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Larry Ellison yacht co gets more taxpayer funding

February 11, 2019 February 2019 No Comments

A New Zealand company owned by multi-billionaire America’s Cup arch-rival Larry Ellison, and which has Rich Lister yachtsman Russell Coutts on the board, is getting more taxpayer funding.

Warkworth-based Core Builders Composites, formerly known as Oracle Racing, has successfully negotiated a two-year extension to its Callaghan Innovation research and development grant. It got $1.5 million of government funding in 2016 and almost $1 million in 2017.

Core Composites is 100 percent-owned by US-based Oracle Racing Inc, which in turn is owned by a Larry Ellison trust. Ellison, who co-founded and chairs technology giant Oracle Corp, is number 10 on Forbes’ top 20 billionaires of 2018 list, worth $US58.5 billion.

Core Composite’s raison d’etre over the years has been to help make boats for Ellison/Oracle yacht races – particularly for America’s Cup campaigns.

Its only business, according to its 2009 annual report, was “assisting its parent company in challenging for the America’s Cup”. Oracle Team USA won the 2010 race series and then caused widespread despair in New Zealand by coming from seven points down in the 2013 cup to beat Team NZ.

In 2014, Core received a three-year Callaghan Innovation Growth Grant, allowing it to claim a portion of its R&D expenditure – normally between 20 and 40 percent. Its 2017 annual accounts show these taxpayer-funded grants were worth $2.5 million in the two years 2016-2017. Callaghan has now extended the grant to June 2019.

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