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Wealth

Rich List

Rich List 2023

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Laurence Escalante on one of his boats in Perth.

Gambling mogul lists superyacht at $10m, starts retailing supercars

A spokesman for Laurence Escalante’s private office said the sales were part of a new business venture.

  • Primrose Riordan

This former Young Rich Lister just spent $700k to alter his genes

Nick Bell’s first business failed, his next made him millions. The serial entrepreneur’s latest business venture involves helping people live longer.

  • Julie-anne Sprague

The homeschooled billionaire who built a fortune before turning 40

Shaun Bonett was the country’s richest person under 40 in 2007. Now a billionaire, he shares his story, including a humiliating $25 million mistake.

  • Julie-anne Sprague
Goldman Sachs’ headquarters in New York. The investment banking giant has made a concerted push into private wealth in Australia.

Goldman eyes local banking licence to grow ultrarich lending business

The Wall Street investment banking giant has made no secret of its desire to expand its private wealth division. There are limits on what it can do.

  • Primrose Riordan
RM Williams CEO Paul Grosmann with Tattarang director Nicola Forrest at the Salisbury factory

$650 for RM’s? ‘People want handcrafted,’ says Nicola Forrest

Nicola Forrest says people are tiring of throwaway fast fashion as the iconic company she co-owns lifts capacity to tap into a fast-growing market for women’s boots.

  • Simon Evans
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Minderoo Foundation chief executive John Hartman has swung the axe.

Forrests’ $10b philanthropic foundation to cut 100 jobs

Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation will shed about a third of its workforce in an overhaul aimed at making better use of its iron ore endowment.

  • Brad Thompson
Casella Family Brands managing director John Casella at the group’s winery at Yenda in NSW.

This Rich Lister sees a wave of distressed wine sales coming

The MD of Casella Family Brands, owner of Australia’s biggest-selling wine export brand Yellow Tail, says the under $10 per bottle segment is still shrinking.

  • Simon Evans
Cettire’s shares slumped on Tuesday, on the first day of trade after the Bell Potter note was published.

Cettire shares slide 16pc on Bell Potter downgrade

The company’s house broker said the luxury marketplace would continue to outperform peers, but it would be harder for it to generate high growth.

  • Updated
  • Carrie LaFrenz and Jonathan Shapiro
Sigma Healthcare boss Vikesh Ramsunder and Mario Verrocchi of Chemist Warehouse.

Chemist Warehouse sales, profit surge ahead of ASX debut

Regulatory approval from the ACCC stands in the way of a combined Chemist Warehouse and Sigma, which have revealed robust financials before their merger.

  • Updated
  • Carrie LaFrenz and Jemima Whyte
Clive Palmer’s private company Mineralogy reaped $447 million in mining royalties last year.

Clive Palmer reaps $447m in royalties from Chinese adversaries

Rich Lister Clive Palmer says he is confident of success with massive damages claim against the federal and WA governments, and will stand his ground in a separate legal dispute with one of China’s biggest conglomerates.

  • Updated
  • Brad Thompson

March

WiseTech CEO Richard White runs the 16th largest listed company in the country.

How this billionaire is making his staff rich

The recent surge in WiseTech’s share price means Richard White isn’t the only one making money. Staff are sitting on a $320 million fortune. 

  • Yolanda Redrup

Australia’s 75 richest women now control more than $151b

The wealth of Australia’s richest 75 women soared by 30 per cent over the past year, as entrepreneurs in resources, tech, property and fashion enjoyed the fruits of a resurgent market.

  • Michael Bailey and Yolanda Redrup
Gina Rinehart says the 22 per cent gender pay gap at her Hancock Prospecting is the temporary result of helping women enter the mining industry.

Rinehart blames Hancock pay gap on ‘helping women’ into mining

A 22 per cent gender pay gap at Hancock, versus a 15 per cent for all miners, is the temporary result of getting more women into the industry, Gina Rinehart says.

  • Michael Bailey and Yolanda Redrup

February

Residential prime real estate prices  are forecast by Knight Frank to rise by 5 per cent in Sydney this year.

The sum you need to make it into the top 1pc in Australia

Joining the top 1 per cent of wealthy Australians became easier last year as the country’s rich were hit with a weaker Aussie dollar and slowing economic growth.

  • Primrose Riordan
Francisco Widjojo is the head of his family office Arkblu Capital, an example of the younger generation of family offices.

Wealthy families are trying something new – ditching the secrecy

There’s a new breed of private investment vehicle for the super rich. And they’re less interested in managing money out of view than making more of it.

  • Primrose Riordan
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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

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

January

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
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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