Dart owns Dart Enterprises, a Cayman Islands-based investment company. His biggest holdings are in tobacco companies British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands. Other interests include venture capital fund Active Capital, real estate businesses Dart Realty and Decco, and minority stakes in publicly traded healthcare companies.
The majority of Dart's fortune is derived from Dart Enterprises, a closely held holding company whose subsidiaries include real estate developer Dart Realty Cayman, venture capital fund Active Capital and hedge fund EM Ltd. Dart Enterprises includes the billionaire's family office.
Through subsidiaries Eastern Capital and Spring Mountain Investments, Dart holds stakes in tobacco and biotech companies, including 10% of British American Tobacco PLC and 6.3% of Imperial Brands PLC.
Dart Enterprises held $551 million in real estate, according to data from Real Capital Analytics as of August 2019. The value of his real estate was reduced in February 2022 to $526 million and then increased back to $550 million in October 2023, based on the year-to-date performance of two publicly traded Caribbean real estate investment trusts. Dart Real Estate has developed more than $1.5 billion in projects, according to its website.
In the 1990s, Dart made more than $2 billion with bets on Salomon Inc., Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Brazilian debt, according to a 1995 Businessweek report. The value of his cash investments is based on past transactions according to the Businessweek report, other reports detailing his sovereign debt transactions, and an analysis of dividends, market performance and taxes for the years he remained a U.S. citizen. The calculation also includes $900 million in proceeds on Argentinian debt transactions. In April 2021 the cash position was changed to reflect a liability based on the cost of his investments in tobacco companies.
He's one of three sons of William A. Dart, the founder of Mason, Michigan-based cupmaker Dart Container, who died in 2011. The billionaire stepped-down as president in 2014 and is no longer a shareholder, Dart Enterprises spokesman?Tony Wilbert said in 2015. The asset is not included in the calculation.
No responses were received to requests for comment on Dart's net worth sent to Dart Enterprises representatives.
Kenneth Dart was born to Claire and William Dart in Michigan on April 21, 1955. His father and grandfather developed a machine that turned expandable polystyrene beads into plastic cups and created Dart Container, which remains part of Dart Enterprises.
Kenneth attended the University of Michigan and graduated in 1976 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He joined the family business after graduation and became president of Dart Containers ten years later, the same year the family restructured a trust that divided its assets equally between Kenneth and his two brothers, Tom and Bob. William died in 2011 and Ken stepped down as president in 2014 and continues to advise the company, Dart Enterprises spokesman Tony Wilbert said in 2015.
Dart gave up his U.S. citizenship, moved to Belize and became a citizen of Belize, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, in 1994. His application to become the consul of Belize in Sarasota, Florida was rejected by the State Department. He bought a local resort, the West Indian Club, for $5.3 million in 1995 and has since expanded his holdings to become the largest landholder in Cayman Islands after the crown, according to Dart Enterprises CEO Mark VanDevelde. Dart acquired other Cayman resorts including the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, Kimpton Seafire Resort and Spa and Le Soleil D'Or, as well as the mixed-use Camana Bay development.
The billionaire is involved in philanthropic activities with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, and with the family foundation. He lives in the Cayman Islands while his wife Janice and three daughters live in Sarasota, Florida.
Dart's older brother, Thomas, founded Dart Energy in the 1980s. His younger brother, Robert, served as the head of Dart Container.