Kerry Packer - Business

Business

Packer, through his family company Consolidated Press Holdings, was the major shareholder with a 37% holding in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). Until Packer's death PBL owned the Nine television network, and Australian Consolidated Press which produces many of Australia's top-selling magazines. He was involved in a number of other gambling and tourism ventures, notably Crown Casino in Melbourne. The Nine Network and Australian Consolidated Press businesses have since been divested to PBL Media.

Packer was widely respected in business circles, courted by politicians on both sides, and was widely regarded as one of the most astute businessmen of his time, despite having been a poor student.

Although Packer's reputation as an astute businessman was legendary and he made some good investments, he was by no means a self-made man – his grandfather Robert Clyde Packer and his father Sir Frank Packer had built up the media empire and its related holdings over many decades. As pointed out by internet news outlet Crikey if $100 million had been invested in the Australian sharemarket in September 1974 through a balanced portfolio of the top 200 companies, that portfolio would be worth a lot more than $6.9 billion in December 2005, possibly as much as $11 billion

Moreover, Packer was not the first choice to take over the running of the family's business empire – his father had intended that Kerry's older brother Clyde Packer would take over the company, but Clyde fell out with his father in the early 1970s and left Australia permanently.

Kerry's independent business life began after his father's death in 1974 when he inherited control of the family's controlling share in PBL, valued at A$100 million. Further, his principal Australian investments in television and casinos were highly protected from competition by government regulation which Packer and his employees worked very hard to have maintained.

The Packer family's business reputation suffered a blow when One.Tel, a telephone company in which his son James Packer had invested, collapsed in 2001.

Kerry Packer was also one of Australia's largest landholders. In 2003 a deposit of rubies was discovered on one of his properties.

The Packer empire includes magazines and television networks, telecommunications, petrochemicals, heavy engineering, a 75% stake in the Perisher Blue ski resort, diamond exploration, coalmines and property, a share in the Foxtel cable TV network, and investments in the lucrative casino business in Australia and overseas.