Thursday 23 May 2013

Australia's 2013 Rich List released

The Business Review Weekly released it's 2013 rich 200 list today which ranks, profiles and tracks the wealth of Australia's richest 200 people and families.  I confess that I have been fascinated by this list for years and it is the one edition of the BRW that I read without fail every single year.

Below is the top 10 list of the richest Australians for 2013 (Source: BRW) - their combined wealth of $66.4 billion is staggering.

Rank
Name
$m
1Gina Rinehart$22,020
2Frank Lowy$6,870
3James Packer$6,000
4Anthony Pratt & family$5,950
5Ivan Glasenberg$5,610
6Harry Triguboff$4,950
7Wing Mau Hui$4,820
8John Gandel$3,700
9Andrew Forrest$3,660
10Christopher Wallin$2,800

It is interesting to see the businesses in which Australia's richest people are involved in.  It is also interesting to note how
different this make up is to the Forbes list of America's richest people.  For example, of the top 10 in the list above

  • 4 are involved in the resources / commodities business 
  • 4 are involved in the property business
  • 1 is involved in media / gaming
  • 1 is involved in paper packaging / recycling
I find it fascinating that in this day and age, none of the top 10 are involved in any 'new age' wealth type industries such as finance and technology.  It really does go to show that wealth in Australia, especially at the very top still firmly resides in the hands of traditional industries.

Also interesting is the shift in what it is to be wealthy in Australia.  This list has been published since 1984.  In that year it took $10m to be included on the list and the average wealth was $29m.  Today it takes $235m to make the list and the average wealth is in the mid-$800m figure mark.  Note that this average is distorted by Gina Rinehart's incredible ~$20 billion wealth (interestingly her fall in wealth this year of over $7 billion is still greater than the next richest person on the list).

The full list is definitely worth a read and I recommend you buying a copy of the magazine (even if you don't subscribe to it regularly).  It profiles almost all of the business people on the list and who made their money versus who inherited it and all sorts of other information.

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