The huge fortune of Victoria’s richest revealed
Victoria’s wealthiest people have been revealed, with one person having an incredible $27.66bn fortune. SEE WHO MADE THE LIST.
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Victoria’s Adrian Portelli rockets into the ranks of Australia’s wealthiest people this year, with a billion-dollar fortune from his LMCT+ business empire.
Portelli is one of the most prominent new names on the 2024 edition of The List - Australia’s Richest 250.
Portelli might be best known as “the Lambo guy” for time he had his $2 million McLaren Senna GTR hoisted by crane into his 57th floor $39 million penthouse and for buying houses on The Block.
But he’s also amassed an estimated $1.3bn fortune from his LMCT+ promotions business and other assets such as real estate, fast cars, a private jet and healthcare property projects.
See the full list at www.richest250.com.au
Next for Portelli comes expanding LMCT+ overseas, part of what he says is a hunger to never be satisfied with what he has – or to go back to the days when he was penniless, working on his computer from his bedroom, with his mother telling him he was “a dreamer”.
“My parents were over it,” Portelli tells The Australian in an interview published today.
“My mum was telling me to get a job.
“I said: Trust me, it’s going to happen. I’m going to be a millionaire one day.”
Other new Victorian billionaires include lithium mining entrepreneur Nick Wakim, who debuts with an estimated $1.1bn fortune and Sam Gance, who joins Chemist Warehouse co-founding brother Jack on The List with combined $3.26bn wealth.
Australia’s young billionaire Edward Craven, best known for his $80m purchase of Toorak’s “Ghost Mansion” two years ago and his current $145m rebuild of the property, is one of the big movers on The List, having overtaken quite a few others in this year’s rankings.
The 28-year-old cryptocurrency gambling magnate’s estimated wealth rises to $3.86bn from $2.01bn last year thanks to the continuing success of his Stake.com business and the Kick streaming service he has established with American business partner Bijan Tehrani.
Here are the wealthiest Victorian residents this year on The List - Australia’s richest 250.
1. Anthony Pratt & family - $27.66bn
Pratt Industries has manufacturing facilities in 25 states across America. In Australia, he shares ownership of family business Visy with sisters Heloise Pratt and Fiona Geminder. Pratt Industries accounts for about 60 per cent of the combined $10 billion annual revenue for it and Visy.
2. Alan Wilson & family - $9.07bn
The Wilson family’s wealth increases in line with the share price rise of its listed plumbing giant Reece. Alan Wilson was executive chairman of Reece for 21 years, although his family traces its history with the company back to the 1960s. It was founded in 1919 when Harold Joseph Reece started selling hardware products from the back of a truck in Melbourne suburbia.
3. John Gandel - $5.53bn
Last year Gandel quietly celebrated the 40th anniversary of one of the best deals in Australian business history. Gandel paid Myer Emporium $37 million for Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre in 1983. It has been expanding ever since. It has a book value of more than $6 billion, with Gandel maintaining a 50 per cent ownership stake.
4. Lindsay Fox - $4.95bn
The Linfox trucking giant was started by Fox with a single vehicle in 1956 , delivering soft drinks in summer and fuel in winter. It has grown into a group with 24,000 employees and operations in 10 countries. Linfox’s revenue rose about six per cent to a record $3.695 billion in 2023, while earnings before interest and tax from continuing operations rose to $139.5 million. The Fox family also owns Avalon Airport and half of Essendon Airport.
5. Eddie Hirsch & Avi Silver - $4.36bn
Hirsch and Silver started United Petroleum in 1993, and have overseen growth in what is now a business with more than 500 petrol stations across the country and a substantial fuel terminal business. It had more than $6.9 billion revenue in 2023. The duo also have substantial property interests and more than 250 Pie Face outlets.
The 2024 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian and online at richest250.com.au
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