Like his billionaire brother Christopher, Richard Chandler has tended to keep a very low profile, despite amassing a massive fortune over the past four decades.
Now in his early 60s, he has only ever given one media interview. But over the past year, photographs of the once-elusive Richard have begun appearing, perhaps showing he is no longer shy about his business and philanthropic activities.
His Singapore-based investment company, Clermont Group, has also developed a new website, which showcases its lofty goals.
The expatriate Kiwi’s latest bet is on electric planes. Earlier this year, he paid $US76 million for a 70% stake in Eviation, an Israeli startup that recently announced it had received “double-digit” orders for a nine-seater electric business aircraft. The company is aiming at the regional transport market in North America.
Clermont has also invested in MagniX, a startup developing an electric propulsion system for aircraft. The company’s goal is to “change the way aviation is done” and last year it moved its headquarters from Brisbane to Washington.
Its other investments include healthcare and banking in emerging markets such as Vietnam and India. Its Corinthia fund has also invested in OakNorth, a London-based bank pioneering internet-based financial services for entrepreneurs and growth businesses in the UK.
The brothers have also been involved in philanthropic ventures for more than 20 years. In 1999, they founded Geneva Global, a consultancy which claimed to be the world’s first “philanthropic investment bank.”
More recently, Richard was among the initial partners of Co-Impact, a self-described “global collaborative” that aims to bring together philanthropists, social change leaders, governments, non-profits and the private sector “to help address obstacles and limitations in unjust systems that hamper human progress.” Other core partners include Bill and Melinda Gates, Jeff Skoll, Kathy Wadhwani and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The brothers have come a long way from their Waikato roots.
Their grandfather, Chicago-born Edward Chandler, founded his own advertising firm in Auckland in 1903. Edward lost two of his three sons in World War II. His third son, Robert, returned to New Zealand after the war and set up a beekeeping operation in the Waikato. He also built houses and apartments, and in 1973 he and his Croatian wife, Marija, opened Chandler House, a department store in Hamilton.
They also had three sons: Richard, Christopher and George. After Richard completed a master of commerce at the University of Auckland in 1982, he joined the family firm.
Christopher also joined, and it grew to include a chain of fashion stores, as well as manufacturing and real estate, which they sold a few years later for $10m.
The entire family moved to Monaco in 1986 and Richard and Christopher eventually turned the family assets into several billion dollars by investing in Hong Kong real estate, Brazilian telecoms, Japanese banks, a South Korean oil conglomerate, and by jumping on the privatisation bandwagon in Russia.
The brothers went their separate ways in 2006, with Christopher moving to Dubai and Richard to Singapore. George is believed to be a retired accountant who reportedly moved to Canada.
Last year Richard and his wife, former model and socialite Kady Leyau, bought a 2000sq m house in Singapore's swanky Sentosa Cove for $36 million. The house is said to have a basement garage big enough for 10 supercars.
2018: $4.7 billion