Billionaire winners and losers: who made and lost money in the 2025 financial year
The best stock for our wealthy elite was a crash repair company, though a chemist giant stole the show in the past 12 months. Otherwise, it was tougher times for billionaires in casino, pizza and battery minerals stocks.
There are about $20bn reasons why the 2025 financial year has been one to remember for the Chemist Warehouse founders.
That huge figure is around the mark for what the Gance and Verrocchi families hold or have taken off the table in the past 12 months from their company’s deal to merge with the listed Sigma Healthcare.
They are, in dollar terms at least, the biggest sharemarket winners in the past 12 months among the members of The List – Australia’s Richest 250.
There are plenty of other bright spots. Some billionaires have made good returns in little-known industrial stocks, while others have surfed the comeback of healthcare and technology shares.
No such luck in resources. Plenty of mining companies have seen their share prices fall due to commodity prices plunging or cost blowouts. There’s also been tough times for some casino, pizza and travel industry magnates.
Here are the 2025 financial year’s winners and losers among Australia’s wealthy elite:
WINNERS
Alex Waislitz (AMA Group, +179%)
The Thorney investment billionaire has attracted plenty of headlines about his legal battles, but can still pick a stock. Thorney is in dozens of small and mid cap companies on the ASX, including smash repairer AMA Group where it helped recapitalise its balance sheet and engineer board changes.
Ed Craven (PointsBet, +151%)
Australia’s youngest billionaire is best known for his huge cryptocurrency, and increasingly fiat currency, gambling empire Stake.com and the Kick streaming brand. He and American business partner Bijan Tehrani also built a 5 per cent shareholding in PointsBet, which has surged thanks to a takeover bid by Japanese entertainment giant Mixi and another from smaller rival Betr.
Gance and Verrocchi families (Sigma Healthcare, +142%)
The reverse takeover of the listed Sigma by private retail powerhouse Chemist Warehouse has been a huge winner for co-founders Sam and Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi – and their respective families. The two families now account for six billionaires thanks to Sigma’s surging share price and some huge share sales. Damien Gance has sold $800m of stock alone.
Sam Hupert and Anthony Hall (Pro Medicus, +100%)
It has been another big year for one of the ASX’s hottest stocks. The radiology imaging software business Hupert and Hall listed 25 years ago has more than quadrupled in two years. It keeps winning contracts in the US, and the share price keeps rising as a result.
Ian Roberts and Bryan Dorman (Regis Healthcare, +75%)
The aged care operator has made a comeback after acquiring new homes and posting strong financial results. Dorman has retired as director and while he has also sold down some stock, he and Roberts (the pair started Regis in 1991) maintain large stakes.
Nick Politis (Eagers Automotive, +67%)
Australia’s wealthiest and most successful car dealer is a big shareholder in Eagers, which says car sales are recovering as interest rates fall. Key partnerships with brands such as Chinese electric vehicle firm BYD have also helped boost the company’s outlook.
Robyn Denholm (Tesla, +66%)
Almost no-one on the Richest 250 has a rollercoaster ride like the Tesla chair does. She has seen company founder Elon Musk seemingly distracted by his task of cutting costs out of the US government only to, more recently, return his focus to the electric car maker. A valuation surge largely in the six months to December 31 gave it a big return in an erratic year.
Tony Walls (Objective Corporation, +55%)
Objective is celebrating 25 years as a listed company on the ASX this year. Objective provides software services to government organisations and departments to help them digitalise, and Walls has not sold a share in the business since it floated.
Kerry Stokes (SGH, +45%)
He may be best known as the chair of Seven West Media, the business that owns the Seven television network, but it is mining services and other related industries which account for most of Stokes’ wealth. SGH includes the WesTrac mining truck dealerships for the Caterpillar brand, building materials group Boral, Coates hire and Beach Energy, most of which are performing strongly.
Michael Heine and family (Netwealth, +46%)
The wealth management platform has been a big success for the Heine family, with Netwealth now having more than $104bn in funds under advice. Record earnings have kept pushing its share price up this year, including hitting a fresh high last week.
LOSERS
Bruce Mathieson (Star Entertainment Group, -71%)
The pub baron is still putting money into embattled Star, even if its share price has been slumping since he bought in back in 2023. Mathieson is helping rescue the casino and hotels group with US operator Bally’s in a $300m deal.
Chris Ellison (Mineral Resources, -63%)
The controversial billionaire founder of the mining services, lithium and iron ore business has faced accusations of tax evasion and misusing company property, which has had a detrimental effect on its share price.
Matt Latimore (Stanmore Resources, -46%)
The owner of the privately held M Resources is also a non-executive director and shareholder of ASX-listed Stanmore Resources, which M Resources sells coal for and trades with. Falling export metallurgical coal prices have in turn hit Stanmore’s share price this year.
Jack Cowin (Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, -45%)
The biggest shareholder in Domino’s and its chair, Cowin is overseeing strategy changes that have the company partly pulling back from its previous breakneck expansion pace overseas. There has also been a string of management changes as the group tries to arrest a share price slide that has now lasted four years.
Ivan Glasenberg (Glencore, -39%)
His shares in the global commodity trading giant Glencore, which he ran for two decades before stepping down in 2021, have fallen this year as falling coal prices and other headwinds have hit earnings.
Graham Turner, Geoff Harris and Bill James (Flight Centre, -37%)
Travel is a volatile sector at the best of times, and geopolitical uncertainty globally and soft consumer spending patterns have hit Flight Centre earnings forecasts and its share price. The founder trio still all maintain big shareholdings.
Alan Wilson and Family (Reece, -32%)
A softer housing and construction market in Australia and the US has hit shares of the plumbing supplies giant that has been under the control of the Wilson family since 1969.
Andrew and Nicola Forrest (Fortescue Metals Group, -30%)
Fortescue has axed jobs and slowed the pursuit of its once substantial green hydrogen dreams, and weaker than expected earnings and dividends it paid out to its billionaire shareholders earlier this year reflect a subdued 2024-25.
David Tudehope (Macquarie Technology Group, -30%)
The business started servicing the mid-tier corporate market Tudehope believed was underserved by phone and technology providers, and has expanded into data centres, cloud infrastructure, cyber security and data in recent years. Its shares have fallen in the past 12 months after a stellar two-year run beforehand.
Mark Creasy (IGO, -30%)
The golden run for the battery minerals miner has been over for a couple of years, and its share price a far cry from when veteran prospector Creasy’s stake was worth $1bn. IGO reported a $782.1m loss for the first half of the 2025 financial year. The company remains Creasy’s biggest listed play.
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