Richard Pratt’s strong succession plan

It is unlikely that the operations of the Visy paper and packaging empire will be disrupted by the death of Richard Pratt, who died on 28 April after a long battle with prostate cancer.   

Over the last five years, Pratt has carefully planned his succession and eased himself out of the day-to-day running of Visy.

Pratt’s son Anthony will assume the role of leader of the Visy empire, which will then be split equally between his three oldest children.

Pratt Industries USA will go to Anthony. The family investment vehicle, Thorney Holdings, will go to daughter Heloise and her husband, Alex Waislitz. Visy Industrial Packaging will be taken over by daughter Fiona and her husband, Raphael Geminder. Each business has been managed by its owners for the past few years.

Visy’s $3 billion Australian manufacturing group, which comprises the Visy Board, Visy Paper and Visy Recycling businesses, will be owned in equal share by the three children.

Pratt’s youngest daughter Paula has a Sydney mansion held in trust for her and is expected to receive a large cash payment in 2016, when she turns 18.

In addition to these carefully-laid family succession plans, Pratt and his family bought in a team of hand-picked non-family board members, led by former Foster’s boss John Murphy as chief executive and another Foster’s boss, Ted Kunkel, as chairman.

Other board members include former Telstra executive Ted Pretty and former Australian rugby union captain John Eales.

The introduction of executive and board members from outside the family was also part of Pratt’s push to improve Visy’s corporate governance following his confession that the company engaged in a cartel arrangement with rival Amcor.

While it remains to be seen what director Anthony Pratt may make of Visy, his father’s vision to set up a clear, smooth succession process will mean the younger Pratt has a strong platform from which to operate.

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