North man 10th on list of richest

Peter de Graaf | 30th July 2010

Northland's richest man has squeaked on to the top 10 of New Zealand's wealthiest people with a fortune estimated at $650 million.

While the recession has seen a few names drop off this year's rich list and shrunk the bank balances of others, Kaitaia-born Peter Cooper is still doing very nicely.

His No10 placing this year is four places and $50 million higher than it was two years ago, just before the global downturn hit.

The new rankings are revealed in the NBR Rich List, due to be published today. The list has two notable omissions this year - South Island financier Allan Hubbard and Phoenix soccer club owner Terry Serepisos - because of uncertainty over their finances.

Mr Cooper made much of his money developing shopping malls in the US, but is also behind a $450 million development on the Purerua Peninsula in the northern Bay of Islands. The 340ha farm park, called Mountain Landing, has been subdivided into 39 house lots for the super-rich.

He was also instrumental in developing the Britomart transport hub in  Auckland.

Mr Cooper completed his schooling in Kaitaia but is now thought to split his time between Auckland and California.

New Zealand's richest individual is still packaging king Graeme Hart with a whopping $5.5 billion.

The total wealth of this year's 150 richest as listed in NBR is $38 billion, down slightly on last year's $39 billion.

NBR news editor Ellen Read said the way wealth was being made was changing, with more people making the list through intellectual property, ideas and technology.