Billionaire winners and losers: who won and lost the big money in 2023
Fashion and mining were the big winners, as deal-making made a big return late in the year. But some billionaires had tougher times of it.
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Only in Australia could mining and fashion go together, and both be of major importance to billionaires.
Mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest have ploughed some of their iron ore wealth into fashion, with deals for Drizabone and Aesop respectively this year.
Meanwhile, fashion sensation Zimmerman emerged with a massive valuation after a US private equity firm bought a majority stake in the Sydney-based business, which likely makes its founders billionaires in their own right.
It has been a year of deals for Australia’s richest individuals and families, including a spate of transactions in the lead up to Christmas such as huge $8.8bn deal to take Chemist Warehouse public and a $2.1bn offer to take AdBri private.
There has also been a comeback for tech stocks, a sector that was very much out of fashion a year ago.
Yet some of the biggest private companies in Australia have suffered declining profits, buffeted by inflationary pressures and other economic headwinds.
Some members of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 are still enjoying good times. Here are this year’s winners and losers among Australia’s elite:
WINNERS
Nicky and Simone Zimmerman
The sisters head the eponymous sensation brand, both in fashion and financial terms. The duo are now approaching billionaire status after American private equity firm Advent International acquired a majority stake in Zimmerman in August in a deal valuing the business at about $1.75bn. It is a record for an Australian fashion label and comes after former majority investors Style Capital had acquired a 70 per cent stake in 2020.
Tania Austin
Continuing the fashion theme, Austin’s privately-owned Decjuba fashion group enjoyed a strong year. Accounts recently lodged by Austin’s company with the corporate regulator show a healthy net profit of almost $30m from $208m revenue in 2023, up from $25m and $177m respectively a year ago. It is a strong result for a company operating in tougher retailing conditions and comes at a time when profits for many private companies are falling.
Andrew Forrest
Is it possible to be a winner and loser in the same year? Forrest’s evangelical crusade to turn his Fortescue Metals Group into a huge green energy company one day continues to gather pace. In the meantime, demand for FMG’s iron ore keeps the profits flowing — so much so the company’s shares hit a record high in early December. But Forrest and wife Nicola confirmed their split earlier this year, so she now holds slightly more of the substantial family fortune than he does — on paper at least.
Gina Rinehart
Having a cool $20bn in cash on the balance sheet of her Hancock Prospecting tells the story of what has become a financial powerhouse. Rinehart has used some of that cash strategically, buying big stakes in lithium miners Azure and Liontown to act as blocking stakes for takeover attempts on both companies. It has meant Rinehart has emerged as the most potent deal-makers in Australian mining, adding to her continued success with Hancock — which racked up another huge net profit this year.
Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi
On day one it was a deal which made the Chemist Warehouse co-founders more than $1bn wealthier on paper. The duo announced in early December the terms of a blockbuster $8.8bn deal to take their private Chemist Warehouse public in the form of a reverse takeover of ASX-listed Sigma Healthcare. The move sent Sigma’s shares surging — adding to their potential paper wealth when the deal is likely confirmed in the new year.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar and Robyn Denholm
So much for the tech wreck. Suddenly, shares in Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar’s software business Atlassian have surged more than 80 per cent in the year to January 1. It remains to be seen what effect the break-up of Cannon-Brookes’ marriage with wife Annie has on their respective wealth. Meanwhile, shares in Tesla, the car company headed by the richest person in the world Elon Musk and chaired by Australian Denholm have more than doubled this year.
Sam Hupert and Anthony Hall
The 40th year in operation for Pro Medicus, founded by Hupert and Hall, has been the biggest yet for the radiologist imaging company. The duo maintain a large shareholding in the group, and are still at its helm, overseeing a continued push into the US which has helped drive the Pro Medicus share price up about 70 per cent this year to be worth almost $10bn.
David and Vicky Teoh
Not content with having built TPG into one of Australia’s biggest internet services providers and mobile phone company, the Teohs are at it again with the ASX-listed Tuas. It owns and operates the low-cost Simba Telecom brand in Singapore, where it is building out 5G services across the island and quickly growing subscriber numbers. Tuas shares have more than doubled in 2023.
David and Rhonda Barro
The Barro family have long been big shareholders in the ASX-listed cement maker AdBri, adding to their already substantial private concrete business Barro Group. The Barro family’s AdBdri stake surged in value in mid-December when the family announced a joint $2.1bn buyout proposal for AdBri with Irish building materials giant CRH. The proposal was pitched at 41 per cent above AdBri’s previous closing price, sending the share price surging accordingly.
Chris Mackay
Mackay has in recent years concentrated on MFF Capital, the offshoot of the Magellan Financial Group business he founded with Hamish Douglass in 2006. Douglass has since left Magellan, and Mackay has sold down his stake. But his MFF shares are up about 40 per cent this year, making it a rare listed funds manager to appreciate in value on the ASX.
LOSERS
Bruce Mathieson
Shares in Star Entertainment have more than halved since pokies and pubs baron Mathieson emerged with a 9.97 per cent stake in late February. Mathieson’s shareholding in the struggling casino group has since been diluted, but his wealth has taken a bigger hit due to issues at Endeavour Group. Unhappy with the managerial direction of the pub and bottle shops group, Mathieson has been loudly agitating for boardroom change. In the meantime, Endeavour’s share price keeps falling.
Trevor St Baker
It’s been a tough year for St Baker’s investment in battery materials firm Novonix, which has fallen more than 60 per cent in value. There have also been big issues at fast-charging company Tritium, which is closing its Brisbane factory as it negotiates with strategic investors for a financial rescue. St Baker is a major Tritium shareholder, which is listed on the NASDAQ and polluted in value this year.
Megan Wynne and Bruce Bellinge
Wynne and Bellinge’s wealth is mostly found in the human services provider APM Wynne founded in 1994 and listed on the ASX in 2021. It was, for a time one, of the more successful floats on the stock exchange, but APM shares have halved this year.
Kerr Neilson
Neilson stepped down in November last year from the board of the funds management group, Platinum Asset Management, he started in 1994. He maintains a large shareholding in the ASX-listed firm, but made his displeasure known about co-chief investment officer Andrew Clifford also holding the position of CEO. Clifford bowed to the pressure and stepped down as managing director, but Platinum shares have fallen about 25 per cent this year.
Ruffy Geminder
The billionaire is trying to take his packaging company Pact Group private about 10 years after floating the business at $3.25 per share. Geminder’s offer is 84c a share, showing just how far the company’s fortunes have fallen in a decade.
Chris Ellison
Mineral Resources shares are down almost 20 per cent this year, putting a dent in billionaire Ellison’s fortunes. The company has been on a spending spree, buying up lithium shares and assets, some of which have fallen in value this year.
Tim Goyder
The Liontown chairman became a billionaire on paper as shares in the lithium company surged. But a mooted $6.6bn takeover bid by US-based lithium giant Albemarle failed to eventuate in October due to an intervention by Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, sending Goyder’s paper fortune plunging as the opportunity to crystallise much of his share-based wealth slipped by.
Michael Hintze
Hintze will launch a new firm to run his own flagship hedge fund when the sale of the London-based CQS to Canada’s Manulife Investment Management is finalised in early 2024. While Hintze is widely respected, his performance at CQS has not been the same since his investment bets turned sour after Covid hit. Meanwhile, his Australian-based rural business MH Premium Farms made a $21.9m statutory net loss for the year after a $33.5m writedown in livestock carrying values.
Scott Hutchinson
The boss of Brisbane-based building giant Hutchinson described business conditions as “terrible”, after his company’s net profit fell 93 per cent to only $1.34m for the 2023 financial year, despite revenue rising almost $500m to $3.12bn.
Ivan Glasenberg
Glasenberg took out Australian citizenship when he worked at Glencore’s local coal division in the 1980s, though the South African-born ex-boss of the global commodities giant lives in Switzerland. He remains Glencore’s biggest individual shareholder, and its shares are down about 15 per cent this year.
Originally published as Billionaire winners and losers: who won and lost the big money in 2023
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