Robert Holmes à Court

"Bell Resources" redirects here. For the Indian company of the same name, see Bell Group.

Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court (27 July 1937, Johannesburg, South Africa – 2 September 1990, Perth, Western Australia) was an entrepreneur who became Australia's first businessman worth over a billion dollars before dying suddenly of a heart attack in 1990.

Holmes à Court was one of the world's most feared corporate raiders through the 1980s, having built his empire single-handedly from virtually nothing to a diversified resources and media group with an estimated worth prior to the 1987 stockmarket crash of about $2 billion. Shareholders in the company that became his flagship, 'Bell Resources', enjoyed enormous investment growth.

He died of a sudden heart attack in 1990 at the age of 53. As he had died intestate, Holmes à Court's estate was divided equally among his widow Janet (née Ranford), and their four children.

Early life and studies

Holmes à Court was born in Johannesburg but spent much of his early life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was educated at Michaelhouse, in what was then Natal, South Africa. Holmes à Court began his tertiary studies in 1957, at Massey University in New Zealand. He graduated with a degree in agricultural science (forestry). He then moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1961, to study law at the University of Western Australia. In 1966, he married science teacher Janet Ranford. Holmes à Court formed a law practice in Perth in 1967, in partnership with Nicholas Hasluck.

Business career

Holmes à Court entered the corporate stage by accident in 1970, when his law firm was asked to act as receiver of a small publicly listed company, Western Australian Worsted & Woollen Mills (later Albany Woollen Mills, also known as AWM or WA Wool). The company was the single largest employer in the regional city of Albany. In what he later described as his most challenging "takeover", probably because it was his first, he found a way to invest $500,000 in the ailing business, on the proviso that the state Minister for Industry, Sir Charles Court, would persuade the Government of Western Australia to forgive the $500,000 in loans they had made.

While at Michaelhouse School, Holmes à Court was reputed to be a contemporary of and apparently friendly with members of the Oppenheimer family, but in fact this is incorrect; none of the Oppenheimers attended Michaelhouse but went to school in the UK. Since Oppenheimer controlled the giant de Beers diamond and gold mining business they would have had ample funds to finance Holmes à Court should they have wished. In fact, after Holmes à Court's death it was suggested in various of his obituaries that the Oppenheimers did in fact provide sources of finance at various times, and this seems very possible. Alternatively, Holmes à Court's mother appears to have inherited a comfortable amount of money on her husband's and Holmes à Court's father's death, and so she may have provided some funding, although there is no evidence that she did.

After acquiring the company, Holmes à Court made it more competitive by reducing production costs, mainly by installing the latest wool milling and weaving machinery. This was acquired on favourable terms from a leading Belgian equipment manufacturer, which was keen to enter the Australian market at that time.

Holmes à Court now controlled a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and from there he began to gain control of a string of small businesses, including Westate Electrical Industries.

Robert was also a prominent member of the Racing Community and owner of one of Western Australia's premier studs, Heytesbury Stud. Heytesbury Stud is the realisation of Robert Holmes à Court's dream to establish a world class thoroughbred stud in Western Australia that could consistently produce champion racehorses. In 1971, he set out to find a suitable site to build his dream. It had to be proximate to the racing centres of Perth, be sufficiently large that the horses would have plenty of space to exercise, have ample water, and consist of well draining loam soils. His search led him to a property, now approximately 900 acres in size, in Keysbrook, less than one hour south of Perth, and work soon commenced.

Aiding Robert in the early years were two particularly loyal assistants: his wife and his mother. Janet Holmes à Court was responsible for planning and managing the planting of tens of thousands of trees on the property, which provide shade and shelter for the horses, act as wind breaks around the property, and establish the aesthetic of the Stud. His mother, Ethnee Holmes à Court, was relocated to the Stud, appointed Manager, and sent on an international fact-finding mission to research efficient stud design.

While the design and construction of the Stud got underway, focus turned to the all-important task of securing some foundation bloodlines. Robert's task was to secure the foundation sire, and Ethnee's was to secure the foundation broodmares. When asked for some guidance as to the type of mares to secure, Robert said to Ethnee, "We're going to breed a Melbourne Cup winner. Find me some mares that can produce a Melbourne Cup winner." Within twelve months, Ethnee had identified, inspected and purchased a group of broodmares from South Australia - including one called Brenta - who she thought should be capable of the task.

Robert had little difficulty in identifying the stallion he wanted. He had established the brief himself, and he had a habit of aiming for and securing the very best in everything he did. Robert figured, "who better qualified to sire a Melbourne Cup winner, than a Melbourne Cup winner?" For the then princely sum of $300,000, the 1971 Melbourne Cup winner, Silver Knight, was purchased from his New Zealand owners and relocated to Keysbrook.

Everything was now in place: brand-new world-class facilities; a quality broodmare band; and a Melbourne Cup winner in the stallion yard. Heytesbury Stud was born.

Together with Racing Manager, Valerie Gannon, he enjoyed great success with Thoroughbreds such as: Black Knight, Haulpak, Pago Pago and Family of Man.

Paul Holmes à Court has the reigns at Heytesbury Stud now. Having been brought up at the Stud and being surrounded by horses from an early age, Paul naturally inherited his father's passion for horses, and continues the dream of breeding champions to this day.

Paul has introduced new bloodlines to the broodmare band in recent years, as well as a number of new stallions. The progeny of these are starting to make an impact on the track already (just Saturday afternoon at this stage, not that Tuesday afternoon yet) and everyone is confident the next champion is just around the corner.

Nigel Reid is the General Manager of Heytesbury Stud now and has brought enormous experience to the role. In a previous life, Nigel was a racehorse trainer. Fittingly for a future manager at Heytesbury Stud, he trained a horse to Group One glory before opting to work on the breeding side of the business.

The Bell Group

In 1973, Holmes à Court's AWM acquired Bell Brothers, a well known West Australian transport and contracting group, for $9.6 million, through a reverse takeover. Bell brothers would ultimately become his flagship company as Bell Resources.

Bell acquired media interests including the Albany Advertiser, the Katanning weekly, the Great Southern Herald, the Collie Mail and radio station 6VA. It also made unsuccessful bids for companies such as Griffin Coal, Greenbushes Tin and Emu Wines. These bids, while unsuccessful, earned significant profits mainly by aggressive defences from owners resulting in inflated share prices held by the bidder.

In 1977, Holmes à Court's brother Simon disappeared in mysterious circumstances in Africa. His abandoned car was found more than 1000 km from his home and where he was last seen in Botswana. Author Geoff Elliott wrote a book about the disappearance.

During 1979, Bell made an unsuccessful bid for Ansett Transport Industries but was defeated by Rupert Murdoch and roadfreight group TNT. However, a profit of $11 million was made by Bell for future bids.

Bell Group made an unsuccessful bid for The Times in 1980, and at the same time launched a new Perth newspaper, the Western Mail, challenging the Herald & Weekly Times (H&WT) which owned the West Australian. By the end of 1980, Bell Resources had accumulated cash reserves of $100 million.

In 1981, it made a bid for Elders Goldsborough Mort for $120 million bid and failed, but earned a profit of $16.5 million on the deal.

During 1982, Bell took stakes in Rolls Royce and Portland Cement and made an unsuccessful bid for the H&WT group. Later that year it acquired Perth television station TVW-7.

Bell subsequently acquired a television station in Adelaide and a handful of small regional radio stations.

Unsuccessful bids were made for Carlton & United Breweries and Elders IXL but as usual, Holmes à Court's strategic corporate planning let him walk away with a profit.

In 1983, Bell bought Perth mining equipment company Wigmores, and was renamed Bell Resources.

Through the ACC group, Bell gained control of Bass Strait oil and gas explorer, Weeks Petroleum which owned a 2.5% royalty share in the Esso-BHP consortium.

In 1985, Bell acquired 13% of U.S. mining company Asarco for $140 million and made an unsuccessful bid for Perth utility Fremantle Gas & Coke. That same year, it acquired Lord Grade's UK-based Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), and then sold off ACC's stake in Central Independent Television and ATV Music publishing interests, including Northern Songs, a company set up by The Beatles to control copyright of their music. Northern Songs was bought by Michael Jackson, and as part of the deal, Holmes à Court persuaded Jackson to make a brief visit to Perth, in order to appear on Channel 7's annual Telethon.

Also in 1985, Bell Resources made its biggest and most daring bid to date for control of resources and steelmaking giant BHP, which was Australia's largest company. Before the deal was finalised the following year, Elders IXL took a 20% stake in BHP, for $2 billion. In turn, BHP purchased $1 billion of Elders preference shares. The deal later resulted in action against Elders executives, including chairman John Elliott by the corporate regulator.

Bell acted as a "white knight" in defeating a £1.9 billion hostile bid from Lloyds Bank for its competitor Standard Chartered Bank.

In 1987, Bell purchased a stake in Pioneer Concrete and made a second unsuccessful bid for the H&WT group. The bid went to takeover competitor Rupert Murdoch for $1.8 billion. Bell took ownership of The West Australian, Perth's main daily newspaper. Bell also spent US$800 million, to acquire 9.6% of Texaco stock.

By the time of the October 1987 international stockmarket crash, Bell Group — like many investment companies — had accumulated assets that were valuable but not generating revenue sufficient to cover debts. Holmes à Court's family company, Heytesbury Holdings, at the time owned 43% of Bell Group, which in turn owned 40% of the cash rich Bell Resources. However, Bell Resources was not able to buy its parent, due to share raids being made on Bell Resources by Kerry Packer, Adelaide Steamship Company (under John Spalvins) and IEL (Ron Brierley). Merrill Lynch withdrew its $1 billion line of credit facility, meaning that the parent couldn't acquire its subsidiary and thereby access the money.

Takeover by Bond Corporation and SGIO

Holmes à Court initially disposed of some Perth properties before accepting a joint takeover by Bond Corporation and the State Government Insurance Commission (SGIC), in which both parties took a 19.9% stake in Bell Group. Holmes a Court retained 6% of Bell Group and received $340 million from the sale. Bond Corp was subsequently forced to bid for other shares in Bell with the result that it ended up with a majority shareholding of 68% of Bell Group. Bond Corp then proceeded to strip $500 million from Bell Resources in an effort to prop up its own debts. The asset stripping included transferring cash from Bell Resources for its own purposes (thus breaching the company code and ultimately sending its chairman Alan Bond to jail), transfer of ownership of newspaper holdings into Bond Media and disposal of certain assets including TVW-7.

During 1988, Holmes à Court concentrated on the rebuilding and expansion of his Heytesbury subsidiaries acquiring Stoll Moss Theatres in London, Sherwin Pastoral Co (owner of vast cattle stations in Northern Australia0, and the Vasse Felix winery in Margaret River.

In 1989, Heytesbury bought the Victoria River Downs and major Sherwin Pastoral Co cattle and pastoral stations. Holmes à Court also traded in Jaguar stock, as well as Christies and New Zealand media group Wilson & Horton.

During 1990, Bond Corporation announced a record $980m loss and Elders IXL followed with an announcement of a $1.3 billion loss. Bond Corporation entered a scheme of arrangement in 1991, with receivers taking charge of Bell Group and Bell Resources.

Events after his death

Heytesbury Holdings continues as one of the largest private companies in Australia. Janet Holmes à Court ran Heytesbury from the time of her husband's death until 2005, when she retired. She was, at one time, Australia's richest woman. The couple's eldest son, Peter Holmes à Court, is now a major investor and entrepreneur in his own right, after divesting himself of his share of Heytesbury, reported as A$35 million. Peter Holmes à Court along with Russell Crowe is the 75.8% owner of National Rugby League club South Sydney Rabbitohs. Another son, Paul Holmes à Court has since taken over as chief executive. Robert Holmes à Court's other children are Simon (married, with four children) and Catherine.

Robert and Janet Holmes à Court had 12 grandchildren by 2005, according to an interview with her. The eldest son Peter (b. 1968) is currently heir presumptive to his distant cousin, the 7th Baron Heytesbury (b. 1967).

Reference

Edgar, Patricia (1999). Janet Holmes à Court. Australia. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-7322-5715-8The official biography of Robert Holmes à Court's wife

External links

• Holmes a Court Website
• Holmes a Court Family Tree
• SMH article on Tony Oates, Bond Corporation executive
• Ketupa article on relationship with other media moguls