David Hains

David Hains was an Australian businessman, engineer, and horse breeder. He was the founder and once CEO of Portland House Group, Australia’s largest private investments management firm and hedge fund. According to Forbes, Hains had at the time of his death a personal net-worth of around $2 billion, making him one of the richest person of Australia.

Biography

Hains graduated from the University of Melbourne. He started his career as an engineer and in corporate restructuring. In the 1960s, he took a seven-year hiatus from his career to play golf.
Through his Portland House Group, Australia's biggest hedge fund that he managed with his children, Hains invested in equities, fixed interest, property and managed funds globally. In 1993, he sold an investment to Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel for 107 million.
Hains bred horses at his Kingston Park Stud in, Victoria. His horses include Kingston Town, Lowan Star and Rose of Kingston.

Personal life and death

Hains was married to Helen Hains and had five children. His son Richard Hains is a hedge fund manager and author of the novel Chameleon. Helen Hains died on 24 August 2017.
Hains died on 22 January 2023, at the age of 92.

Wealth rankings

In May 2019, The Australian Financial Review estimated Hains' net worth as 2.90 billion as published in the Financial Review Rich List; and in January 2019 his net worth was estimated by Forbes Asia as 1.90 billion as published in the list of Australia's 50 richest people., Hains was one of ten Australians who had appeared in every Financial Review Rich List, or its predecessor, the BRW Rich 200, since it was first published in 1984, until his death in 2023. In 2023, the Financial Review, assessed the net worth of Hains' descendants, Stephen, Richard and Michael Hains and family, at 2.88 billion.