Heytesbury Pty. Ltd. is the privately owned company of the Holmes à Court family in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. Originally called Heytesbury Holdings, the company was formed by

Robert Holmes à Court Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court (27 July 1937 – 2 September 1990) was a South African-born Australian businessman who became Australia's first billionaire, before dying suddenly of heart failure in 1990 at the age of 53. A great-gre ...

in the 1970s as the holding company of his rapidly expanding financial empire. After the sale of its interests in Bell Group and Bell Resources in 1988, Heytesbury became a private investment vehicle, acquiring Stoll Moss Theatres and Sherwin Pastoral Co, and investing in companies such as

Jaguar Cars Jaguar (, ) is the sports car and luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational corporation, multinational automaker, car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that ...

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, Wholesale banking, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retai ...

and

U.S. Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

. Following the death of Robert Holmes à Court in 1990, his widow

Janet Janet may refer to: Names * Janet (given name) Surname * Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table * Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psychologist and psychotherapist * Maur ...

took over the management of Heytesbury. Over the next decade a number of assets were sold to reduce the company's heavy debts, including the Stoll Moss Group, a number of cattle stations in Northern Australia, and the

John Holland Group The John Holland Group is an infrastructure, building, rail and transport business operating in Australia and New Zealand. Headquartered in Melbourne, it is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction. History The company was founded in ...

(which had been purchased after Robert's death). In 2000, the eldest son, Peter Holmes à Court, elected to sell his one-sixth share of Heytesbury to pursue his own interests. Robert Holmes à Court had died intestate (without a will), leaving his wife one third of the family fortune with the four children getting the other two thirds. The amount Peter received was reported as A$35 million. Shortly afterwards, in 2000,

Paul Holmes à Court Paul Holmes à Court (born Paul William Holmes à Court in 1972) is an Australian businessman and wine maker. He is the son of Australia's first billionaire Robert Holmes à Court and CEO of Vasse Felix. Early life Holmes à Court was born in ...

, the youngest son of Robert and Janet Holmes à Court, took over the management of Heytesbury. In the same year, Peter Holmes à Court was appointed to the position of chief executive officer of the

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo; ) is a public-listed Australian company that, as of 2018, owns and operates feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's land ...

(AACo) and was responsible for re-listing AACo on the

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd (ASX) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, ...

. This set Peter up in direct competition with the family, since the primary business of both Heytesbury and AACo was cattle. In 2008, Paul bought out his other family shareholders and took sole ownership of the company. Heytesbury now owns a number of large cattle stations in

Northern Australia The unofficial geographic term Northern Australia includes those parts of Queensland and Western Australia north of latitude 26th parallel south, 26° and all of the Northern Territory. Those local government areas of Western Australia and Q ...

(including Mount Sanford Station and the famous Victoria River Downs),

Vasse Felix Vasse Felix was the first vineyard and winery to be established in the Margaret River (wine region)#History, Margaret River wine region of Western Australia. Founded in Wilyabrup, Western Australia, Wilyabrup in 1967 by Dr Tom Cullity, it is r ...

(Margaret River's first winery) and the thoroughbred stud Heytesbury Stud near

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia.

References

External links

* {{Official website Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Holding companies of Australia