Richest 250 2021: Gina Rinehart’s ‘extraordinary’ $36bn wealth puts her in top place on The List: Australia’s Richest 250 in record year
The 2021 edition of The List — Australia’s Richest 250, is a story of the ‘three Ps’: the Pilbara, pizza boxes and personal computers | OUR TOP 5
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s wealth has surged $20bn in the past year, capping an extraordinary 12 months and placing her atop The List — Australia’s Richest 250 for the first time.
Ms Rinehart heads the 2021 edition of The List, published annually by The Australian, with an estimated fortune of $36.28bn from her Hancock Prospecting iron ore powerhouse.
Hancock recorded one of the biggest profits for a private company in Australian corporate history when it revealed in November a $4 billion net profit for the 2020 financial year – 50 per cent more than it made in the previous year.
That led to Ms Rinehart’s big jump in wealth, which was recorded at $16.25bn on The List in 2020.
The soaring iron ore price, big share value increases for rival listed companies and record exports to China all contributed to the staggering valuation increase.
The full 2021 edition of The List is published on Saturday in a special issue contained in The Weekend Australian, and it will reveal how the biggest names in Australian business have thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has been a story of the “three Ps”: the Pilbara, pizza boxes and personal computers. Iron ore from Western Australia’s Pilbara region has been shipped to China and other export markets in record volumes. Record pizza deliveries encapsulated the surge in e-commerce and takeaway orders when the public was locked down at home at the peak of the pandemic.
And there was a massing increase in demand for software and computer components as the nation worked from spare rooms and kitchen tables at home.
Combined, the top five on The List added almost $60bn to their wealth in a bumper year as stockmarkets surged in value, after hitting lows in March, and mining exports continued unaffected by the pandemic restrictions.
The Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara is undoubtedly the jewel in Ms Rinehart’s crown. It is a little over five years since Hancock sent its first shipment of iron ore off to China from Port Hedland in December 2015. The mine is now processing 60 million tonnes of iron ore each year and contributes the bulk of Hancock’s profits.
“We are very happy with what we have achieved at Roy Hill; it’s a mega project that contributes significantly to the West Australian and Australian economy and provides many opportunities,” Ms Rinehart tells The List in an exclusive interview to be published on Saturday. “I hope that all who have worked on ‘Roy’ can be very proud of their contribution.”
Yet what stands out for Ms Rinehart is how 2020 arrived for her and Hancock about four years ahead of schedule. So successful has the mine been that 2020 marked another big achievement — the paying off well ahead of time of almost $10bn in debt funding over a decade that she clinched just six years ago in a deal involving 19 of the world’s largest banks and five export credit agencies.
Second on The List this year is fellow iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest. His Fortescue Metals Group has doubled in value in a year and his wealth has surged more than $16bn to $29.61bn.
Mr Forrest has received more than $3bn in dividends from FMG in the past 18 months, allowing him to make big purchases such as outlaying $190m for RM Williams last October and to put hundreds of millions into his charitable Minderoo Foundation
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The remainder of the top five wealthiest Australians are also big winners from the pandemic.
Third on The List is Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes, with an estimated $21.99bn fortune, just ahead of his co-founder Scott Farquhar in fourth position at $21.95bn. Fifth on The List is last year’s winner, packaging king Anthony Pratt. But the cardboard box maker and recycling magnate has hardly had a bad year. His Visy manufacturing giant in Australia and Pratt Industries in the US have both enjoyed busy times as e-commerce from home shopping meant more goods were delivered in cardboard boxes made by his companies.
Mr Pratt even pulled off the biggest deal of his career during the pandemic, shelling $1bn for the Australasian assets of glassmaker Owens-Illinois. But his fortune of $21.27bn, up from $16.95bn last year, is still shy of the two mining magnates and tech billionaires.
The full 2021 edition of The List: Australia’s Richest 250 is published by The Weekend Australian on Saturday, March 20. For all the secrets of our richest individuals, visit https://www.theaustralian.com.au/rich250
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