source : the age
Two months before his death in Greece, billionaire Nick Andrianakos met his youngest son for lunch at upmarket Glen Iris restaurant Grazia, where he anointed him successor to the family’s petrol and property empire.
The ailing founder of Milemaker Group told Theo Andrianakos he would have full control of the family’s multibillion-dollar businesses, and that his vast portfolio of assets in Australia and Greece would also be passed on to Theo and his two sons.
Theo also learned at the meeting in January 2025 that his father intended to bequeath €5 million ($8.17 million) to his substantially younger partner Hatouna Sakvarelintze, an architect the ailing businessman had met a couple of years earlier on a hotel redevelopment project.
However, there was a sticking point in the patriarch’s grand succession plan – Andrianakos’ three other children, who would later claim in the Supreme Court of Victoria that the revised “family agreement” had not been relayed to them, nor formalised in a signed will.
The death of the 81-year-old patriarch on March 17 last year – just days before he was due to sign the will and the family agreement – sparked a toxic legal battle between the siblings over control of their late father’s assets and extensive business interests.
The case was set to proceed to trial last month, with siblings Kristina and Paul Andrianakos and Vicky Papamarkou relying on the original documents, signed by their father in 2018 and 2019, which gave the sisters a greater slice of their father’s $183 million estate, and the siblings shared control over Milemaker Group.
Under the signed will, Andrianakos wanted to give his sons the bulk of his inheritance – allocating them $83 million each, and his daughters $24 million respectively.
However, the siblings reached an eleventh-hour agreement that avoided a trial and ultimately allowed Justice Peter Gray to grant probate of the unsigned will.
The settlement, on July 17, handed Theo and his sons all of Andrianakos’ estate, which included CBD penthouses, beachfront homes on the Mornington Peninsula, and properties in Greece, along with a $200,000 black Bentley and a tractor.
Theo received the lion’s share of the estate, reducing his brother’s inheritance and seeing his sisters receive substantially less than the $24 million they were originally entitled.
The court dispute also laid bare the tensions between the family and Andrianakos senior’s partner, Sakvarelintze.
The daughters claimed in respective affidavits that during the months that the drastic changes to their father’s estate were drafted, he had been frail and could no longer understand English.
Papamarkou warned her father that his Greek girlfriend was “probably only after his money” a year before he made changes to bequeath her millions, she claimed in her sworn statement.
“I warned him that it was strange to see a woman so young be romantically interested in someone around 80 years of age,” she said in an affidavit.
“I told my father to be careful because she was probably only after his money. My father responded by saying words to the following effect: ‘There is no way Hatouna is getting any of my money or property. I am leaving all my property to my children’.”
The late billionaire’s wealth planner Peter Pagonis claimed the revised, unsigned will represented the lawful and legitimate plan for his inheritance.
Pagonis, who consults to more than 450 ultra-high-net-worth families, said in an affidavit that the family patriarch first ordered him to draft the changes in November 2024 after expressing concerns the three siblings would seize control of Milemaker Group.
“The deceased said word to the effect that he was concerned that Vicky, Paul and Kristina would ‘gang up’ on Theo, who was CEO of Milemaker Group, and who was instrumental in operating and growing the Milemaker Group business with [Andrianakos],” he said.
“He was concerned his children Vicky, Paul and Kristina will disrupt the family legacy and seek to break up the family assets and the business that he had grown over time.”
Pagonis said that Andrianakos told him in November 2024: “I want to make sure that Theo has full control of the business going forward.”
The order came only a few months after the tense exchange between Papamarkou and her father over his romance, which had strained their relationship.
She said after that confrontation in July 2023, the pair did not speak for some time until finally reconciling in August 2024.
Andrianakos’ instructions in November 2024 led to significant changes to the family agreement, the formal succession document which includes clauses of the family values (among them: family is first, business for future generations, integrity, and no drugs).
The succession plans were later thrashed out over a series of meetings – including several lunches at Grazia and secret meetings at Andrianakos’ CBD penthouse – during what would be his last visit to Melbourne.
The businessman jetted into town on Christmas Eve 2024 with Sakvarelintze, in time for the family’s Christmas lunch, held at Nobu in Crown Casino.
Paul, Vicky and Kristina did not attend any of the estate discussions, with Papamarkou noting she didn’t discuss it with her father over Christmas lunch.
“When the family met on Christmas day, my father appeared frail and unwell. Because the Christmas lunch was very busy, I did not get to spend any one-on-one time with my father that day,” she said.
Papamarkou said when she did later catch up with her father, he was unwell and had difficulty getting up off the couch.
Before returning to Greece in January 2025, Andrianakos visited Kristina’s home, where she claims he reassured her about his estate: “My father brought up his will again and told me that Vicky and I would be included and get a share of everything.”
“My father assured me Hatouna would not have any lasting control over his estate,” she said.
The siblings, except Theo, received an email in March 2025 from Pagonis that outlined their father’s plans to downgrade Milemaker Group’s Family Board from a “decision-making authority” to one that “only had a right to be advised of changes from time to time”.
The new will, now granted probate, gives Theo total control of the company’s assets, including a property portfolio that spans Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. It acquired its crown jewel in 2025 with a $385 million half-stake in Melbourne’s Northland shopping centre.
His sons, Nicholas and Giorgio, were the other beneficiaries of the property assets. The eldest, Nick, has been chosen as the successor of Milemaker after Theo, and he received the family’s $2.9 million sprawling Greenvale mansion.
Giorgio inherited a $1.95 million private penthouse on Collins Street.
None of the siblings was present at the Supreme Court of Victoria on July 15, on what was supposed to be the first day of the trial. Instead, the court heard the parties had reached a last-minute, closed-door agreement to enforce their father’s unsigned will.
Sakvarelintze, who had flown from Greece for the trial, and Pagonis did appear, sitting among a retinue of silks involved in the case.
The Georgian-born architect rubbed the hands of an interpreter who accompanied Sakvarelintze as Justice Peter Gray ordered the probate that ensured her $8 million windfall.
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