Billionaire investor David Hains dies aged 92

Melbourne billionaire David Hains, prominent in the corporate world and horse racing industry, has died aged 92.

David Hains had success with business and horses. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Melbourne billionaire David Hains has died aged 92.

Hains was prominent in the corporate world for being a canny and ­innovative investor over a lifetime in business as founder of Portland House, one of the country’s most successful investment ­houses.

He rose to even more fame for the success he had in horse racing, something he said came as a surprise.

In an interview with The Australian last October, an intensely private Mr Hains reflected on the three consecutive Cox Plate wins of famous horse Kingston Town from 1980.

Mr Hains scored 35 Group 1 wins, including the 1990 Melbourne Cup with Kingston Rule, the three Cox Plates and plenty of other famous trophies.

“It was a complete surprise,” Mr Hains said in the interview of Kingston Town. “To get a horse like that who was such an outstanding horse, you can talk about bloodlines and breeding, but you’ve got to be lucky. And we were very lucky.”

Mr Hains’ remarkable business ­career spanned manufacturing in the 1950s, retailing, various takeovers, turning around a US steel business, running Indian factories, property developing and hedge fund investing in ­global equities, currencies, fixed income and other assets at Portland House, run by three of his sons.

Among his eclectic range of business ventures was making ­ornamental brass candlesticks and then building his own company with an original-design washing machine and clothes dryer, called the Hydromat, at the age of 20.

In the early 1990s, Mr Hains and his partners took the failed Wheeling-Pittsburgh steel company in the US out of bankruptcy and turned it around.

In the late 1960s he had worked for seven years to improve his golf game with great friend Norman Von Nida.

Mr Hains was married to Helen and had five children: Cathy, Stephen, Richard, Michael and Paul.

Helen Hains died in August 2017.

Cathy Hains is a horse breeder and son Paul founded the online magazine Aeon. Stephen Hains manages Portland’s bond and ­derivatives division, Richard handles managed funds and ­Michael the equities holdings.