Banks need capital to grow, so it helps when you have long-term supportive shareholders like South Islander Greg Tomlinson whose backing of Heartland Bank over the years has contributed to its reporting total assets of more than $4.3 billion in December.
Typically, when the bank sought shareholder investment to fuel its development late last year, Tomlinson was there with a $6.6m contribution.
The deal maintained his stake at close to 10%, worth about $95m.
However, Mr Tomlinson is not a passive investor. He has served on Heartland’s board for more than five years and in March returned to the board of retirement village operator Oceania Healthcare, where he owns a small stake worth $3.5m.
Oceania is familiar territory for Mr Tomlinson. He became a director of Oceania when it bought into his Qualcare retirement village business in 2008 and he stayed there for eight years, stepping down shortly before its listing in May last year.
As well as banking and retirement villages, Mr Tomlinson’s portfolio includes a majority stake in one of New Zealand’s biggest vineyard companies, Indevin, owner and manager of vineyards in Marlborough, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Central Otago.
The stake is held through Mr Tomlinson’s Impact Capital, which provided new equity capital for Indevin in 2006, three years after its establishment by Marlborough entrepreneur Duncan McFarlane.
Impact’s website has noted that Mr Tomlinson has owned and managed a variety of businesses since he was 18 and was one of the pioneers of Marlborough’s mussel industry.
Rounding out his business interests, Mr Tomlinson owns stakes in a range of smaller technology companies such as contract research firm Argenta and 7.9% of ASX-listed software provider 9Spokes, although the latter’s market value has dropped significantly in the last year.
Mr Tomlinson’s property holdings include land in the heart of Marlborough’s wine country and part ownership of Argenta’s $11m light industrial premises in Manurewa, Auckland.
For all his various business investments, perhaps Mr Tomlinson’s ownership of the Nearco stud is closer to his heart than most. He describes his interest in horse racing as “a long-held passion” and founded Nearco in 2009.
Mr Tomlinson, who enjoys fishing, skiing and outdoor pursuits, lives in Christchurch with his wife Jill. The couple have three children.