The fortunes of Otago's nine multimillionaire individuals or families are down slightly on last year's $1 billion total value and are now collectively worth $924 million.
This year's National Business Review rich list of 157 identifies nine New Zealand billionaires worth more than a minimum $50 million. The total value is up from $45.2 billion a year ago, to $57.7 billion. Prime Minister John Key is 157th and last, down $5 million at $50 million.
Wealth by sector ranking is headed by 23 rich-listers involved in $13.8 billion of investments, 33 worth $8.85 billion in property and nine, valued at $6.36 billion, in manufacturing.
Around the Queenstown and Central Lakes area are the province's four wealthiest people: Sir Michael Hill (41st), topping the Otago list at $250 million; Barry Thomas (114th), at $80 million; Sir Eion Edgar (98=), in Queenstown, his fortunes rising from $90 million last year to $95 million; and developer John Davies (101st=), up from $80 million to $90 million.
Dunedin-founded, the Skeggs family business (101=) is up from $85 million to $90 million, Ron Anderson (108th) and the Wallis family (131st) of Wanaka unchanged at $85 million and $70 million, respectively. ODT publishing brothers Julian and Nick Smith (145th=), of Dunedin, are the only Otago decliners, down from $75 million to $65 million.
A new entrant for Otago's list, after living overseas, is Dunedin-born Alistair Jeffery (145th), valued at $65 million.
Last September Mr Jeffery, founder and chairman of Bluestone Group, announced he had bought the troubled Bendemeer Development subdivision, near Lake Hayes, in Otago.
After gaining a mining degree at the University of Otago, he completed a PhD in London before going into banking with Goldman Sachs in the 1990s. He established specialist lender Bluestone in 2000 in Australia, and has added branches in the UK and Spain.
Others with indirect Otago links include Irish billionaire Eamon Cleary, at $1.2 billion (eighth), with commercial holdings around the province and residing in South America, and the Fulton family (30th), with $320 million.
New entrant, Russian industrial technologist and minerals mogul Alexander Abramov heads the list, at $7 billion, displacing Graeme Hart (second) $6 billion.
Other new billionaires include investor Julian Robertson (fourth) at $3 billion, and horse breeder Dowager Duchess Henrietta Bedford (ninth), at $1 billion.
