Sixers

Joshua Harris’ Net Worth Increased by an Estimated $900 Million in the Past Year

By Kyle Scott

Published: Sep 17th, 2013 · 3:41 PM EDT

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This man… is richer than you.

From Jordan Raanan at NJ.com:

It’s been a good two years since Josh Harris bought the Philadelphia 76ers. He’s dipped into hockey, purchasing the Devils, and more than doubled his net worth, according to Forbes.

Harris was ranked by Forbes the 222nd-richest American with a net worth estimated at $2.5 billion. He was ranked 298th last year at $1.6 billion.

The increase in his net worth has little to do with his purchase of the Devils earlier this year. Instead it’s the nearly doubling of the shares from his successful buyout firm Apollo Global Management.

From that Forbes valuation, which has Harris’ net worth increasing from $1.2 billion in 2010 to $2.5 billion in 2013, comes a mention of this story, reported by the New York Times in April, which I so deeply apologize for not bringing to you sooner:

Soon after Hurricane Sandy hit last fall, Joshua Harris, a billionaire hedge fund founder and an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, began to fear that his $25 million home on the water here might fall victim to the next major storm. So he installed a costly defense against incoming waves: a shield of large metal plates on the beach, camouflaged by sand.

His neighbor, Mark Rachesky, another billionaire hedge fund founder, put up similar fortifications between his home and the surf. Chris Shumway, who closed his $8 billion hedge fund two years ago, trucked in boulders the size of Volkswagens.

Some local officials said they were worried that the owners were engaging in an arms race with nature, installing higher and higher barricades that could rapidly hasten erosion — essentially sacrificing public beaches to save private homes.

These fortifications have been built along a stretch of coast just over 2,000 feet long in one of the most exclusive sections of Southampton, off Gin Lane. The houses they protect cost as much as $60 million and stand, flanked by swimming pools and tennis courts, on hedge-lined lots of three to five acres.

Harris told Bloomberg that the return he’ll get from the Sixers and Devils isn’t as great as private equity, but it’s “better than the 1% [he] could earn at J.P. Morgan” and that he gets to “have fun and earn a decent return.”