Australian Magnate a Victim of Stock Crash : Holmes a Court Sells Off His ‘Empire’

MELBOURNE â€”  Australian magnate Robert Holmes a Court sold most of his corporate empire today after failing to resurrect it from the October stock market crash, when he saw his fortune drop from billions to millions.

The once-feared corporate raider sold almost all his 39.9% controlling stake in Bell Group, his main company, to fellow Perth magnate Alan Bond and the Western Australia State Government Insurance Commission for about $240 million.

“It’s the end of an era,� said veteran Holmes a Court watcher Tony Moody of Melbourne broker A. C. Goode and Co.

“It seems to signal his departure from the whole investment scene. It will be boring without him.�

Holmes a Court was not available for comment but he was reported on television as saying he was tired of a decade in the public spotlight and wanted to retire to his horse breeding farm in Western Australia.

Peter Mitchell, Bond Corp. executive director, said he welcomes Holmes a Court staying on as chairman and chief executive of Bell, but most analysts said that is only an interim measure until the company’s future is decided.

Corporate Spine Broken

Holmes a Court, 50, was a charismatic figure on the Australian investment scene, with four attempts to take control of the country’s largest company, The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., ultimately breaking the spine of his corporations.

Through the Bell Group and Bell Resources, he built up strategic stakes in the U.S. oil giant Texaco, the British bank Standard Chartered, and the Sears Holdings retail and property group in Britain, as well as a number of smaller companies.

South African-born Holmes a Court built his empire from nothing and before the Oct. 19 global stock market crash had been named Australia’s richest man. An Australian magazine once estimated his worth at $1.05 billion.

When the crash came, the share prices of his companies plummeted and he was forced to sell billions of dollars in assets to lighten the load on Bell Group and its 43%-owned associate, Bell Resources.

In January, he capitulated and sold his 20% share of Broken Hill back to the giant oil and mining resources group for $1.5 billion.