PHOTO: Sir Bob Jones has joined the billionaires club. Photo / File
Wellington-based property investor Sir Bob Jones is New Zealand’s newest billionaire – one of nine in this country, according to the latest NBR Rich List.
Estimates show that Jones has doubled his fortune during the past six years and his private property company now owns 26 buildings in Auckland and Wellington.
The 2019 NBR Rich List has estimated Jones’ net worth at around $1 billion, up from $860m last year.
But Jones trails businessman Graeme Hart, the first Kiwi to hit the $10b mark.
New Zealand now has nine billionaires and five billionaire families, the list says.
A collective record of almost $90b in homegrown wealth is chronicled in the new publication, up from $81b last year.
Twenty newcomers have been added this year, highlighting the success of 255 of our top businesspeople.
Included in those is Westgate chairman and founder Mark Gunton, estimated to have $210m. Other newcomers are the Murphy family with its retirement village interests, Wellington property investors Ian Cassels and partner Caitlin Taylor, David McAlpine of Kea Property Group and the Paterson family, heirs to the late Howard Paterson, with property interests.
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