Discovery CEO Adrian Gore spends R103m on a New York pad
Adrian Gore, 50, who founded Discovery at the age of 28 in 1992, has grown it into a company that provides health and life cover to 4.5 million people across China, South Africa, the UK and US.
Adrian Gore, founder and chief executive of South Africa’s largest private medical aid scheme, snapped up a new condominium at Macklowe Properties’ 737 Park Avenue for R103 million ($11.45m).
Less than a year after splashing out R25-million for a sea-facing apartment in Cape Town’s ultra-exclusive Clifton, the billionaire picked up a three-bedroom luxury pad in New York for R103 million in January.
The 15th floor New York apartment, which boasts solid white oak and Italian marble floors, three bathrooms and a powder room, had been on the market for nine months before the Discovery Group boss snapped it up.
The Real Deal, New York’s real estate magazine, said the sale was filed with city authorities on January 6.
Gore also owns a home in Johannesburg’s Inanda, another in Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape, and a New York penthouse that he bought for about R45.7-million in 2011.
After several attempts to contact Gore for comment, his spokesman on Friday said the properties were part of the billionaire’s investment portfolio. “The robust yield is the sole rationale for the location of these investments,” he said.
Gore, 50, who founded Discovery at the age of 28 in 1992, has grown it into a company that provides health and life cover to 4.5 million people across China, South Africa, the UK and US.
During this time, he has completed the Berlin, London and New York marathons.
The Sunday Times Rich List last year ranked him as the 12th richest South African, with R4.2-billion in investments.
The University of the Witwatersrand actuarial science graduate is leasing his latest buy to HBO television boss Richard Plepler for $40000 (about R416000) a month, according to the New York Post.
The 270m² apartment, according to US media reports, had originally been priced at about R130-million before Gore bought it for a bargain.
Sales figures provided by Trulia, a US firm that compiles an authoritative property transfer guide, puts the average price for a posh New York apartment at about R12.4-million.
Gore’s apartment is situated nearby a five-storey, sevenbedroom mansion bought by the South African Consulate for a reported R147-million in 2008.
Other South Africans who have bought plush pads in the Big Apple include siblings Philip Kirsh and Linda Mirels, the son and daughter of businessman Nathan Kirsh.
According to The Real Deal, two trusts — NY Apt Trust and WF NYC Home Trust — affiliated with the siblings have bought four apartments worth a combined $56.45-million in the 52-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower.
