Atlassian bosses Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar lead the list of winners for 2019
The naughty banking sector made a few costly mistakes this year, again, but the winners of 2019 are as inspirational as the losers are disappointing.
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It’s been another year of eye-watering gains and losses for industry elites in Australia.
Tech darlings Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have continued their surge up the country’s rich list as Australia’s economy has weakened but the share market rose by more than 25 per cent.
Financials, property and mining led the winners’ group for 2019 — it wouldn’t be Australia without these staple industries — while the hangover of the banking royal commission weighed heavily on the banks and several executives were sacked.
And just when we thought we had heard it all from the banks, it was revealed Westpac was embroiled in a child exploitation scandal.
WINNERS
ATLASSIAN FOUNDERS and co-CEOs MIKE CANNON-BROOKES & SCOTT FARQUHAR
Australian start-up Atlassian has scaled the business ranks to become one of the nation’s biggest companies, propelling founders and co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar up the national rich list.
The tech giant profited from a boom on Wall Street in July when its market capitalisation surged to $50 billion, making it bigger than Telstra and closer to the smaller of the nation’s big four banks, NAB.
The company builds computer software for major brands such as ANZ and NASA and has exceeded Macquarie Group ($44 billion), Woolworths ($43 billion) and mining giant Rio Tinto ($38 billion).
The two were ranked fourth and fifth on The List of Australia’s Richest 250 published by The Australian in March, but the current growth of Atlassian means they could soon skip ahead of Anthony Pratt and Gina Rinehart and reach the top.
AQUALAND FOUNDER SHANGJIN ‘JIN’ LIN – MYSTERY RICH LISTER
Shangjin “Jin” Lin is just 30 years old — and he’s already amassed a staggering $659 million fortune.
But despite his bulging bank account, most Australians had never heard of him until he made his startling debut on the 2019 Financial Review Young Rich List in October.
Mr Lin, the founder and group managing director of real estate developer Aqualand, was ranked seventh on the coveted list, comfortably beating the likes of fitness queen Kayla Itsines and Afterpay boss Nicholas Molnar.
Mr Lin, the only son of Chinese property billionaire Yi Ling, keeps a famously low profile – despite his company overseeing a string of Sydney apartment projects worth billions.
The uber-wealthy family moved to Australia 16 years ago when Mr Lin was still a teenager, and he went on to study at Sydney’s Macquarie University, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce.
MACQUARIE CEO SHEMARA WIKRAMANAYAKE
Macquarie Group boss Shemara Wikramanayake is the top-earning CEO in Australia, raking in more than $18 million a year – the equivalent of more than $346,000 a week.
She’s the first woman to top the list, according to The Australian Financial Review’s annual CEO pay survey, eclipsing Gregory Goodman, the founder of property group Goodman, who took home a relatively paltry $12.8 million.
Paul Perreault from CSL was third with $11.71 million followed by Treasury Wine Estate’s Michael Clarke on $11.38 million and WorleyParsons’ Andrew Wood on $10.54 million.
ANDREW ‘TWIGGY’ FORREST – FORTESCUE METALS
The mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s personal fortune rocketed half a billion dollars higher in three days this month after iron ore surged in value.
His stake in Fortescue Metals Group was worth $11.3 billion on December 11 after its shares shot to a record $10.45 during trade.
It’s been a strong period for the mineral, with a price lift earlier in the year after mine closures in Brazil and Cyclone Veronixa closed ports in WA.
The increase in infrastructure spending in China has also kept the price of iron ore healthy and fattened Mr Forrest’s wallet.
LOSERS
BANKS, BANKS AND BANKS
Coming off a disastrous year for the banks in 2018, things only got worse this year for the heavyweights of the financial sector.
Most of the scandals had already been aired during the royal commission last year, but the final report was handed down in February, and NAB chief Andrew Thorburn and chair Ken Henry fell on their swords just days later.
Kenneth Hayne QC, who authored the findings, reserved particular scorn for the two executives, saying NAB “stands apart” from the other three major lenders.
Mr Thorburn stepped down right away and was eventually replaced by former Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) boss Ross McEwan, while Mr Henry stepped down later in the year.
Mr Hayne wrote in the final report that NAB refused to accept responsibility for the wrongdoings and was unable to do the right thing by its customers.
“Overall, my fear – that there may be a wide gap between the public face NAB seeks to show and what it does in practice – remains,” he wrote.
In a horrid period for the sector, Westpac managed to outdo all its rivals.
Australia’s oldest bank was accused by the financial intelligence agency of more than 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws in transfers amounting to $11 billion.
The most staggering indictment related to AUSTRAC’s application to investigate the major lender over less than $500,000 that a dozen Westpac customers allegedly paid to the Philippines and South East Asia.
The agency says these types of payments are consistent with transfers made to those who are involved with child exploitation.
“Westpac failed to introduce appropriate detection scenarios to detect known child exploitation typologies, consistent with AUSTRAC guidance and their own risk assessments,” the agency’s chief executive Nicole Rose said.
Over a 24-hour period, $6.2 billion was wiped off its share value but a record fine, likely in the billions of dollars, still looms.
Chief executive Brian Hartzer resigned and chairman Lindsay Maxsted brought forward his retirement to early 2020.
SAM KARAGIOZIS – CRYPTOCURRENCY
Sam Karagiozis was an early advocate for cryptocurrency, investing $15 million to roll out the first nationwide network of bitcoin ATMs several years ago through one of his companies, Auscoin.
He was also one of the earlier cryptocurrency investors, snapping it up for a steal and sitting back as its value soared to a peak of about $27,000.
The initial hype surrounding “overnight bitcoin millionaires” caused the value of the cryptocurrency to skyrocket, only to drop after early investors cashed out and later investors started to panic.
But its value had sunk to below $5000 earlier in the year, and Mr Karagiozis estimates he’s lost around $3 million as a result.
JAMES PACKER
James Packer had appeared ready to cash out of his casino empire and sail off into the sunset on his glitzy new yacht, but a $10 billion merger bid for Crown Resorts was spoiled when his company pre-emptively spilt the beans.
A month later in May, a deal was finally struck but the sale of half of his stake in the company for $1.76 billion to a Macau-based entertainment group was significantly less than the original offer from a Las Vegas group.
Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), Mr Packer’s private investment company, sold 19.99 per cent of its shareholding in Crown Resorts to Melco Resorts and Entertainment.
It was sold for the equivalent of $13 per share – $1.75 per share below the deal proposed in April, meaning Mr Packer lost $236 million in potential profits.
Anyone we forgot? Get in touch. @James_P_Hall | james.hall1@news.com.au
Originally published as Atlassian bosses Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar lead the list of winners for 2019