Marc Besen growing his eclectic collection of investments

Soon-to-be-listed HomeCo is just the latest addition to the eclectic holdings of billionaire Marc Besen.

Eva Besen and Marc Besen in 2001.

Marc Besen’s backing of the imminent $637.7 million Home Consortium float adds to an eclectic mix of listed company stocks under the control of the retail and property billionaire.

At 95, Besen is the oldest member of The List — Australia’s Richest 250. He has emerged as a backer of Home Co, which has a portfolio of revamped former Woolworths-owned Masters hardware outlets, alongside several other billionaires and members of The List.

That strategy is in keeping with several other of his listed investments.

Home Co has Zac Fried on its board of directors, with the Spotlight retail outlet co-owner (along with Morry Fraid) having teamed with former UBS Australia managing director David Di Pilla to by the assets of the failed Masters back in 2016. Other investors at the time included the billionaire owners of the Chemist Warehouse chain, Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi.

Di Pilla has since led a push to revamp the outlets into a large-scale shopping outlets, incorporating Spotlight and Chemist Warehouse outlets and other brands like Anaconda — also owned by Fried and Fraid — on land and in buildings previously used for the hardware chain that ended up costing Woolworths hundreds of millions.

Home Co has raised $300 million from wealthy investors and will list on the ASX in mid-October, offering investors a targeted 6 per cent fully franked yield.

Besen is part of one of the most prominent and influential families on The List, published by The Australian. His brother-in-law John Gandel is member of the billionaire ranks, thanks to canny investments such as his 50 per cent share of the giant Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne’s southeast, a stake last valued at $3.25 billion.

Gandel and Besen built the women’s fashion chain Sussan. Besen arrived in Australia on a study visa in 1947 and later married Gandel’s sister Eva. Sussan is now owned by the Besen’s daughter Naomi Milgrom, who is also a member of The List with an estimated $557 million fortune.

Milgrom’s sister Carol Schwartz is also on The List with estimated wealth of $409 million shared with husband Alan. Their Trawalla Group has a diverse range of property investments including Qualitas, a real estate financier and investment manager.

The Besen fortune was underpinned by Melbourne’s Highpoint shopping centre, in which they sold a final stake to GPT Group during 2017 for $680 million after initially offloading a half share in 2006 for $621 million.

Besen has a range of commercial property investments, with son Daniel being an investor in his own right, owning the highly regarded TarraWarra winery and art gallery in the Yarra Valley just outside Melbourne.

His shareholdings include the small childcare centre owner Mayfield Childcare, which has market capitalisation of about $31 million. Shares in Mayfield are up about 13 per cent since January 1.

Mayfield has a portfolio of 21 childcare centres around Victoria and made a pre-tax profit of slightly more than $3 million last financial year, delivering fully franked dividends of 8.97c per share.

Besen has also been a shareholder in a bigger property concern, the Charter Hall Long Wale real estate investment trust. It is up about 30 per cent since the beginning of the year and recently spent $413.6 million buying a quarter share in a portfolio of Telstra buildings and an office tower in Brisbane.

Then there are the listed investment companies the Besen family has backed.

One is Katana Capital, which underperformed its benchmark All Ordinaries Index by 7.04 per cent in the year to June 30. Besen also has shares in companies like Mineral Resources, headed by The List’s Chris Ellison, and Macquarie Group.

Besen also has shares in billionaire Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Opportunities Group and Thorney Technologies. The latter delivered a 305 per cent increase in net profit for 2019 to $22.5 million.