Billionaires Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart take their fight to paradise
Andrew Forrest splashes $42m to acquire Lizard Island, buying him bragging rights to the new status symbol for the super rich.
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has splashed out $42m for the luxurious Great Barrier Reef retreat of Lizard Island, buying him bragging rights to the hottest new status symbol for Australia’s super rich.
The family company controlled by Mr Forrest and wife Nicola bought out leaseholder SEA Group after the Hong Kong company angered the Queensland government and the resort operator by demanding it stay open at the height of the Covid-19 emergency last year.
The Forrests have beaten fellow Perth miner Gina Rinehart to the punch by inking the deal for Lizard Island when she is still negotiating to buy another jewel of the reef, Great Keppel Island, for a reported $50m. It seems no self-respecting billionaire can be without their own slice of tropical paradise: the Forrests join a long line of rich-listed holiday island owners including Virgin group founder Richard Branson, property tycoon Lang Walker, businessman Clive Palmer and Singaporean investor Koh Wee Meng.
The Forrests’ acquisition of Lizard Island through their private company, Tattarang, was kept under wraps until SEA disclosed it last week to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a declared cash settlement of $42m.
Tattarang has confirmed the transaction but a company spokesman said no details could be disclosed.
This turned a handy profit for the Hong Kong-listed, Bermuda-incorporated property concern on the $16m it paid the Queensland government in 1997 for the head leases. On top of that, SEA earned about $2m a year subletting the property to resort operator Delaware North.
The three tenements to be transferred to Tattarang, housing the Forrest family’s business interests, run until 2050.
The deal, however, is conditional on approval by the Queensland government within 90 days of the contract being signed. It is understood Delaware North will stay on as operator of the island 250km north of Cairns.
If Ms Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting group succeeds in buying the Keppel Island resort site from Sydney developer Terry Agnew’s Tower Holdings, it will supercharge the longstanding rivalry between the nation’s richest woman and wealthiest man.
The List of the country’s 250 richest people compiled by The Australian puts Ms Rinehart’s net worth at $36.28bn against $29.6bn for Mr Forrest, ranking them first and second respectively. Although they both move in the same moneyed circles, the two billionaires compete fiercely in the iron-ore business and will transfer this to prestige tourism if Ms Rinehart can clinch the Keppel deal.
Confirming Ms Rinehart’s interest in becoming an island owner, Hancock Prospecting said at the weekend it wanted to revive the resort and make it a “showcase” for Queensland tourism ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Ms Rinehart was “excited to bring the best of what she has experienced overseas to Great Keppel Island, and the Hancock group, subject to approvals, is excited to be able to share that with Queensland and all Australians,” the company said.
Over the past month, Mr Forrest has spent at the prodigious rate of $17m a day to green his private investment portfolio. His forays include: $115m in start-up capital to manufacture environmentally-friendly fuel hydrogen in Gladstone, Queensland; a $350m takeover battle with BHP for Canadian nickel producer Noront Resources to access a key battery component; and a minority stake in loss-making Tasmanian salmon producer Huon Aquaculture.
Acquiring Lizard Island will give him another iconic Australian brand to sit alongside bush outfitter and bootmaker RM Williams, which Tattarang snapped up last year for a reported $190m.
The ugly dispute between SEA and Delaware North erupted last year after the pandemic forced the federal government to seal the international border and the top section of Cape York Peninsula was declared a biosecurity zone to protect the vulnerable Indigenous population.
SEA sought to countermand a decision by the operator to shut down temporarily for safety reasons, warning Delaware North it would be in breach of its sublease and liable to punishing financial sanctions unless it reopened. This prompted then Queensland tourism minister Kate Jones to warn the Hong Kong company its actions were “unAustralian”.
Steve Wilson, the Brisbane business identity who has a separate sublease over a 2200sq m Lizard Island plot for a holiday home, on Sunday welcomed the Forrests’ entry. “One way or another SEA have gone,” he said.
“I think it’s a very good thing that this special place is now in the hands of a significant Aussie.”
The exclusive club of billionaire island owners takes in Sir Richard Branson’s co-share in the Makepeace Island retreat near Noosa, Mr Koh’s $3.45m purchase of Turtle Island off Gladstone and Mr Palmer’s $10m acquisition of the Club Med resort at Bora Bora.
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