Jordan Grives sets up a family office after pocketing $70m-plus from Uniti Group sale

A young Brisbane richlister has plenty to smile about having just pocketed more than $70m from the sale of a tech firm and he also recently got hitched on Hayman Island.

A $70m plus windfall from the sale of his shares in Uniti Group has sparked another business direction for serial entrepreneur Jordan Grives which as the same time has complemented a new phase in his personal life.

In August a consortium comprising Morrison & Co, Brookfield Asset Management and Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation paid $3.7bn for ASX-listed Uniti Group with shares valued at about $5 each.

Mr Grives had 14 million shares and other assets in the company and he walked away with well over $70m.

He also recently married his wife Amelia on Hayman Island and said he will no longer focus on start-ups but instead concentrate on his investment vehicle Capital J Investments which he has set up as a privately-owned family office in Waterfront Place to handle his wealth.

“Never say never but at this stage I have no ambition to start something from scratch. I will bring capital in and a bit of experience but that’s it,” Mr Grives said.

“Capital J Investments is a fully formed family office which I will run with Amelia and we will run it like a business and invest in anything from private equity through to public institutions, property and a whole range of things.

“We’ll be dividing our time between Brisbane and Noosa, and we’ll gather a team over time.”

The 33-year-old has long been a fixture on Young Rich Lists with the Australian Financial Review’s list ranking him last year at 63 with a fortune of $81m.

Jordan Grives who has started a family office investment vehicle Capital J Investments.

It all started for the St Peters Lutheran College old boy when he was 18 when he founded Fonebox Group, an inbound telecommunications service for businesses.

The then Ferrari-driving entrepreneur then sold it to US internet services firm J2 Global in 2016 for $30m and he founded Fone Dynamics, a messaging and call analytics business which he said at the time was a “sexier” version of his first business.

In 2019 he sold that to the then South Australian-based internet services provider Uniti Wireless – later renamed Uniti Group – and joined the company’s executive team armed with a large slab of shares which at the time were worth around 50 cents each.

The company grew into Australia’s second largest fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) provider, specialising in wholesale telco services, infrastructure, and communications platform-as-a-service with a number of fibre broadband builders in the group.

Regardless of the cash windfall, Mr Grives said his two-plus years with Uniti was an invaluable learning experience.

“I ran my own business for 13 to 14 years and its unique experience to go from running your own business through to being part of a public company where you’re working for yourself because you’re a shareholder but also working for 10,000 other shareholders and also a boss,” he said.

“When you run your own business you get it to a certain point or size. When you’re part of a public company you get to see all the governance involved, you get to see the workings behind a capital raising and everything else. I learned more along the way as well as by being involved in one of the best performing stocks over the past couple of years.”

Jordan Grives at his wine bar, Copado at Teneriffe in 2017.

While he has a business plan Mr Grives joked he was getting old and suggested “kids maybe next”.

However, one venture has definitely ruled out running his own bar having had a taste of the hospitality sector when he co-owned Copado bar on Macquarie Tce in Teneriffe back in 2017.

“That was a youthful thing and I wouldn’t do that again,” Mr Grives said.

“I’m better on the other side of the bar. It seems the thing to do is for people who have made a dollar or two to buy a bar or restaurant but I found out that it’s definitely not my thing.”

Northern exposure

SENTINEL Property Group has shown confidence in the Townsville region, where it has more than $100m in assets, with the purchase of a development site in the Cleveland Bay Industrial Estate close to the Port of Townsville.

The 6ha property within the Townsville State Development Area at Lot 50, on the corner of the Bruce Highway and Townsville Port Rd, Stuart, was purchased for $7.2m from a private investor in a sale negotiated by Neville Smith of Burgess Rawson.

Sentinel chief executive Warren Ebert, said the property will be added to the Sentinel Industrial Trust, which includes assets in Mackay, Townsville, Brisbane, Mayfield in Newcastle and Tuggerah on the NSW Central Coast, and is the Group’s 10th asset currently owned in Townsville.

Sentinel Group CEO Warren Ebert has $100m of assets in Trist in the Townsville region.

“This is a significant asset zoned medium impact industry which we are pleased to have acquired for the top performing Sentinel Industrial Trust for about $120/sq m,” he said.

“It is in a prime location in the SDA and is suitable for industrial and port related users as well as fuel operators. We will be looking for tenants for the site and working with them on a suitable development.”

Mr Ebert said Sentinel was always on the lookout for more properties in the region.

“We’re heavily invested in North Queensland which we believe is a region with a fantastic decade ahead of it,” he said.

“Townsville, in particular, is a city which has fared well during the pandemic period in comparison to other Australian cities and is poised to power on.”

Education city

SOUTH-Queensland’s fastest-growing master planned community has finalised plans for a new five-storey TAFE college after the Federal Government’s announcement of a national initiative to provide free training places to increase skill levels in a changing workforce.

Greater Springfield chairman Maha Sinnathamby said plans for the new college will complement the existing TAFE facility in Central Springfield.

The new college will take some of the 180,000 free TAFE training places announced by the l Government following last week’s national jobs and skills summit.

“Training capacity is vital now to ensure that we can properly resource an economy that needs

support,” Mr Sinnathamby said.

“We have an existing TAFE college overflowing with students, but we have room to grow to enable more students to gain the skills that will help this nation.

“We have a complete design for a five-storey, purpose-built TAFE. We are ready and we have the people who can benefit from new places.”

Mr Sinnathamby said the growth in the western corridor made it attractive for the training boost that was a focus of the national jobs and skills summit.

“The opening speech of the national jobs and skills summit included one clear message: invest in human capital, big time,” Mr Sinnathamby said.

“This is music to the ears of Greater Springfield, which has been built on an investment in human and social capital.”

Greater Springfield chairman Maha Sinnathamby is planning a new TAFE College in the city.

Video game stars

TWO Brisbane video game studios have been nominated for the Australian Video Game Awards (AGDAs) which could be the first step in going global.

Last year, Brisbane’s Witch Beam Studios won the AGDA’s Game of the Year award with their cosy game, Unpacking, before winning over 30 awards internationally.

Protostar Games has been short-listed for two AGDA gongs this year: Dream Hopper, in the Excellence in Mobile Games category and It’s Literally Just Mowing which is in the Excellence in Ongoing Games.

Also, the Brisbane studio of international developer Gameloft has been nominated for The Oregon Trail which is a finalist in the Excellence in Ongoing Games category.

Protostar is an independent games developer co-founded in 2014 by two former Halfbrick veterans Dean Loades and Matt Knights have developed the games – Checkpoint Champion

Sling Kong and Super Starfish.

Protostar’s Games focus on creating a Zen and calming experience for gamers. Commonly referred to as “cosy” games, players complete mundane tasks like mowing a lawn to zone out.

The Queensland government is also focusing on supporting local game development, via the Screen Queensland digital incentive, encouraging game development in the state.

This year the AGDAs will be held on October 5 as part of the Melbourne International Games Week celebrations.

Protostar Games' AGDA nominated video game It's Literally Just Mowing.