Gold mining stock Red 5 turns to gold for TPG’s David Teoh

Best known as the man behind TPG, reclusive billionaire David Teoh is on a winner in mining.

TPG executive chairman David Teoh. Picture: David Geraghty

David Teoh is best known for building the TPG Telecom business from scratch, but the ­reclusive billionaire also holds one of the hottest mining stocks on the ASX in his portfolio.

The notoriously private TPG chairman and his wife Vicky ­jointly hold about 35 per cent of TPG shares, worth about $2.05bn combined.

They also have shares in at least half a dozen ASX-listed companies, led by the surging goldminer Red 5.

Red 5 is one of the best performing small caps on the market this year, having risen by about 240 per cent in value since January 1 to give it market capitalisation of about $380m. It operates the Darlot and King of the Hills goldmines in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia, where it has ramped up production in the past two years.

David and Vicky Teoh

• Age: 63 and 62
• Lives: Sydney
• Estimated wealth: $2.53bn combined
• Source: TPG Telecom shares
• Secrets of success: Building TPG into a telco giant from scratch; buying Sydney property

The company has said it’s had positive drilling results in WA in recent months, and has about $25m in cash and bullion on its books against only about $10m debt. It has also entered into a $20m working capital facility with Macquarie Bank.

Red 5 is by far the best performing stock in the Teoh family portfolio, though TPG shares are up about 9 per cent since January 1.

Teoh is one of the country’s more reclusive billionaires, though he has long been one of the better deal-makers among the wealthy, though his attempted $15bn merger of equals between his TPG and Vodafone Australia is subject to court action.

Read more | This time, gold miners are wary

That matter recently had Teoh making some difficult public ­appearances in the Federal Court in Melbourne in an attempt to convince judge John Middleton that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission had erred in opposing the deal.

Teoh moved his family from Malaysia to Australia in 1986, beginning his business career with Total Peripherals Group. It sold custom-built computers to government departments and later became an internet services provider. It has since made a string of purchases, including SP Tele­media, AAPT, iiNet and PIPE Networks as Teoh has relentlessly built one of the county’s biggest telcos.

He and Vicky hold their wealth mostly in TPG shares — where they are joined on the register by other members of The List, Australia’s Richest 250, in Robert Millner of Washington H Soul Pattinson fame and WIN Corporation owner Bruce Gordon, though the Teoh family also owns commercial property assets.

The family paid $53m for 529 Kent Street in the Sydney CBD last year, a building that houses the flagship restaurant of celebrity chef Wakuda Tetsuya, Tetsuya’s. Teoh’s family also owns the site adjoining it, 320-334 Sussex Street, which they bought for $4.8m in 2011. The building is used for commercial purposes.

There is also a considerable portfolio of industrial land holdings in Chatswood, in Sydney’s northern suburbs. Otherwise there are several other listed mining plays, including base metals explorer AIC Mines.

Its shares have increased in value by 51 per cent since January, though they are still only at about half the levels they were trading at 12 months ago. AIC’s Marymia project has both copper and gold prospects, as does the Lamil project it has agreed to pay the listed Rumble Resources about $10m in cash and shares over the next five years in exchange for a 65 per cent stake.

Vicky Teoh also is listed among the top 20 shareholders in another gold miner, Millennium Minerals. It has the Nullagine Gold Project in the East Pilbara region of WA, but its shares have fallen 53 per cent since the beginning of 2019.

Then there is Vita Life Sciences, which sells over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, pills and other health products in Australia, and across Southeast and East Asia. Vicky Teoh became a shareholder in 2016, but Vita Life shares are down about 30 per cent since January 1.

The other main stock in the Teoh portfolio is more focused on their own industry, Macquarie Telecom Group.