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 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.
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 (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, 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 (AACo) and was responsible for re-listing AACo on the
Australian Stock Exchange. 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 (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