Vailo founder Aaron James Hickmann moves family to Gold Coast from Adelaide ahead of Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games

The wife of an Adelaide millionaire entrepreneur and serial sports sponsor has splurged on a mega Gold Coast mansion to get closer to the action for the 2032 Olympic Games.

High-profile Adelaide entrepreneur Aaron Hickmann has bought a mansion and moved to the Gold Coast.

A millionaire South Australian entrepreneur and serial sporting team sponsor has bought a $12m Gold Coast mansion in his wife’s name, as he looks to cash in on the 2032 Olympic Games.

Aaron Hickmann’s lighting company Vailo, formerly Valo, is relocating its manufacturing facility from Adelaide to a space currently under negotiation in the Yatala Enterprise Area, on the Queensland city’s outer north.

Mr Hickmann, 35, is known in the South Australian capital for his sponsorship of the GWS Giants, Adelaide Crows and Hawthorn AFL clubs, as well as NBL, soccer and rugby teams.

Vailo is also naming rights sponsor for the Adelaide 500 Supercars event. The company makes LED lighting and scoreboards for stadiums and sporting fields.

VAILO founder and chief executive Aaron Hickmann.

Mr Hickmann has also made headlines being pursued over a disputed land tax bill on a $4.6m beachside mansion and for his role in a cannabis company which went bust owing millions of dollars to investors.

He was also a victim of a home invasion in which he saw three balaclava-clad intruders enter his property in the early hours of a June morning last year.

Property records show a company directed by Mr Hickmann’s wife Maxine Hickmann, 30, bought a waterfront home in exclusive Sanctuary Cove for $12.11 million in September last year.

The luxury home’s features include a basement “wine club” housing 2000 bottles, a heated infinity-edge pool, riverside firepit lounge, executive office, gym, boat shed and 30m pontoon for mooring a superyacht.

Another of Ms Hickmann’s companies bought a second Sanctuary Cove home for $2.41 million a month later.

Aaron and Maxine Hickmann.

Vailo CEO and founder Aaron Hickmann pictured at his offices and factory at Kent Town in SA in 2022. Picture: Mark Brake

A liquidator is still investigating the collapse of medicinal cannabis venture BBS Pharmaceuticals, of which Mr Hickmann was an investor and former director.

ASIC records show Upper Coomera man Brandon Joseph Smith, 30, was sole director of BBS when it went into liquidation in June last year, while Mr Hickmann remains a shareholder.

He was majority shareholder when in March 2022 he promised to inject almost $85m for construction, technology and manufacturing infrastructure.

Administrators found his pledge to save the project never eventuated and the business plunged into administration three months after he resigned as a director.

The sprawling Sanctuary Cove property offers a 30m pontoon for mooring a superyacht. Picture: realestate.com.au

Bizcap has a caveat on this property at Sanctuary Cove. Picture: realestate.com.au

Meanwhile, a tax dispute linked to the sale of a $4.6 million luxury Glenelg South property – owned through one of his companies – was ongoing this week.

Title documents on Wednesday revealed Revenue SA, through the Commissioner of State Taxation, still holds a legal caveat over the property, which is a buyer warning invoking certain restrictions including on sales or land transfers.

Mr Hickmann said it was actually the SA Government which was indebted to him.

“Land Tax office owes (me) $120,000 in credit and is being applied to any amount owing,” he said.

“An apology is also being sought as a caveat should never have been lodged.”

The Adelaide property is also subject to two mortgages, most recently to small business lender Bizcap, which holds caveats over both of Ms Hickmann’s Sanctuary Cove houses.

The Gold Coast luxury mansion’s basement “wine club”, which can house 2000 bottles. Picture: realestate.com.au

The home’s opulent bathroom. Picture: realestate.com.au

“Bizcap isn’t an issue … the properties are used for business funding expansion security,” said Mr Hickmann, whose empire included directorships of at least 47 companies.

“(These are) standard dealings and are private.”

Mr Hickmann said the collapse of BBS had “no impact” on Vailo “and never has”.

“I am a creditor that is owed money from the entity, and this has been verified many times,” he said.

Mr Hickmann said he’d left Adelaide because of “my family home privacy”.

In a separate media release about his company’s move into Queensland, Mr Hickmann said it would “benefit from being part of an entrepreneurial, innovative and progressive environment in which to conduct business”.

“The Queensland community is incredibly supportive to local manufacturing, while backing local companies for local projects and I’ve appreciated meeting with Queensland Manufacturing Minister, Glenn Butcher, to discuss the Made in Queensland Program,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Butcher said the Minister did not specifically endorse Vailo and that it had not received any state government funding.

Originally published as Vailo founder Aaron James Hickmann moves family to Gold Coast from Adelaide ahead of Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games