Christchurch businessman Greg Tomlinson is so busy that he doesn’t always have the time to see his horses race – even when they’re in line for the biggest wins of their career.
Beauty Generation is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest horses, and when it obliterated the opposition at the Hong Kong Mile last year Tomlinson was overjoyed. Yet he was so busy with work commitments that he listened to the horse’s win on the radio, and it was a while before he actually had time to watch the race itself.
Beauty Generation is the product of one of Tomlinson’s favourite projects, Nearco Stud. Tomlinson formed the breeding company in 2009 and, despite its relatively recent arrival, it has already forged a strong reputation as an organisation to be reckoned with. Beauty Generation is arguably its finest product, with a streak of high-profile victories that saw it rated as the fourth-best racehorse in the world last year and Horse of the Year at the Cathay Pacific Group One Awards Dinner recently, with a new all-time prizemoney record of HK$84.7 million (NZ$16.1 million). Bred by Tomlinson, it was sold to supermodel Kylie Bax for $60,000 in 2014.
Horses aside, Tomlinson has holdings in a variety of companies, most prominently among which is arguably Heartland Bank. 2018 marked a big change for the bank, with a restructure seeing it listed on the ASX as it seeks to tap Australia’s lucrative reverse loans market. Bank chairman Geoff Ricketts said shareholders could look forward net profit up 11-14% in the coming year. Tomlinson maintains a 9.55% stake in the bank.
Tomlinson’s varied interests have seen him make money in Marlborough’s mussel industry, through property investments and with retirement homes. He spent two decades building up 16 retirement homes between Auckland and Ashburton, which were consolidated into the Qualcare chain in 2005. Through another series of sales and mergers, Qualcare ended up as Oceania Healthcare, in which Tomlinson still owns a small stake.
He holds a significant stake in vineyard company Indevin, which owns and manages vineyards in Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Central Otago. He also owns stakes in several smaller technology companies, including 9% in software provider 9Spokes.
Notoriously private, Tomlinson has reportedly been a donor to local causes for many years. He lives in Christchurch with his wife Jill.
2018: $390 Million