The secret stocks Australia’s billionaires invest in
Making money in their big companies allows the country’s richest people to invest in smaller stocks, ranging from mining plays to retailers. Some have surged in value this year.
Tim Goyder is due an almost $1bn payday should the takeover bid of his lithium miner Liontown Resources by Albemarle prove successful.
But billionaire Goyder has a collection of other stocks that have performed well for him, including a little-known Toronto listed company that has a connection to Liontown.
Currie Road Resources only has a market capitalisation of about $10m, but its shares are up about 83 per cent this year for its investors, which include Goyder, Liontown and the ASX-listed Chalice Mining that Goyder is also a large shareholder in.
Currie Road has two vanadium projects in Central Queensland, having agreed in October 2021 to acquire 100 per cent of the Toolebuc project from Liontown and another from a Chalice subsidiary.
Goyder and Currie Road are one of several examples on The List – Australia’s Richest 250 where a billionaire is best known for a big company but is dabbling in other, often smaller and lesser-known stocks.
Take billionaire investor Alex Waislitz, who holds dozens of stocks via his private investment firm Thorney or the two listed investment companies, Thorney Opportunities or Thorney Technologies.
One strong performer for Waislitz has been MMA Offshore, a provider of service to the oil and gas industry that is up 43 per cent this year and this week hit a 12-month-high.
But Waislitz’s companies also have shares in QuickFee, an ASX-listed company that helps professional services firms manage their receivables. QuickFee has a market capitalisation of about $15m and is down about 13 per cent since January 1.
Billionaire retail guru Brett Blundy has had big success with his jewellery chain Lovisa, which is now worth more than $2.3bn on the ASX.
Blundy also has shares in the small cap Dusk Group, worth about $67m and down 41 per cent this year. Dusk Group sells home fragrance products such as candles, air purifiers and essential oils.
Zac Fried is best known as the executive deputy chairman of the giant private Spotlight Group but is also a director and shareholder of ASX-listed HMC Capital, an asset manager of property holdings including old Masters sites that have been developed as retail outlets that include Spotlight stores.
HMC Capital shares are up about 28 per cent this year.
David Teoh and wife Vicky made their fortune with the TPG Telecom group they formed in 1996 after moving to Australia from Malaysia.
They remain shareholders in TPG, but David Teoh stepped down as chairman in early 2021. He is now concentrating on another ASX-listed business, telco junior TAUS, which owns and operates the low-cost Simba Telecom brand in Singapore.
TAUS shares have increased by about 30 per cent in value since January 1.
Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox is the founder of his private Linfox, but also has shares in the listed Premier Investments retail group headed by his close friend Solomon Lew.
Fox is a former Premier director and its shares are up 5 per cent this year.
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has a portfolio of about $1bn worth of resources stocks, including the $6m market capitalisation rare earths play PVW Resources. Its shares have fallen 34 per cent in 2023.
Michael Gregg and Charles Gibbon have made their billionaire fortunes with Richard White’s logistics software giant WiseTech Global, but the pair both have shares in Ansarada, which develops virtual data rooms.
Ansarada is worth about $120m on the ASX, and its shares have dropped six per cent this year.
Andrew Forrest makes plenty of headlines with his iron ore and green hydrogen focused Fortescue Metals Group, but shares in Invex Therapeutics, backed by his Tattarang investment group, are down 64 per cent since January 1.
Meanwhile, Computershare founder Chris Morris has found success with a small parcel of shares he holds in the NASDAQ-listed data storage business Seagate Technology. It is up 42 per cent this year.
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