Nicola Forrest heads billionaire dividend payment list
Fortescue Metals Group paid the biggest dividends for Australia’s wealthy elite, with Nicola Forrest sharing in almost $1bn in dividends with partner Andrew.
Australia’s newest billionaire, Nicola Forrest, is leading the way among rich shareholders reaping the benefits of listed company profits.
And fellow rich lister Kerry Stokes, retail mogul Solomon Lew and plumbing supplies billionaire Alan Wilson are also among those in line for individual payouts worth tens of millions of dollars.
Ten of Australia’s most prominent shareholders will enjoy more than $1.2bn in dividend payments from large companies that reported their financial results over the last month.
Ms Forrest, who recently confirmed her split from husband and Fortescue Metals Group executive chairman Andrew Forrest, will have had about $467m in dividends attributed to her from the iron ore miner’s recent $1 per share dividend payout.
Mr Forrest received $50m less, or about $417m, given Ms Forrest now owns an extra 50 million shares in Fortescue in her own name.
While they have said they will not divorce, the two are both billionaires and have on paper equally split almost all their vast Fortescue shareholding, worth about $20bn.
Ms Forrest has a new separate shareholding in Fortescue via an investment company owned just by her, while she and Mr Forrest each have a 50 per cent stake in the Tattarang private business that also has a large Fortescue shareholding.
The Fortescue dividend payout dwarfs that any other member of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 will receive from the recent financial reporting season.
The next biggest is the $61m the Wilson family (behind the plumbing supplies business Reece) will receive. Family head Alan Wilson has stepped down as Reece’s chairman but son Peter runs the company as chief executive.
Veteran prospector Mark Creasy was the major beneficiary of a big dividend payout by lithium miner IGO.
Last week, it declared a 44c a share final dividend, and a 16c special dividend, which was well above market expectations, on the back of a record underlying net profit of $1.53bn.
Mr Creasy received about $48m in dividends from his IGO shareholding.
There is a link between NASA’s Skylab crashing to earth in 1979 and Mr Creasy becoming a billionaire. He is said to have been looking for debris that had fallen in remote Western Australia when he came across the Fraser Ranges, which he subsequently identified as a major prospect for nickel and base metals.
That eventually led to the discovery of the Nova nickel mine, now owned by IGO.
Super Retail founder Reg Rowe started what became Super Cheap Auto as a car parts mail-order business operating from his and wife Hazel’s Queensland home in 1974.
Mr Rowe still has an almost 30 per cent stake in Super Retail, which accounts for the $45m dividend payment he receives this year.
Billionaire Seven Group head Kerry Stokes is being paid $47m in dividends from his industrial company, while retailer Gerry Harvey will get almost $49m from the dividends being paid on his Harvey Norman shares.
Retail master John Gandel owns half of the massive Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne’s southeast suburb. His half is worth about $3bn, with the other half held by the ASX-listed Vicinity Centres. Mr Gandel also owns a large shareholding in Vicinity, which will pay him $43m in dividends, while another retail identity, Premier Investments chairman Solomon Lew, will get about $41m in dividends.
Mr Lew is set to demerge some retail assets from Premier, via the creation of three new ASX-listed entities – Peter Alexander, Smiggle and Apparel Brands – though Premier will retain control.
He has watched the stellar performance of Brett Blundy’s fast fashion sensation Lovisa. Mr Blundy is being paid about $13m in dividends from his Lovisa shares.
Other notable dividend payouts for prominent billionaires include about $24m for David and Vicky Teoh from their TPG Telecom shares, $15m for Chris Ellison of Mineral Resources and $18m for Bruce Mathieson’s shares in pub giant Endeavour Group.
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