Edeltraud Franziska Grill is the first wife of John Grill, the chief executive and major shareholder of engineering giant WorleyParsons, who has a fortune of $971 million.
The pair divorced in February 2008, but WorleyParsons' latest annual report shows Edeltraud Grill received eight million Worley shares in the divorce settlement, making here the sixth largest shareholder, with a stake currently worth a bit over $187 million.
SmartCompany can report that Edultraud Grill disposed of the eight million shares last week via a bookbuild. The divorce agreement had prevented her from selling more than 100,000 share a month while Grill was in charge, except via a bookbuild.
However, the cash from the share sale should still be enough to get Edultraud Grill on to the BRW Rich 200 list, which this year had a cut off of $185 million.
The 2010 list contained just 15 women, so Grill's addition would be welcomed by female entrepreneurs.
ASX records show that in June, John Grill offloaded eight million "pursuant to orders made in the Family Court of Australia on May 31, 2010".
Grill, who remarried earlier this year, has not indicated when he might step down from the CEO's role, which he has held since 1971. According to Worley's annual report, his contract is of an "unlimited duration".
If Edeltraud Grill does make the BRW Rich 200, she will join a number of wealthy divorcees, including Nicole Kidman and Gerry Harvey's former wife, Lynette Harvey.
Lynette Harvey received a large stake in Harvey Norman as part of her divorce from Gerry. She retains around 50 million shares over $160 million, and is listed on the Rich 200 with a fortune of $205 million.
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written by Pk2brd, October 25, 2010
I'm all for women being in the rich list, but I think the basic parameter should be around business activity not relationship separation.
written by jamieb, October 25, 2010
Then again, I know nothing about Edeltraud Franziska Grill, but if there is more to her and her business/investor skills it might help to put that information into the article as well.
There is no background on Edeltraud and why she is entrepreneurial etc so it just sounds like she cashed out in the divorce, same with Lynette. For those of us that don't know their story some extra info would put them in abetter light perhaps?
In the absence of that the line "Grill's addition would be welcomed by female entrepreneurs." makes it sound like smartcompany thinks that divocing someone and taking a bag o cash is entrepreneurial...