Luck starts running out for butcher who became gambling billionaire
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Vienna — Billionaire Johann Graf has never had to fight on so many fronts simultaneously.
The ordinary-man’s gambling company, Novomatic, the 73-year-old Austrian butcher-turned-tycoon created four decades ago, is raking in smaller profits as the pandemic drives people away from slot machines in casinos from Las Vegas to Macau. His company is also battling allegations of corruption, its CEO has left and it needs to refinance about €1bn in debt.
“Not only is it in a delicate sector, but it’s also facing several challenges at once,” said Alois Woegerbauer, the head of 3 Banken-Generali Investment, a Linz, Austria-based firm managing €10bn in holdings, including Novomatic bonds. “Given the weaker sales outlook and the legal issues, the coming months will be decisive to see which direction Johann Graf and the company take.”
This article, based on court documents and interviews with more than 25 business partners, bond investors, lawyers, bankers and former employees who asked not to be identified discussing their relationship with Graf and the company, seeks to capture the secretive billionaire’s rise and the challenges he now faces.
Graf, whose ascent is the stuff of Austrian folklore, started out as a butcher in post-World War 2 Vienna, living with his parents in a small apartment with a communal toilet down the hallway. Fifty years on, bankers working on a stock-market listing of Novomatic told Graf his net worth was close to €5bn. The incredulous entrepreneur, polishing off a Viennese Schnitzel at his art-deco city-centre guesthouse, jotted the number down on a napkin and put it in his jacket pocket, according to an adviser who was present.
While the listing never happened, the cigar-smoking mogul’s fortune has expanded. It is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $6.6bn — after a $260m drop this year — making him the second-richest man in Austria behind Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull.
Graf’s wealth stems mostly from his full ownership of Novomatic, which runs gambling bars, counts Book of Ra, American Poker II and Sizzling Hot among its best-selling games and whose slot machines are installed in the world’s biggest casinos. The company has more than 2,000 gaming facilities across 50 countries.
Business has been hit hard as disposable incomes have shrunk. On a recent afternoon, staff outnumbered clients at the company’s flagship outlet in Vienna’s Prater amusement park. In a hall decorated with gold-coloured Egyptian goddesses and mystic ...
The ordinary-man’s gambling company, Novomatic, the 73-year-old Austrian butcher-turned-tycoon created four decades ago, is raking in smaller profits as the pandemic drives people away from slot machines in casinos from Las Vegas to Macau. His company is also battling allegations of corruption, its CEO has left and it needs to refinance about €1bn in debt.
“Not only is it in a delicate sector, but it’s also facing several challenges at once,” said Alois Woegerbauer, the head of 3 Banken-Generali Investment, a Linz, Austria-based firm managing €10bn in holdings, including Novomatic bonds. “Given the weaker sales outlook and the legal issues, the coming months will be decisive to see which direction Johann Graf and the company take.”
This article, based on court documents and interviews with more than 25 business partners, bond investors, lawyers, bankers and former employees who asked not to be identified discussing their relationship with Graf and the company, seeks to capture the secretive billionaire’s rise and the challenges he now faces.
Graf, whose ascent is the stuff of Austrian folklore, started out as a butcher in post-World War 2 Vienna, living with his parents in a small apartment with a communal toilet down the hallway. Fifty years on, bankers working on a stock-market listing of Novomatic told Graf his net worth was close to €5bn. The incredulous entrepreneur, polishing off a Viennese Schnitzel at his art-deco city-centre guesthouse, jotted the number down on a napkin and put it in his jacket pocket, according to an adviser who was present.
While the listing never happened, the cigar-smoking mogul’s fortune has expanded. It is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $6.6bn — after a $260m drop this year — making him the second-richest man in Austria behind Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull.
Graf’s wealth stems mostly from his full ownership of Novomatic, which runs gambling bars, counts Book of Ra, American Poker II and Sizzling Hot among its best-selling games and whose slot machines are installed in the world’s biggest casinos. The company has more than 2,000 gaming facilities across 50 countries.
Business has been hit hard as disposable incomes have shrunk. On a recent afternoon, staff outnumbered clients at the company’s flagship outlet in Vienna’s Prater amusement park. In a hall decorated with gold-coloured Egyptian goddesses and mystic ...