Beetle-driving tycoon has no fear of failure

South Canterbury Finance CEO Lachie McLeod (rear) and chairman Allan Hubbard with Hubbard's elderly VW Beetle in front of their Timaru head office.

One of the South Island's most successful businessmen and entrepreneurs, Allan Hubbard, is a man of many faces.

There's the media-shy, frugal, modest-living Christian multimillionaire who - despite being worth $400 million on the NBR Rich List - lives quietly in Timaru, going to his accountancy practice at 6.30 every morning, and declaring that he is not successful, and not worth a skerrick of attention.

Then there's the mischievous, big-spending, risk-taking Hubbard, who loves playing banks at their own game and who drives the VW he's had for 37 years not because he's modest but because he's a terrible driver who would rather spend money on his charities than cars.
A close business associate says Hubbard drove without a licence for 20 years and also uses the old car to thwart nosy journalists trying to tally his fortune each year.

There's also the Hubbard who declares he knows hardly anyone, when associates say he's a hugely respected figure in Canterbury and the South Island.

But there is one thread that binds his personas together: poverty.

Poverty made Hubbard the man he is today - he says so, and so do his friends.

Dunedin-born Hubbard - he won't say how old but says claims that he's 77 are exaggerated - grew up in a house with no electricity, sacks for bedding and packing-case furniture.

He recalls as a 5-year-old his mother, with five kids to feed, being unable to find sixpence for a pint of milk. He resolved that day never to be poor.

His father, "a gambler and a drunkard" gave him "terrible" beatings.

He wanted to kill himself, but resolved instead to get an education.

He wanted to be a lawyer but his father apprenticed him as a carpenter when he was in standard six because the family needed the money.

He says it is an advantage to come from a disadvantaged home.

As a youth he did School Certificate and University Entrance at night school and then an accountancy degree at Otago University.

"I fell in love with it [accounting]. It always balances - the debits always equal the credits."

Today Hubbard's business empire spans the farming, finance, horticulture, helicopter, water, rental car and container industries. The $400 million estimates of his wealth are probably very conservative. Hubbard, however, refuses to discuss money.

His South Canterbury Finance group posted a record $30.2 million net profit this week, up 24 per cent on last year. It has assets of more than $1 billion. Hubbard is majority shareholder.

His businesses are now mainly owned by charitable trusts, he says.

He works on Saturday and goes to church (Presbyterian) on Sunday. Associates say he and wife Jean give away enormous amounts of money to charities and worthy causes but only a quarter of what they actually do is known.

He divulges that he has just bought land in the Bay of Islands for the (Samuel) Marsden Cross Trust Board. He's helped dozens of young farmers into farms by offering them equity partnerships. But they have to be exceptional performers.

The business person he most admires is Sir Angus Tait of Christchurch. Tait is a relative of his wife, but Hubbard admires his humility and modest lifestyle.

Next to poverty the biggest influence on Hubbard's life was his time in the Boy Scouts.

That taught him "honesty and integrity, to be humble and to always do your best".

South Canterbury Finance chief executive Lachie McLeod says Hubbard leads from the front and demands those values from staff.

"He underestimates himself, but it's done tongue-in-cheek. But the modesty is genuine. It's the nature of the beast."

McLeod, who's known Hubbard for 15 years, says he's an "exceptional" person to work for. He rattles off Hubbard's business strengths: a focus on profits, frugality with expenses, instilling excellent work ethics, seeking opportunities of any scale and backing the core management team.

Another business associate says Hubbard is a "workaholic - and I mean a workaholic".

Hubbard concedes that his recreation is work and reading business material and history.

Just when you're thinking that all this makes him a very dull fellow and that he may indeed fit his own description as "essentially just a country accountant", a close associate opens the door on the other Hubbard.

"He's an entrepreneur. He's a huge risk-taker and he's fearless.

"He's absolutely fearless with the banks. But he always knew when to close a deal.

"One of the reasons he's fearless is that he started with nothing. He's been poor so he's not afraid."

Hubbard is "very intelligent", says the associate, who declined to be named.

"He loves his work and he loves his clients. He always has time for his clients. The accounting profession is probably his first love, but he's an entrepreneur."

The friend chuckles that Hubbard has "fooled you people" with his frugal image. Yes, he still lives in the modest house where he and his wife raised their five children, and there's that VW, but "he is a spender".

"He spends money on the things that interest him, like charities. There's no point him having a good car. He doesn't like cars."

Hubbard's risk-taking is always well assessed, says an associate.

"Once you've assessed the degree of risk and got your head around it, there is no risk. But he doesn't get them all right."

Hubbard says he's made "hundreds" of mistakes. But he says he hasn't yet been wrong about the young people he's financially backed into farming.

He says he gets a begging letter every day asking for $1 million. He blames NBR's Rich List for that.

Hubbard says he's the oldest member of the NZX.

He admits to being a "shy, awkward" child, to having Christian values in which humility features strongly, and to being "thrifty". (The "other" Allan Hubbard shouted friends a trip to Antarctica on a chartered Russian icebreaker two years ago.)

But he won't admit to being successful.

"The ordinary person thinks being successful is that you've made a lot of money, you have a flash car, six wives and four or five houses. I'm not like that."

He won't discuss his business interests but is clearly proud of Helicopters New Zealand, a 50-helicopter global operation of which he is chairman and major shareholder.

He works from 6.30am to 10.30pm. Where does he get his energy from?

"I enjoy it and there's a lot to be done."'

He thinks the South Island may have produced more than its share of millionaires because its culture is one of hard work, thrift and saving. North Islanders have "too many distractions" he says.