Sir Christopher Mace’s latest venture has been becoming part of a restructure of Heartland Bank that allowed the Australasian entity to continue free from capital requirements of regulators on both sides of the Tasman.
Mace has been a director and shareholder of the bank since 2010, with shares worth $24m.
The move saw Heartland Bank become a wholly-owned subsidiary of a new company, Heartland Group Holdings, of which Mace is a director.
Mace (Ngāti Porou, Te-Whānau-ā-Apānui) was knighted for services to science and education in 2016 and inducted into the Business Hall of Fame a year earlier. In 2012 he was the Maori Business Leader of the Year.
The 75-year-old came to the business fore when Mace Developments merged with retailer LD Nathan in 1986 and then morphed into Lion Breweries and Lion Nathan. When Japan’s Kirin Brewery launched a partial takeover in 1998, Sir Christopher cashed in shares worth $90m.
He has numerous private equity interests with his former fellow Lion Nathan directors Robin Congreve and Geoff Ricketts.
Through a subsidiary of Mace Capital he has an interest in a portfolio worth $45m and there is also a 182ha retreat – valued at $14m – overlooking Paroa Bay near Russell where he shares ownership with Trevor Farmer.
A founding member of the Sir Peter Blake Trust, Sir Christopher is also a trustee of the Antarctic Heritage Trust and even has a mountain named after him, Mount Mace, in recognition of his services to Antarctica. A director of the New Zealand Initiative think tank, he is also a tertiary education commissioner, chair of Niwa and patron of numerous arts organisations.
2018: $250 million