Palmer paid himself $700m in dividends as Minerology and CITIC royalities boom

He’s spent $46m on yachts and $32m on private jets, as financial records show Clive Palmer reaped about $1bn in the past year.

“I’ve got 22 Ferraris and more than 100 Rolls Royce,” Clive Palmer says. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Clive Palmer has reaped about $1bn from dividends and assets sales in the past year, cementing his position among Australia’s wealthiest people.

Palmer paid himself $700m in dividends in the first half of 2022, and then about another $120m in two days in late August and early September, documents lodged with the corporate regulator late on Tuesday night for his private company Mineralogy show.

The documents show that Palmer’s company also received $US145m ($212m) for the sale of Balmoral Iron Pty Ltd during the 2022 financial year.

Don’t miss your copy of The List: Australia’s Richest 250 on Friday, March 24, exclusively in The Australian.

The sheer scale of the money flowing into Palmer’s coffers - which allowed him to spend about $118m on political donations and advertising in the lead-up to last year’s Federal Election - mostly flow from royalties paid to him by Chinese conglomerate CITIC.

Palmer recently racked up a court win over CITIC, which pays him the royalties for the rights to mine iron ore at the large Sino Iron project in Western Australia’s Pilbara, that could see him paid another $750m.

Clive Palmer at his Palmer Coolum Resort. Picture: Brad Fleet

Palmer’s company made a $276m net profit from total revenue of about $736m, the accounts show, although some large sums of money were transferred between various Palmer entities.

The billionaire will rank fifth on The List - Australia’s Richest 250 when the 2023 edition is published in The Australian on Friday, with estimated wealth of $20.40bn.

Palmer has indicated the royalties - which are worth more than $500m annually to just Mineralogy alone - will likely see him spend large amounts on political campaigning in the future despite his United Australia Party only picking up one Senate seat last year.

“Is it extraordinary that an Australian spends 10 per cent of their income on community issues? There’s not a better thing to do really, to put the focus on a public policy debate – even if people don’t agree with it,” Palmer said in a recent interview with The Australian.

“It keeps democracy alive. And most of the things we said during the last campaign have come true anyway.”

The Mineralogy accounts show Palmer has paid $46m for yachts, $32m for private jets and has $30m in land and buildings just on that company’s balance sheet.

He also owns dozens of Gold Coast mansions and other property holdings, including industrial property in New Zealand.

Palmer is spending $130m on revamping his Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast, where he once installed giant replica dinosaurs on the golf course and battled residents.

The refurbishment is said to include replicas of the Seven Wonders of the World and the Trevi Fountain, and Palmer says about 170 tradesmen are currently on site. The resort was closed in 2015 and Palmer has been in dispute with timeshare residents.

Palmer also owns other golf courses on the Gold Coast and at Port Douglas, and a vintage car collection worth $220m.

He would like to display the cars to the public, Palmer says, but it is hard to find a suitable site.

“We’d need 22 acres. I’ve got 22 Ferraris and more than 100 Rolls Royce. The beauty of cars is you don’t pay tax on them if their value goes up,” he said.

However, the Mineralogy accounts said Palmer did make a $10.3m net loss on the sale, or disposal, of some property and motor vehicles last year.

The 2023 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian and online at richest250.com.au

Originally published as Palmer paid himself $700m in dividends as Minerology and CITIC royalities boom