Billionaire businessman James Packer has made a surprising dip into the world of adult content creation, just months after the death of the owner of OnlyFans.
The 58-year-old Aussie emerged as a backer of the controversial site on Friday, amid reports he considers the platform a “positive force.”
Packer is reportedly among a group of investors who bought into a 16 per cent minority stake in OnlyFans’ parent company, UK-based Fenix International, for AU$739 million.
The purchase was made through US-based investment firm Architect Capital, which secured funding from a number of “prominent investors and wealthy family offices”, according to the Financial Times.
The deal has valued the company at $AU4.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
According to The Australian, Packer was approached by Moelis, a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors.
A source at Packer’s private vehicle Consolidated Press Holdings said the businessman thought OnlyFans was a positive force for content creators and “a way people can avoid going down darker avenues”, according to the outlet.
The move follows the death of OnlyFans’ owner, reclusive American-Ukrainian billionaire Leonid Radvinsky, who died of cancer at age 43 in March.
The platform was originally founded in 2016 by British father-and-son duo Guy and Tim Stokely.
Mr Radvinsky bought Fenix in 2018 and built OnlyFans — a two-year-old business at the time — into a platform that boasts over four million registered creators and 377 million users.
Through the platform, creators are able to charge fans for access to adult-only photos, videos and other content through a subscription model.
It is estimated to generate AU$1.9 billion in annual revenue.
His widow, Yekaterina “Katie” Chudnovsky, retains majority ownership under the existing family trust structure.
For Packer, whose net worth is estimated at $5 billion, the investment adds to a sprawling portfolio of digital assets built through Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH)
Through CPH, Packer was an early investor in Seek and Carsales, and has been a prominent backer of US online real estate platform Zillow and sports betting group Flutter.
The former Sydneysider, who now spends most of his time in the US, is best known for his Crown Resorts casino empire, which he built up after liquidating the media business built by his late father, Kerry Packer.
Packer, who is Australia’s 27th richest person, stepped down from the casino operator’s board in 2018, citing poor mental health.
He sold down his stake between 2019 and 2022 to former business partner Lawrence Ho and investment giant Blackstone.
It marked the end of an era for Packer, who first became involved in Crown in 1999, and is understood to have wanted an escape route for many years.
The move further followed years of controversies at Crown, including staff getting jailed in China, and several inquiries which found the casino operator enabled money laundering and links to criminal gangs.
In March this year, Packer revealed he was set to marry again after proposing to ex Kylie Lim.
Lim, 46, a former New York socialite and model, first dated Packer for three years from late 2017 to 2020.
Speaking to news.com.au at the time, Packer said: “We are very happy to be engaged and looking forward to the future.”
The recent proposal marked the fifth time the billionaire had been engaged.
He was previously engaged to actor and TV presenter Kate Fischer, Jodhi Meares, Erica Baxter, and Mariah Carey.