Robert Holmes à Court

Who was Robert Holmes à Court?

Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court was an entrepreneur who became Australia's first businessman worth over a billion dollars before dying suddenly of a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 53.

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 A$2 billion. Shareholders in the company that became his flagship, 'Bell Resources', enjoyed enormous investment growth.

Holmes à Court died intestate and his estate was to be divided one third for his widow Janet, and the remainder equally among their four children.