Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting posts bumper $5.57bn net profit

The result is 10 per cent more than the mining and investment giant achieved a year earlier, and its revenue of almost $15bn is the second highest in the company’s history.

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting made a huge profit this year

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has defied the trend of falling profits across the corporate sector, posting a huge net profit and the second highest revenue in the company’s history.

Hancock, Australia’s biggest private company, made a bumper $5.57bn net profit for the 2024 financial year from $14.73bn in revenue, according to documents lodged with the corporate regulator on Thursday afternoon.

Mrs Rinehart’s mining, agriculture and investment giant has made almost $24bn in combined profits in just four years, with this year’s result a 10.5 per cent increase from the $5.04bn net profit achieved in 2023.

In a statement, Mrs Rinehart dubbed Hancock “the most successful private company in Australia’s history” and noted it now has about $40.88bn in net assets and borrowings of only $360m.

The results came as Hancock struck a $1.13bn deal to buy gas assets in the Perth Basin from embattled rival Mineral Resources.

This year’s net profit has only been exceeded by the $7.3bn result in 2021 and the $5.81bn surplus the following year, while the only time the 2024 revenue has been topped was in 2021 when it reached $16.61bn.

By the numbers: How Hancock Prospecting performed in FY24.

Iron ore mining is the biggest source of profits for Hancock, though its investments also span a beef empire, retail with the Rossi Boots and Driza-Bone brands and a new Kidman outlet in the NSW town of Tamworth, a mining shares portfolio and commercial property holdings that include two office blocks in Brisbane’s CBD.

Hancock’s iron ore volumes almost hit the 100 million tonnes exported overseas mark, with 96 million tonnes shipped from its Roy Hill, Hope Downs (on a 50 per cent basis) and Atlas Iron ventures.

Roy Hill shipped a record 64 million tonnes of iron ore and delivered a $3.2bn net profit, with Hancock taking a $2.8bn share of the $4bn dividend the mine paid its owners given its 70 per cent share of operations.

Hancock’s joint venture Hope Downs mines with Rio Tinto sold more than 44 million tonnes of iron ore and contributed almost $1.5bn of net profit to Hancock’s results, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Atlas Iron made a $440m net profit.

Mrs Rinehart’s company is undertaking exploration, drilling and evaluation of various iron ore and other resources projects, including at Mulga Downs where it has planned for a smaller mine and the half-owned West Erregulla gas project that received environmental approvals in July.

But Atlas is deferring the final investment decision to make a mine at its Ridley magnetite deposit east of Port Hedland due to the costly and “onerous” approvals process.

Hancock Prospecting also has extensive agriculture investments.

The Ridley decision, Mrs Rinehart said, demonstrated “the increasingly difficult regulatory environment facing major project proponents in Australia”.

“From an uncertain, complex, and often duplicative approvals process to policies that are at times unfavourable to investment, especially high-risk investment, the mining industry faces higher than necessary costs throughout the approvals phases.

“Addressing these burdens and making investment more welcome is vital for the resources industry to be able to continue to contribute to the prosperity of businesses up and down the supply chain, and to help increase Australian living standards.”

Hancock’s Australian Outback Beef, which owns S Kidman & Co, had revenue of about $44m. It acquired Driza-Bone and Rossi Boots during the 2024 financial year and recently launched the Kidman Apparel and Kidman Hats businesses with the opening of a flagship country retail outlet in Tamworth. Hancock also became the majority owner of the Bunbury Farmers Market in Western Australia.

Hancock is majority owned by Mrs Rinehart, with her four children having a minority shareholding via The Hope Margaret Hancock Trust that owns almost 24 per cent of the company.

The company provided for about $553m in dividend payments for Mrs Rinehart and her children on its balance sheet for the 2024 financial year, compared with $781m the previous year.

Originally published as Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting posts bumper $5.57bn net profit