was educated at Michaelhouse in the Natal province of South Africa. His tertiary studies were begun at Massey University in New Zealand in 1957 from where he earned a degree in agricultural science (forestry). He then moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1961 to study law at the University of Western Australia. In 1967 he formed a new Perth law practice in partnership with Nicholas Hasluck.
[edit] 1970
Holmes à Court entered the corporate stage by accident when his law firm was asked to act as receiver of a small publicly listed company, the Western Australian Worsted & Woollen Mills (later Albany Woollen Mills - AWM). WA Wool as it was known was the single largest employer in the historic whaling town of Albany. In what he later described as his most challenging "takeover", probably because it was his first, he found a way to invest $500k in the ailing business on the proviso that the then Western Australian Minister for Industry, Sir Charles Court would persuade the Government of Western Australia to forgive the $500k in loans they had made.
After having acquired the company he set about making it more competitive by reducing costs of production by installing the latest wool milling and weaving machinery. This was acquired on favourable terms from a leading Belgium equipment manufacturer that was keen to enter the Australian market at that time.
This serendipitously provided a listing on the Australian Stock Exchange, and from there he began to gain control of a string of small businesses including Westate Electrical Industries.
[edit] 1973
AWM acquired Bell Brothers, a transport and contracting group for $9.6 million through a reverse takeover. Bell brothers would ultimately become his flagship company as Bell Resources.
Bell acquired media interests including the Albany Advertiser, the Katanning Great Southern Herald, the Collie Mail and radio station 6VA. It also made unsuccessful bids for companies such as Griffin Coal, Greenbushes Tin and Emu Wines. These bids, while unsuccessful, earned significant profits mainly by aggressive defences from owners resulting in inflated share prices held by the bidder.
[edit] 1979
Bell made an unsuccessful bid for Ansett Transport Industries but was defeated by Rupert Murdoch and roadfreight group TNT. However, a profit of $11 million was made by Bell for future bids.
[edit] 1980
Bell Group made an unsuccessful bid for The Times and at the same time launched a new Perth newspaper, the Western Mail, challenging the Herald & Weekly Times (H&WT) which owned the West Australian.
By the end of 1980 Bell Resources had accumulated cash reserves of $100 million.
[edit] 1981
Bell made a bid for Elders Goldsborough Mort for $120 million bid and failed, but earned a profit of 16.5 million on the deal.
[edit] 1982
Bell took stakes in Rolls Royce and Portland Cement and made an unsuccessful bid for the H&WT group. Later that year it acquired Perth television station TVW-7.
It acquired Lew Grade's Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), before selling off ACC's stake in Central Independent Television music publishing interests (including the Beatles Northern Songs copyrights to Michael Jackson).
Bell subsequently acquired a television station in Adelaide and a handful of small regional radio stations.
Unsuccessful bids were made for Carlton & United Breweries and Elders IXL but as usual, Holmes à Court's strategic corporate planning let him walk away with a profit.
[edit] 1983
Bell bought Wigmores and becomes Bell Resources.
Through the ACC group, Bell gains control of Bass Strait oil and gas explorer, Weeks Petroleum which owns a 2.5% royalty share in the Esso-BHP consortium.
[edit] 1985
Acquired 13% of U.S. mining company Asarco for $140 million. Made an unsuccessful bid for local Perth utility Fremantle Gas & Coke.
Bell Resources makes its biggest and most daring bid to date for control of resources and steelmaking giant BHP, which was Australia's largest company. Before the deal is finalised the following year, BHP is rescued by Elders IXL which takes a 20% stake in BHP for $2 billion. In turn BHP purchases $1 billion of Elders preference shares. The deal later resulted in action against Elders executives including chairman John Elliott by the corporate regulator.
[edit] 1986
Bell acts as a white knight in defeating a £1.9 billion hostile bid from Lloyds Bank for its competitor Standard Chartered Bank.
[edit] 1987
Bell purchases a stake in Pioneer Concrete and makes a second unsuccessful bid for the H&WT group. The bid goes to takeover competitor Rupert Murdoch for $1.8 billion. Bell does however take ownership of the West Australian.
US$800m spent to acquire 9.6% of Texaco stock.
[edit] 1987 stockmarket crash
Like many investment companies, Bell Group had accumulated assets that were valuable but not generating revenue sufficient to cover debts. Holmes à Court's family company, Heytesbury Holdings at the time owned 43% of Bell Group which in turn owned 40% of the cash rich Bell Resources. But, Bell Resources was not able to buy its parent due to share raids being made on it (Bell Resources) by Kerry Packer, Adsteam (John Spalvins) and IEL (Ron Brierley). Merrill Lynch withdrew its $1 billion line of credit facility meaning that the parent couldn't acquire its subsidiary and thereby access the money.
Holmes à Court initially disposed of some Perth properties before accepting a joint takeover by Bond Corporation and the State Government Insurance Commission (SGIC), where both parties took a 19.9% stake in Bell Group. Holmes a Court retained 6% of Bell Group and received $340 million from the sale. Bond Corp was subsequently forced to bid for other shares in Bell with the result that it ended up with a majority shareholding of 68% of Bell Group. It (Bond Corp) then proceeded to strip $500 million from Bell Resources in an effort to prop up its own debts. The asset stripping included transferring cash from Bell Resources for its own purposes (thus breaching the company code and ultimately sending its chairman Alan Bond to jail), transfer of ownership of newspaper holdings into Bond Media and disposal of certain assets including TVW-7.
[edit] 1988
Holmes à Court now concentrated of the rebuilding and expansion of his private Heytesbury companies and a made a bid for Stoll Moss Theatres in London.
[edit] 1989
Heytesbury bought the Victoria River Downs and major Sherwin Pastoral Co cattle and pastoral stations. Holmes à Court also traded in Jaguar stock, as well as Christies and New Zealand media group Wilson & Horton.
[edit] 1990
Bond Corporation announced a record $980m loss and Elders IXL followed with an announcement of a $1.3 billion loss. Bond Corporation entered a scheme of arrangement in 1991, with receivers taking charge of Bell Group and Bell Resources.
[edit] References
- ^ Tracy Bowden. Story of the other Holmes a Court brother. Australian Broadcasting Corporation - 7:30 Report. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.
