Triguboff is managing director and sole owner of Meriton, Australia's biggest apartment developer. He's overseen construction of more than 75,000 apartments, including some of the tallest residential towers in Sydney and Brisbane. The company owns about 9,000 rental apartments and has a hotel division, Meriton Suites.
Harry Triguboff's net worth of $9.70B can buy ...
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Triguboff's fortune is derived from his ownership of Meriton, Australia's largest apartment developer. The Sydney-based business had net assets of A$16.9 billion ($10.2 billion) as of Feb. 14, 2020, according to the company. Meriton has built more than 75,000 units, according to its website.
The company's valuation is based on its reported book value as of Feb. 14, 2020 and reflects the exchange rate on March 18, 2020. Prior to March 18, 2020, the valuation was based on Meriton's Jan. 25, 2019 book value. The addition of the more recent figure led to an increase in the calculation of about $250 million.
Triguboff declined to comment on his net worth.
Harry Triguboff was born in Dalian, China, to Jewish immigrants who fled Russia after the rise of Vladimir Lenin. He grew up in the Russian community of Tianjin, south of Beijing. The family moved to Australia in the year Triguboff turned 15 years old. He went to high school in Sydney at Scots College, and then received a degree in textile engineering at Leeds University in England. After graduating, he worked in textiles businesses in Israel and South Africa, before returning to Australia in 1960.
The billionaire spent his first few years back in Australia running taxi and milk delivery businesses and, in 1963, used a loan to buy a piece of land in the Sydney suburb of Tempe, where he built eight apartments. He was 30 years old and had three employees.
Triguboff parlayed the project into Meriton, today Australia's biggest apartment developer, by building the tallest blocks he could get approval for in the suburbs. He sold shares of Meriton in 1969 on the Australian Securities Exchange, and delisted the company four years later.
He almost gave up on Australia in 1975 after a downturn in the property market curbed demand for real estate, leading him to scale back on construction, sell assets and plan a move to the U.S. Then a site he had purchased for $150,000 received approval for a 30-apartment development, and Triguboff revised his strategy to buy during slumps, sell during booms and only build in areas with infrastructure that can support new development.
Triguboff has received offers from Canada and British pension plans, as well as Chinese investors, to buy part or all of the company. He says he plans to give control of the business to one of his four grandchildren.
The billionaire's Meriton Group was named Australia's biggest home builder in 2014 in a HIA-Colorbond Housing 100 survey after tripling the number of apartments he commenced building in the year to June 30, 2014 to 7,929.