Maurice Alter

Moses "Maurice" Alter (30 March 1925 – 13 April 2018) was a Polish-born Australian property developer, billionaire, art collector and philanthropist. Between 1964 and 1977, Alter was a key figure of the Hanover (formerly Masaga) property group in partnership with developers Paul Fayman and George Herscu. He later founded the Pacific Group, which remains in business today under the control of his family. Prior to his death in 2018, Alter was one of ten individuals listed on every Financial Review Rich List since the first list was published in 1984.

Maurice Alter was born at Szedliszcz in eastern Poland, to parents Joseph and Brachell Alter. He received an education in Russia before going to Germany. Alter arrived in Australia as a displaced person in 1939, settling in Melbourne. He studied electrical engineering by correspondence, later taking on a job selling real estate while on night shift as a maintenance technician in a textile factory. He made his first real estate investment in the mid-1950s through the purchase of two shops and a bank in Kew.^[1]

During this period, he married and became an Australian citizen.^[2] The couple shared an interest in music and later owned an expensive contemporary art collection.^[3][4] He partnered with developer George Herscu in the late 1950s, and they began building shops around Melbourne's booming outer-suburbs. Many of these were leased to large supermarket chains like Coles.^[5]

In 1964, Alter and Herscu assisted Paul Fayman with his Forest Hill Shopping Centre project, which proved to be a highly-successful venture and marked the beginning of a long-standing partnership between the developers. That year, they consolidated their interests as the Masaga Group.^[6][5] Headquartered at the Royal Bank Chambers on Collins Street, the private syndicate mainly held interests in retail, industrial and residential sites around the state of Victoria.^[7]

Masaga went public in 1969 through a highly-strategic reverse takeover, transformed a finance company into a development group known as Hanover Holdings.^[8][9] Alter was put in charge of Hanover Properties, a principal subsidiary which developed and managed property for retention as permanent investments.^[10] Hanover quickly became known for its large-scale shopping centres, profiting immensely during the early-1970s real estate boom.^[11][12]

The company’s success during the property boom of the period laid the foundation for Maurice Alter’s wealth. However, investigations later revealed that Hanover had misled shareholders by creating the impression that its property portfolio was far larger than it actually was. This was accomplished through carefully worded statements in prospectuses, annual reports, and share issue documents.^[13]

In 1975, amid fiery boardroom meetings at Hanover House, the Alter-Herscu-Fayman partnership moved to privatise and dissolve Hanover.^[14] Alter retained a significant portfolio of commercial and industrial land, forming the basis of a new private conglomerate known as the Pacific Group.^[15][16]

In 1982, Alter and several colleagues were listed among thousands of beneficiaries of the "Bottom of the harbour" tax avoidance strategy, in which profitable companies were stripped of their assets and transferred to dummy owners so they could be liquidated without paying company tax.^[17][18]

Several months after the reveal, a Royal Commission found that Alter and several business partners had undertaken corrupt practises with trade unionist Norm Gallagher. They had given their project managers an "open checkbook for gifts" to ensure that their projects were completed on time, effectively buying industrial peace.^[19][20]

Alter faced further criticism in 1999, when the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers accused him of building his property empire with a "no tax" principle, and that he had ordered his accountants not to pay income tax.^[21][22] The allegations came not after it was revealed Alter had sunk $1.2 million into a tax avoidance scam by fraudulent lawyer Max Green.^[23][24]

Maurice Alter died aged 93, on 13 April 2018, and is buried at the Melbourne Chevra Kadisha. The Pacific Group of Companies are now under the control of his son, Samuel Alter.^[25]