After enjoying a meteoric rise with the growth of insurer CBL, Alistair Hutchison’s fortunes were hit by a seismic upheaval when big holes in CBL’s regulatory solvency emerged in February.
Before trading in CBL’s shares was halted, Mr Hutchison’s 19.5% stake, held through insurer Federal Pacific Group, was valued at $146 million. Afterward it was not clear whether it was worth anything at all.
How much can be rescued from the wreckage remains to be seen but at least Mr Hutchison has plenty of other irons in the fire.
While Federal Pacific’s balance sheet has taken a hammering from CBL, its core insurance business, operating in Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands, continues, alongside a joint venture with Ireland’s Fexco offering international money remittance services in the Pacific.
Fexco Pacific, in which Federal Pacific owns a minority stake via a Singapore subsidiary, had net equity of €5.2m as of December 2016.
Federal Pacific also owns 59% of NZX-listed non-bank lender Geneva Finance, which reported a 19% profit gain to $6m for the year to March. The result helped boost Geneva’s shares to a market capitalisation of $49m.
Considering Mr Hutchison realised cash of $32.5m from CBL before its meltdown, his wealth remains considerable.
A fifth generation New Zealander of Scottish, Irish and English descent, and the brother of former National MP Paul Hutchison, Mr Hutchison’s ties with the Pacific Islands run deep.
Married to Kuinimeri Aiona Ma’ia’i, the sister of prominent Samoan physician Semesi Ma’ia’i, Hutchison served as the financial secretary of Samoa and was recognised in 2014 with an Order of Merit for services to Samoa. He is a director of a private bank, National Bank of Samoa, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016 with a huge bash at the Sheraton Aggie Grey Resort in Apia.
Of the two Hutchison sons, Alan appears to be the more commercially active as a director with Federal Pacific Group, Geneva Finance, Quest Insurance Group and Stellar Collections. Semisi is also a director of Federal Pacific Group and Independent Care Ltd, a private in-home care business in which he shares 60/40 ownership with his father.
The Hutchison family lives in a modest $1.8 million home in Epsom, and counts among its other business interests a 25% stake in Pukekohe Cinemas and 4% of Alfonso’s Spanish restaurant on Pukekohe’s main street.