Renouf near to calling it a day

Press, 28 November 1988, Page 3

Renouf near to calling it a day

NZPA Wellington The former international business tycoon, Sir Francis Renouf, is giving up on big business deals, saying he doesn’t want to know anymore, it is too late, and there are too many other things to do. Sir Francis said there was much more to life than trying to see a share price go up and down. After 55 years of what he calls “hard slog,” Sir Francis, now aged 70, admits he is the closest he will ever be to retiring. For the man who started the first merchant bank in New Zealand and established Renouf Corporation in 1984, the last 12 months have had a devastating effect on him. He lost 90 per cent of his fortune in the sharemarket crash — amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars ' — and the sharemarket value of the company which bore his name dropped from $791 million in October, 1987, to $79 million in March, 1988, and $5B million in October, 1988. He became the centre of news media attention with his on-again, offagain marriage to the Australian socialite, Susan Renouf, nee Sangster, nee Peacock, nee Rossiter. He and his now estranged wife, Susan, remain friends. “I still see her. We’re good friends.” Whenever he passed through Aus-

tralia, he saw her or she telephoned him. “It would be impossible not to be friends,” he said. “We did such an awful lot together in a short time.” Asked if he had considered remarrying, Sir Francis said, “You never know the ways of life.” For the last year, Sir Francis has spent most of the time at his London apartment. He remains a director of Renouf Corporation and is chairman of the subsidiary, Renouf Properties, but will retire from that position at the annual meeting on December 8. Sir Francis’ business problems started long before the world sharemarket slump. In the early months of 1986 Renouf Corporation was involved in a takeower bid by Mr Bruce Judge’s company, Ariadne. Then aged 68, Sir Francis wanted to scale down his business activity, and have Mr Judge take over the mantle. But by the end of 1986 serious personality conflicts had arisen between them. He expects to be re-elected to the Renouf Corporation board at the annual meeting in Auckland next week, and also expects to be involved in the official investigation of the Ariadne group, p