The billionaire owner of Red Bull lost his bid for a massive Austrian hunting estate to a fellow countryman.
Dietrich Mateschitz was outspent by Austrian Rene Benko, who ponied up $35.8 million for 1,300 hectares of property in the country’s Styria province. The estate features large swaths of forest, and is home to a small chapel and inn built in the 1300s, Bloomberg reported (paywall).
“It’s a beautiful plot of land with a very long tradition and historically valuable buildings,” Benko told Bloomberg in an interview. “We’re planning to renovate the building ensemble, and for us it’s a good way to diversify our portfolio.”
It is a high-profile loss for Mateschitz, who is Austria’s richest man and has purchased many properties in the area.
Benko, meanwhile, is better known for investing hundreds of millions of euros renovating historic buildings in Vienna, according to the report.
