NZ’s richest man sets sale
Reclusive Kiwi billionaire Graeme Hart has parted company with his superyacht Ulysses – which had been listed for an eye-watering price tag of of $265 million.
International yacht brokers Burgess and Fraser confirmed they were acting for both Hart and a mysterious new owner of Ulysses, according to Superyacht Times.
The 107-metre, nearly 6000-ton Norwegian-built vessel had been on the market for more than a year and comes equipped with a pool and jacuzzi deck, gym, movie room, pool table and all the necessary watersports equipment, including a twin-hulled, on-board vessel the size of the Auckland police launch Deodar III.
The current Ulysses, bearing the Latinised name for the mythic Greek hero Odysseus, is the second superyacht Hart has owned with that name.
Hart’s first Ulysses, a 57.6-metre Trinity, has been renamed Grand Rusalina and is now registered in the Cayman Islands.
However, Hart has never brought the more recent Ulysses to New Zealand and it’s currently moored at the Spanish port city of Malaga. A glitzy promotional video used to advertise the boat’s serious fit-out showed pampered guests fawned on by Ulysses crew members, and enjoying high-octane sports such as jet-skiing and dirt-biking.
While Hart waits for his replacement superyacht – he had already ordered a larger boat before Ulysses was even launched in 2016 – the billionaire can fall back to sailing the world in his 77m Weta.
But when he finally takes charge of his new 116m yacht – currently referred to as Hull 370 – he’ll have one of the world’s truly great boats. It even boasts a helicopter complete with its own hangar.
Marine industry website GCaptain said the new yacht had been designed by Norwegian naval architecture firm Marin Teknikk in co-operation with Kyle Dick of New Zealand-based Oscar Mike Naval Architects.
Hart, 62, can probably afford it. This month, Forbes put Hart’s ‘‘real-time’’ net worth at more than $14 billion, and in March he was named 133rd on the magazine’s list of the wealthiest individuals on the planet.
A school dropout at 16, Hart eventually completed a university MBA and made his fortune in the packaging industry, perfecting what are known as leveraged buyouts.
Hart’s big break came in 1990 when he purchased the Government Printing Office.
In 1991, he bought Whitcoulls Group before steadily starting to buy and sell increasingly larger and larger companies.
Hart’s privately run Rank Group Limited now controls several major multinational firms, including Carter Holt Harvey.