Expatriate New Zealand tycoon Owen Glenn has sold the logistics empire he built up from nothing.
Monaco-based Mr Glenn, 71, has a high profile in New Zealand where he has controversially donated money to political parties, and supported education and sports organisations.
He donated $1 million to the Christchurch earthquake recovery fund.
Mr Glenn was raised a British subject in India, attending a boarding school in the Himalayas until his family immigrated to New Zealand when he was 11. At the age of 21 he took up citizenship, according to a profile in the Sunday Star Times newspaper last year.
His empire was built in England, Australia and America and his Los Angeles-based freight handler OTS Logistics is reported to have achieved revenues of $US700 million ($NZ881 million) in 2010.
He has sold the business to Man Capital, part of the family-owned Egyptian conglomerate Mansour Group, for an undisclosed sum, The New Zealand Herald reports.
The possibility of a sale "for a cool half billion dollars" was signalled in the interview with the Sunday Star Times last year when Mr Glenn said he is moving to Sydney to be near three of his six children and eight grandchildren.
He was selling up because he had no "dynastic lean" and none of his kids were up to taking over, the newspaper reported.
The race horse owner and yachtie is occasionally mentioned in gossip columns. He was a friend of the late entertainer Sir Howard Morrison.
He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2008 New Year's honours list.
The Owen G Glenn FIH 2011 Champions Trophy for field hockey carries his name, reflecting his interest in the game he played at Mt Roskill Grammar.
He donated $7.5 million in 2002 for the development of a business school at Auckland University in the Owen G Glenn Building.
NZN