IT’S been a good year for Australian executives, particularly those in mining.
Despite volatile markets, the wealth of executive directors and senior managers of Australia’s largest listed companies was about $35 billion in the 12 months to the beginning of this month, according to BRW’s annual Executive Rich List.
Mining executives dominated the list, jumping from 56 to 81 of the 200 wealthiest executives, their wealth increasing 29 per cent compared with 3 per cent for non-resources executives.
Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Andrew Forrest, who could be banned as a director of the company he founded, displaced Rupert Murdoch at the top of the list, as rising iron ore prices lifted the value of his 31 per cent stake by almost a third to $6.2bn.
Fortescue shares have risen almost 24 per cent over the past 12 months against a flat SP/ASX 200. Mr Forrest plans to appeal a Federal Court ruling in February that found he engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct, which could see him banned. Mr Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, publisher of The Australian, was second on the list at $5.6bn, ahead of James Packer at $3.6bn and Seven Group executive chairman Kerry Stokes at $1.82bn.
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Westfield executive chairman Frank Lowy rounded out the top five with $1.75bn, after a 23 per cent share price fall.
The list ranks the executives based on the ordinary shares they own in the companies they run, thus excluding Gina Rinehart, who last month was named Australia’s richest person, with an estimated fortune of $US9bn, by Forbes Asia. The list also excludes non-executive chairmen and directors, and directors’ holdings of options.
In a year of change largely driven by the mining boom, 55 new executives made the list and the number of women dropped to four from five, highlighting the lack of females involved in the running of listed companies.
The highest woman was Harvey Norman managing director Katie Page, with $51m, ahead of Westpac chief Gail Kelly, Paladin Energy’s Gillian Swaby and Origin Energy’s Karen Moses.