Kerr Neilson Biography
Kerr Neilson is an Australian investment manager who was born in 1950 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the co-founder and managing director of Platinum Asset Management.
He is of Australian nationality and has S. Africa citizenship. he has an estimated net worth of A$1.95 billion. Kerr was married to Judith Neilson and they devorced in 2015. He has 2 children Paris Neilson and Beau Neilson.
Kerr Neilson started his financial management career in the investments department of Courtaulds in London. When he returned to South Africa in 1973, he moved to Australia ten years later as the head of retail funds management for Bankers Trust Australia (now BT Australia).
Kerr established the Platinum Asset Management fund in 1994 with initial backing from George Soros. Platinum specialises in international equities and has an estimated $US16 billion in funds under management. Kerr Neilson is its managing director and portfolio manager.
In May 2007, Kerr floated 20 percent of Platinum Asset Management on the Australian Stock Exchange. The 57 percent of the company’s shares he retained were valued at A$2.9 billion, making him one of Australia’s richest people.
Kerr is regularly likened to Warren Buffett for his ability to consistently select high-performing stocks. However, poor results during the 2012 financial year resulted in a 16 per cent fall in net profit, mainly due to a 14 per cent reduction in investment income.
As a result, Neilsen agreed to forego a performance bonus, an increase in his base salary, and neither granted himself nor exercised options. As the principal shareholder of Platinum, Kerr yielded A$42 million in dividends during the 2012 financial year.
Kerr Neilson Age
Kerr is 69 years old as of 2019.
Kerr Neilson Marriage| Relationship| Daughter
Kerr Neilson was married to Judith Neilson until their divorce in 2015. They got two children Paris and Beau Neilson.
Kerr and his wife Judith Neilson opened the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney in 2009 to share with the public their extensive collection of contemporary Chinese art.
Kerr Neilson Net Worth
He has an estimated Net worth of A$1.95 billion.
Kerr Neilson Philanthropy
The billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson is to fund a $100m institute for journalism based in Sydney.
Neilson, 72, is the owner of the White Rabbit gallery in Chippendale, Sydney, and a prolific property and art collector. She is refurbishing a building she purchased in that suburb to be the headquarters of the institute and a media, technology and events hub.
The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism & Ideas will encourage independent quality journalism by providing education and grants.
The location for the institute is believed to be a $12.8m JC Goodwin & Co glass factory she recently purchased on a large corner block fronting Abercrombie Street.
“As an avid consumer of news, I recognise the need to support evidence-based journalism and the pursuit of truth in an increasingly complicated and confusing world,” Neilson said on Wednesday.
“I am delighted to support the establishment of this Institute and I will look to experienced journalists and other experts to manage and guide its work.
“I know that traditional forms of journalism are going through massive change and Australian journalism and intellectual life needs a shot in the arm.
“Journalism doesn’t just need critics, it needs champions – people and institutions with the resources to help educate, encourage and connect journalists and their audience in pursuit of excellence.”
Neilson’s charitable work was recognised in 2016 when she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
The institute has not appointed an executive director or board yet but will focus on reporting on the Asia region in the first instance.
“Asia will increasingly be a source of breaking global news and there is a need for informed, intelligent reporting and commentary on the region,” she said.
The institute is seeking to collaborate with media organisations and journalism schools.
“I want to contribute to something that makes a lasting impact and I acknowledge this will require a significant and sustained commitment,” Neilson said.
Since divorcing her husband, Kerr Neilson, the founder of Platinum Asset Management, in 2015 she entered the rich list and now has a net worth of $1.7bn.
She has bought vast amounts of property in Chippendale, where she also built an award-winning large concrete home called Indigo Slam.
Kerr Neilson Afr
It’s the stuff of nightmares for anyone charged with running a highly successful funds management operation – your star stock picker quits to set up a rival firm, taking the cream of your staff with him.
That was the situation that Ian Martin, who was then heading up BT Funds Management, found himself in back in 1994 when Kerr Neilson decided the time had come for him to set up on his own. BT was at that time the dominant force in the industry after its brilliant call on the 1987 share market crash.
Despite the schism, Martin has nothing but praise for Neilson’s talent, telling the AFR Weekend that Kerr is “truly an independent thinker. He’s got an extraordinary intellect, but also a remarkable ability to think laterally.”
Martin singles out two key factors that he believes help to account for Neilson’s extraordinary investment prowess.
Kerr announced this week he was stepping down as chief executive of the firm he went on to form after BT, the now ASX-listed Platinum Asset Management.
“Really good investors don’t get caught up in the emotion of the market. Kerr has really good anticipation of the market, but he doesn’t get caught up in it emotionally.”
The second factor, he says, is that as well as being “a very astute stockpicker. Kerr is one of those rare people who also has a really good sense of macro. That’s what made him an absolute legend in the industry.”
Andre Morony, who ran BT’s bond division before becoming chief investment officer at the funds management giant, points to Neilson’s lack of intellectual rigidity.
“You could debate with him. He wasn’t closed-minded, which is one of the things that made him such a good fund manager,” Morony recalls.
“Kerr had a thing about Australia being too highly taxed. So I dug out the statistics that showed we were one of the lowest-taxed countries in the OECD. And he took it on board.”
So just how shattering was Neilson’s decision to quit BT Funds Management?
“It was confronting at the time,” Martin says. “We were pretty determined that the organisation was bigger than the individual, and that galvanised the team that stayed.”
But “there’s no doubt it was a loss, because he’s such an extraordinary investor. We would have liked to have kept him, but because of the dynamics of a big institution – remember that at that stage we were owned by a US bank – it wasn’t possible.
“We were in many respects quite flexible in terms of remuneration, but we weren’t so flexible that we were able to offer him direct equity in the business. Unfortunately, that was one of the things we weren’t able to do.”
Not surprisingly, Neilson’s defection sparked a fierce sense of competition between the giant BT and Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management.
“There was definitely rivalry between the team that stayed and the team that left. We were trying to prove that the institution is bigger than the individual,” Martin says.
“But he’s an extraordinary fellow and the team that he took was the core of his team. So it did leave a hole in the organisation, no question about that.”
“Truly an independent thinker”: Kerr Neilson. Jessica Hromas
Morony recalls that BT soon tired of comparing its investment performance to that of Platinum.
“BT used to look at his numbers versus ours, it was very competitive. But then we noticed that his performance was way better than ours, and so we stopped worrying about it.”.
But, he notes, Neilson was equally competitive.
“I went in to the barber to get a haircut, and he told me that Kerr had been in there earlier, and had been talking about BT Australia’s latest profit announcement.
Not surprisingly, Neilson’s defection sparked a fierce sense of competition between the giant BT and Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management. David Rowe
“Kerr had pointed out to the barber that BT had 2000 employees, and he had 10, but that he’d made more profit than BT.”
But what about Neilson’s reputation for prickliness?
Morony dismisses the suggestion. “He had his moments when he was brusque and short, but most of the time he was very pleasant.”
Kerr Neilson Foundation
The Neilson Foundation was established in 2007 to support both the arts, and charities that work towards social cohesion.
The Foundation has distributed over $98.7 million dollars to such causes since its inception.
We favour innovative initiatives in two key areas. The first, improves accessibility to the arts with the aim of enriching the cultural landscape of Sydney and Australia.
The second, assists organisations which support individuals facing extreme disadvantage. The Foundation values programs that offer support to vulnerable youth, migrant populations, and individuals facing domestic violence and mental health issues.
Kerr Neilson House
Kerr Neilson House