Rich List 2023
Featured
- Investigation
- Mining
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
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
- Exclusive
- Food & drink
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
- Analysis
- Mining
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
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
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
- Exclusive
- Private banking
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
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
- Exclusive
- Banking products
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
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
- Exclusive
- Property investment
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
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
- Exclusive
- Property development
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
- Exclusive
- Rich Listers
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
December 2023
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
- Exclusive
- Commercial property finance
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 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
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
- Exclusive
- Gambling
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
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
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
November 2023
‘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
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
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
- Exclusive
- eSports
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
