The Kiwis that featured on this year’s Forbes Billionaires list

Sir Peter Jackson ranked 2124 on the Forbes Billionaires list with an estimated $1.5b. Photo / Mark Mitchell

By RNZ

New Zealanders have made a token appearance on this year’s just-released Forbes Billionaires list.

Graeme Hart, as usual, stands out by far as the richest New Zealander, with an estimated US$10.6 billion ($17.7b) from his large packaging interests.

The publicity-shy Hart is ranked 1152 on the list, and has long held the title of New Zealand’s richest man, along with a back story of his rise from tow truck driver to billionaire through a series of debt-funded corporate deals.

Last year, Hart took delivery of a 102-metre super yacht, Ulysses, fitted out with a hangar, helipad and glass stairways, among much else.

Trailing nearly a thousand places below him with US$2.9b is Singapore-based Richard Chandler, with interests in Indian business finance, Vietnamese healthcare, and an Israeli electric plane maker.

The highest profile Kiwi billionaire is film-maker Sir Peter Jackson, ranked 2124, with an estimated $1.5b, started with box office takings from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies, and topped up with the $1.6b sale of Weta Digital to US interests in 2021.

A new entrant to the rich list is Australian-based Charles Gibbon, ranked 2601, with $1.1b.

Educated in the South Island, Gibbon worked in the UK and Australia in investment banking, but his $1.1b worth came from an investment in Australian software firm, Wise Tech, which he chaired and has remained a director.