Prominent Australian businessman and philanthropist Richard Pratt is gravely ill, according to his long-term friend, Parliamentary Secretary Bill Shorten.
The 75-year-old Melbourne billionaire has been suffering from prostate cancer.
His family are not commenting on his prognosis but Shorten told media that he spoke with Pratt yesterday. That conversation convinced Shorten that his friend's illness had reached a very serious stage.
Pratt built cardboard company Visy up from a modest sized company to a very successful global organisation "at the cutting edge of sustainability and manufacturing".
Pratt fled Poland with his family in the mid-1930s to start a new life in Australia and is chairman of the privately owned cardboard company Visy Industries and former president of the Carlton Football Club.
Last year BRW Magazine estimated Pratt's fortune at $5.48 billion.
- RADIO AUSTRALIA
Australian billionaire 'gravely ill'
Richard Pratt. Photo / Getty Images
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