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Wealth

Rich List

Rich List 2023

Featured

The country’s most secretive billionaires are about to get much richer

Angela Bennett never wanted the family business. The daughter of prospector Peter Wright almost sold it all. Now it’s about to become a bonanza.

  • Primrose Riordan and Tom Rabe
Penny Dakin, Nicola Forrest and Louise Olney of the Minderoo Foundation.

Forrests give $150m to gender equality fund

Billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest have put the largest grant from their Minderoo Foundation towards work to create a fairer world for women and girls.

  • Brad Thompson
Zambrero owner Sam Prince (left) and former CEO Stuart Cook.

Zambrero billionaire sues former CEO to stop him taking credit

Sam Prince has accused Stuart Cook of “misleading or deceptive conduct” in talking up his work on the Mexican-themed restaurant chain’s success.

  • Primrose Riordan
Hancock Prospecting executive chairman Gina Rinehart.

Rinehart turns 70 at legal and lithium crossroads

As Australia’s richest person hits her milestone birthday, the market is testing Hancock Prospecting’s appetite for becoming a serious lithium force.

  • Brad Thompson
Dean Mintz.

Luxury marketplace Cettire looks to China as first-half sales soar

The company says demand for Tom Ford and Gucci fashion and accessories remains healthy, with first-half sales up 89 per cent. The stock surged 25 per cent.

  • Updated
  • Carrie LaFrenz
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Featured

Rich List fortunes gouged by green metals slump

The wealth of mining executives and investors has taken a hit from the falling price of lithium and other minerals used in the transition from fossil fuels.

  • Tom Richardson
Vanessa Stephens, Glenn White and Hayden Matthews, at the new offices of Volans in Sydney.

Former Credit Suisse, HSBC bankers target ultrarich with new bank

Volans opens its doors in May. It already has 17 employees on its books and is in the process of applying for a banking licence.

  • Primrose Riordan
Trevor St Baker donated $50,000 to Advance Australia in the 2022-23 financial year.

The heavy hitters behind Australia’s biggest conservative lobby group

Australia’s richest businesspeople have become major backers of Advance Australia, which helped lead the “no” campaign at the Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum.

  • Updated
  • Primrose Riordan and Andrew Tillett

Senior execs step up to steer Lang Walker’s legacy

The Rich List developer had already put in place succession planning within his vast property business early last year, handing over responsibility for running the company to a trusted group of lieutenants.

  • Nick Lenaghan
Aaron, Kieran and Grant Warwick

Crypto brothers, entrepreneurs shoot up Rich List as bitcoin rises

Here are the Rich Listers basking in a bull run which has, in some cases, added tens of millions of dollars to their net worth in just three months.

  • Updated
  • Primrose Riordan and Andrew Turner

January

Shaun Bonett is the chief executive of Precision Group and the major backer of Prezzee.

Why this billionaire’s gift card company is still losing money after 10 years

Prezzee, which sells gift cards and is backed by Shaun Bonett, has shown a $40 million loss but says accounting rules are to blame.

  • Primrose Riordan and Nick Bonyhady
Secretive Chinese billionaire Hui Wing Mau is the controlling shareholder in real estate group Shimao, and has a number of holdings in Australia.

Inside the descent into chaos at a Chinese billionaire’s cattle empire

“My view was that animals would die, employees would leave, the companies would be sued, and then more cattle would die.”

  • Primrose Riordan
Raphael Geminder.

Rich Lister Raphael Geminder poised to snare Pact

Kin Group has moved to an 85 per cent stake in the packaging group as a higher takeover bid gains traction.

  • Simon Evans
Len Buckeridge built BGC into a major property developer. He died in 2014, and the family is considering trying to sell the company again.

Buckeridge family to relaunch sale of West Australian builder BGC

The company recorded a $63 million loss for the last financial year, according to new accounts. Construction costs had jumped 50 per cent in two years, it said.

  • Primrose Riordan
Atlassian founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes start the new year a collective $16 billion richer.

How some Rich Listers doubled their fortune in 2023 while others fell

The boom in IT stocks burnished the fortunes of Australia’s top tech entrepreneurs, while the crypto millionaires made a comeback.

  • Primrose Riordan and Andrew Turner
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December 2023

Rich Lister Sam Kennard took over the self-storage business when he was just 24.

How Sam Kennard built a $2.6b empire

The influential business figure always had ambition to work and grow the family company. But he didn’t expect his dad to give him total control when he was just 24 years of age.

  • Julie-anne Sprague
Billionaire Sam Arnaout has a stake in casinos, property developments and a number of hotels.

Sam Arnaout arrives at Hudson House, headquarters of the very rich

The billionaire publican has snapped up the offices once occupied by late television king Reg Grundy, signalling a changing of the guard among Sydney’s rich.

  • Primrose Riordan and Campbell Kwan
Sigma Healthcare CEO Vikesh Ramsunder, and Chemist Warehouse co-founder, Mario Verrocchi (R) both will remain in the combined business valued at $8.8 billion.

Sigma could shed customers after Chemist Warehouse merger

The deal, creating an $8.8 billion retail and wholesaling giant, could even be blocked by competition regulators, according to analysts at Morningstar.

  • Carrie LaFrenz and Tom Richardson
Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi have climbed the Financial Review Rich List after sticking a deal to list their company on the ASX.

Chemist Warehouse duo to climb Rich List after Sigma deal

Documents associated with the merger, which will create a retail giant, show for the first time the precise shareholdings of Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi.

  • Michael Bailey
Laurence Escalante is the founder of Virtual Gaming Worlds.

Rich lister’s online casino empire feels heat of US lawsuits

The wildly profitable business operated by the Perth billionaire is facing legal challenges in US two states, and a crackdown on digital gambling in a third.

  • Primrose Riordan
Chemist Warehouse plans to merge with Sigma but The Pharmacy Guild has warned against the deal.

Influential pharmacy lobby comes out against Chemist Warehouse deal

The Pharmacy Guild says the proposed reverse listing of the company into Sigma, creating an $8 billion giant, posed “significant questions and risks”.

  • Carrie LaFrenz

Ahmed Fahour to lead Rich Lister Tim Gurner’s $15b property empire

The former Latitude Financial and NAB chief executive’s latest gig is to drive the expansion of the luxury apartments and wellness platform, Gurner Group.

  • Nick Lenaghan

Justin Hemmes’ $3b property empire outgrows nightlife roots

The billionaire has spent at least $900 million building a sprawling hospitality and residential empire. But there’s one business he is happy to leave in the shadows.

  • Updated
  • Primrose Riordan

How Cathie Reid went from typing class to a $550m fortune

The Rich Lister originally wanted to be a typist. Instead, she became a pharmacist before she spotted a gap in the market and become an entrepreneur alongside husband Stuart Giles.

  • Julie-anne Sprague
Rode founder and Rich Lister Peter Freedman has bought Mackie, whose live mixing boards represent a return to Freedman’s roots doing sound for Sydney clubs.

Rich Lister returns to his rock’n’roll roots with $180m US deal

The microphone mogul behind Rode has ambitions to be the world’s biggest provider of pro audio gear, most of it made in Australia.

  • Michael Bailey
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November 2023

Robert Magid at home in Point Piper.

‘Idiotic thing to do’: Sponsor says STC has ‘learnt its lesson’

Robert Magid, whose Pier One Hotel sponsors the besieged theatre company, said his support hinged on no evidence of management collusion in Saturday’s pro-Palestinian protest emerging.

  • Michael Bailey

Chinese billionaire exits WA cattle station empire in $300m deal

A Canadian investment giant has teamed up with local platform New Agriculture on a mega cattle station deal in the Kimberley region. It comes amid signs the worst is over for the meat market.

  • Nick Lenaghan and Larry Schlesinger
Sandy Oatley on Hamilton Island.

Oatley family dumps plan for $1b Hamilton Island sale

The family had tasked UBS with a review of the prized tourism asset but decided against offloading it.

  • Updated
  • Primrose Riordan
Global Creatures chief executive Carmen Pavlovic

Desperate for staff, Moulin Rouge lures talent with a free show

The musical is struggling to replace any technical crew that leave, so it is putting out the call in the hope of luring fresh talent.

  • Michael Bailey
Melbourne Victory has done a sponsorship deal with Ed Craven’s Kick live-streaming platform.

Melbourne football club probed over deal with crypto casino mogul

Melbourne Victory has been accused of backtracking on a commitment not to accept gambling sponsorship after signing up Ed Craven’s live-streaming site, Kick.

  • Primrose Riordan and Zoe Samios