Latest / The Front / Billionaire disrupters get a taste of their own medicine
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
- 0:06Speaker 1: It's Friday, March twenty twenty twenty six. The federal budget
- 0:13Speaker 1: is just around the corner and Jim Chalmers says we
- 0:15Speaker 1: could be in for a grim few years. He's told
- 0:18Speaker 1: economous Australia may not hit productivity goals for half a decade.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Israel's new ambassador to Australia says the war with Iran
- 0:28Speaker 1: is an urgent act of self defense and a struggle
- 0:31Speaker 1: between barbarism and civilization. That's an exclusive live now at
- 0:36Speaker 1: the Australian dot Com. The List Australia's Riches two fifty
- 0:43Speaker 1: is always a lot of fun. Who's down, who's playing
- 0:46Speaker 1: it down and who's really enjoying rolling in cash. We've
- 0:50Speaker 1: got this year's top ten ready to go, and editor
- 0:53Speaker 1: John Stenzelt is here in just a moment. The List
- 1:02Speaker 1: Australia's Riches two fifty is out today and editor John
- 1:05Speaker 1: stands all this here. Who's on top?
- 1:07Speaker 2: Gena Righthart of course, of course, who that's right? I
- 1:10Speaker 2: mean to know, she makes so much money, she's on
- 1:13Speaker 2: top very easily.
- 1:14Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me about how Gena's moved up and down
- 1:17Speaker 1: or around the top position over the past few years.
- 1:20Speaker 2: John She's been on top for about five or six
- 1:23Speaker 2: years now. So it's all about the iron ore price
- 1:25Speaker 2: with her, and all about exporting ironl to China, as
- 1:27Speaker 2: it always is. Although she seems to spend more time
- 1:29Speaker 2: at Mara Lago these days over at America with a
- 1:32Speaker 2: certain presidents, but her business here in Australia is still
- 1:36Speaker 2: ticking over very very nicely.
- 1:40Speaker 1: One of the things about the list is that at
- 1:42Speaker 1: a certain point you have to lock off when you
- 1:44Speaker 1: stop calculating these billionaires wealth. And of course the news
- 1:47Speaker 1: doesn't stop it. It all keeps happening. How have the
- 1:51Speaker 1: recent events in Iran, the fact that we're now facing
- 1:53Speaker 1: a fuel crisis, maybe a diesel crisis, maybe an energy crisis.
- 1:57Speaker 1: How's that affecting the richest people?
- 1:59Speaker 2: Well, there's an Ali crisis as well, that's going on.
- 2:01Speaker 2: It's look the stock market, I have not seen this
- 2:04Speaker 2: voltole for a long long time, Like you're getting movements
- 2:07Speaker 2: of five, six, seven, ten, twelve percent of stocks going
- 2:10Speaker 2: up and down every day. We had to roll it
- 2:12Speaker 2: off at a certain point, right and that was a
- 2:13Speaker 2: few weeks ago because we've got to get the magazine
- 2:15Speaker 2: into print. But yeah, it's been really interesting to see
- 2:18Speaker 2: it go all the way to that line because of
- 2:20Speaker 2: all those factors that you say. Stock markets move on sentiment, right,
- 2:23Speaker 2: so people will get worried about something they go down,
- 2:25Speaker 2: or they get really excited about something that they go up.
- 2:28Speaker 2: So these people in the list, they're all billionaires, well
- 2:30Speaker 2: most of them are these days.
- 2:31Speaker 3: There's one hundred and eighty eight of them out of
- 2:32Speaker 3: two fifty.
- 2:33Speaker 2: But they're still subject to the vagaries of what's going
- 2:35Speaker 2: on out there.
- 2:37Speaker 1: The next two on the top five, number two, Harry
- 2:39Speaker 1: Triggerbov property developer, and then Anthony Pratt and family, whose
- 2:43Speaker 1: fortune is in Visi the cardboard box company. I remember
- 2:46Speaker 1: when we had you on just after COVID John, we
- 2:48Speaker 1: talked about how pizza boxes had been very, very good
- 2:51Speaker 1: business for Anthony Pratt. What's happening now.
- 2:54Speaker 2: There's still a lot of home deliveries these days. I mean,
- 2:56Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but it seems to be
- 2:58Speaker 2: an Amazon packaged lands at our house every hour or two,
- 3:01Speaker 2: and a lot of those are in busy boxes. So yeah,
- 3:03Speaker 2: they're going very well. So it's manufacturing, there's going to
- 3:05Speaker 2: be clearly going to be cost issues with a company
- 3:08Speaker 2: like that, But he's just I think he said it
- 3:09Speaker 2: our global food for them, We'll just put the prices
- 3:11Speaker 2: up as well. So yeah, they are subjects and vagaries
- 3:14Speaker 2: and exchange rates as well. Right, He's got a lot
- 3:16Speaker 2: of business in America these days and brings it back
- 3:18Speaker 2: to Australia too, So even at that level where he's
- 3:21Speaker 2: worth thirty billion dollars, he's still watching what's happening out
- 3:24Speaker 2: there geopolitically every day because it has a big effect
- 3:26Speaker 2: on the business.
- 3:28Speaker 1: We're in a high inflation moment. The Reserve Bank is
- 3:32Speaker 1: trying to squash that. Yet again, is that good for
- 3:35Speaker 1: billionaires the very richest people? Is inflation good for them?
- 3:38Speaker 2: I think you get to a stage where those interest
- 3:40Speaker 2: rates don't really account There's a lot of those billionaires
- 3:42Speaker 2: that buy real estate. They don't take out mortgages, clare,
- 3:44Speaker 2: so they're going to be ok. I think it's that
- 3:47Speaker 2: effect that has on their business. In retail, businesses that
- 3:50Speaker 2: are subject to what consumers are thinking out there. So
- 3:53Speaker 2: there's a lot of those companies that sell products to
- 3:55Speaker 2: the mass market. So if consumers are tightening their belts
- 3:58Speaker 2: because of interest rate rises, there's issues with construction costs
- 4:02Speaker 2: and in the real estate. Then absolutely it's going to
- 4:04Speaker 2: affect them. It may not affect them directly, you know,
- 4:07Speaker 2: if you have a super yat or a private jet,
- 4:08Speaker 2: you probably still are going okay, but there's certainly effects
- 4:11Speaker 2: on their business, so they watch it very closely.
- 4:21Speaker 1: Number four is Clive Palmer, another old fashioned billionaire who
- 4:24Speaker 1: seems to be dipping his toe back towards politics now.
- 4:27Speaker 1: And then five and six are Cliff Obricked and Melanie Perkins,
- 4:30Speaker 1: who founded Canva and have really led the absolute revolution
- 4:34Speaker 1: in design. Now everybody can I can design things really
- 4:38Speaker 1: quite badly, but on canvas that I once would have
- 4:41Speaker 1: had to use a graphic designer for. They are now
- 4:43Speaker 1: really an AI company like most tech companies. How are
- 4:46Speaker 1: they being affected by the AAR revolution.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Look, they've made some acquisitions in AIS based Leonardo is
- 4:52Speaker 2: one of them, which actually hasn't gone very well. The
- 4:55Speaker 2: Australians documented that there's been some people that they've basically
- 4:57Speaker 2: effectively sacked right after making big acquisite to try and
- 5:00Speaker 2: integrate that AI into their company. So they're having challenges
- 5:04Speaker 2: I think, at least with canva Ai. They have talked
- 5:07Speaker 2: about how much it helps them. They all talk about
- 5:08Speaker 2: it like that, so in a way to try and
- 5:11Speaker 2: head off any concerns. They are profitable for a start,
- 5:14Speaker 2: which for a software company we won't talk about at
- 5:17Speaker 2: Lassian as a contrast. At least they're profitable now. Whether
- 5:20Speaker 2: or not they end up listing on a stock market soon,
- 5:22Speaker 2: it's been a long term plan that's subject to the
- 5:25Speaker 2: volatility of the market, and it was meant to be
- 5:27Speaker 2: sometime this year, so maybe it isn't. But look for
- 5:30Speaker 2: the moment, I think they're still going pretty well, but
- 5:33Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if their valuation gets cut pretty quickly.
- 5:36Speaker 1: Those two have been very clever in the way they've
- 5:38Speaker 1: managed their public image. I think they still have a
- 5:40Speaker 1: bit of a halo around them. The opposite has happened
- 5:43Speaker 1: to Scott Farquhar and Mike cannon Brooks from at Lassian.
- 5:46Speaker 1: They've had a very public and unpleasant breakup and now
- 5:51Speaker 1: Mike cannon Brooks is left dealing with what seems to
- 5:53Speaker 1: be a mess at Lassian, one.
- 5:56Speaker 3: Of Australia's biggest tech companies.
- 5:57Speaker 4: At Lassians they said it will cut ten percent of
- 6:00Speaker 4: its global workforce.
- 6:02Speaker 1: Tell me about them. They're at twelve and thirteen, so
- 6:04Speaker 1: were jumping out of the top ten for a second.
- 6:06Speaker 3: They were like four and five a year ago.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Right, So they've lost about sixteen seventeen billion dollars that's
- 6:11Speaker 2: been wiped off the value of their wealth in the
- 6:13Speaker 2: last year, and that's because the Outlassian share price has
- 6:15Speaker 2: gone down so much. That is directly related to AI. So,
- 6:19Speaker 2: I mean, the company particularly that's seen as a threat
- 6:21Speaker 2: to them is Anthropic, which has the clawed chatbot which
- 6:24Speaker 2: people can use in the office to sort of effectively
- 6:27Speaker 2: replicate what the Outlassian software has done for many years
- 6:30Speaker 2: of the collaboration software that they have. So on the
- 6:33Speaker 2: one hand, this Anthropic product, the market shareholders have identified
- 6:37Speaker 2: that is is a big threat to Atlassian And as
- 6:39Speaker 2: a bit of an irony for you, Claire canon Brooks
- 6:42Speaker 2: has the huge sun cable solar power project that he
- 6:45Speaker 2: wants to get going in the Northern Territory, which could
- 6:47Speaker 2: be worth thirty or forty billion dollars. He wants to
- 6:49Speaker 2: build a data center next to that. That's his private company.
- 6:52Speaker 2: He's trying to get Anthropic as a customer of that
- 6:54Speaker 2: data center, So on the one hand is good for him,
- 6:56Speaker 2: on the one head is bad for him. So it's
- 6:58Speaker 2: these are the sort of ups and downs that you
- 7:00Speaker 2: see through a list like this.
- 7:01Speaker 1: These disruptors are being disrupted themselves in a way that
- 7:05Speaker 1: previously would have taken a couple of generations. When we
- 7:08Speaker 1: think about other billionaire families, how do you think they've
- 7:12Speaker 1: coped with it?
- 7:13Speaker 2: I don't think they know how to cope with it
- 7:14Speaker 2: at the moment, right. I mean, they're the grand old
- 7:16Speaker 2: age of their mid forties. They formed their company twenty
- 7:19Speaker 2: two to twenty three years ago. It doesn't feel like
- 7:21Speaker 2: long ago, but to be disrupted again at such a
- 7:24Speaker 2: young age. They were ahead of the curve so much
- 7:26Speaker 2: back then, and now they've tried to make acquisitions in
- 7:29Speaker 2: that AI space and they're still a bit of groping
- 7:33Speaker 2: around in the darkest to what that means for a
- 7:35Speaker 2: company like Alassian. You could see that with the job
- 7:37Speaker 2: cuts they announced a sort of week or so ago
- 7:39Speaker 2: of sixteen hundred people. I suspect there might be more.
- 7:43Speaker 4: It's an incredibly hard decision, but I still believe that
- 7:45Speaker 4: it's the right one. We're focused on moving faster, staying
- 7:49Speaker 4: disciplined on costs and proving that we can grow profitably
- 7:53Speaker 4: over the long term by staying responsive to the world
- 7:57Speaker 4: that we have to operate in.
- 8:00Speaker 2: That's a company that needs to make profits too. The
- 8:01Speaker 2: market's clearly identified that they've racked up about three point
- 8:05Speaker 2: five billion dollars of losses over the last ten years,
- 8:08Speaker 2: and I think the market's saying enough, gose get your
- 8:10Speaker 2: house in order make some money, and you know, cut
- 8:13Speaker 2: your cloth accordingly.
- 8:15Speaker 1: We really did see an era where incredibly newsworthy companies
- 8:19Speaker 1: had huge valuations despite not having made a profit. Alasian
- 8:23Speaker 1: is the perfect example. Took camer a long time to
- 8:25Speaker 1: make a profit. Is that going to change in the future,
- 8:29Speaker 1: do you think, John or not?
- 8:30Speaker 2: I feel in these volatile times it probably does. I
- 8:33Speaker 2: mean you're seeing a bit of a swing back to
- 8:35Speaker 2: some of these old fashion industries so to speak. You know,
- 8:37Speaker 2: in mining, in financial services, in manufacturing, in real estate
- 8:41Speaker 2: that have actually done pretty well on the stock exchange
- 8:44Speaker 2: in the last year. And there's a bit of a
- 8:45Speaker 2: flight to gold, for example. I know that's a safe,
- 8:47Speaker 2: defensive thing. So you've seen gold or lithium miners that
- 8:50Speaker 2: are back in fashion too. So I think there's a
- 8:53Speaker 2: bit of a moment where investors are saying, we'd love
- 8:55Speaker 2: to see making some money, but with one probably notable exception.
- 8:59Speaker 2: That's so if you're on the AI revolution, there's some
- 9:02Speaker 2: really interesting new names that coming on the list because
- 9:04Speaker 2: of that, then you know it looks like you're getting
- 9:06Speaker 2: massive valuations.
- 9:11Speaker 1: Coming up. Be under the radar. Billionaires. Racing up the
- 9:15Speaker 1: list at number seven is Nicola Forest, one place ahead
- 9:32Speaker 1: of her ex husband or estranged husband, Andrew Forrest.
- 9:36Speaker 2: Tell me why, Well, she's got fifty million more Fortescue
- 9:40Speaker 2: Metals Group shares than Andrew does.
- 9:42Speaker 3: Now.
- 9:42Speaker 2: I suspect that was some sort of a settlement, an
- 9:45Speaker 2: agreement when they did split up a couple of years ago.
- 9:47Speaker 2: So yes, she's just above them. Other than that holding,
- 9:49Speaker 2: they've still got fifty to fifty shareholdings in public assets
- 9:53Speaker 2: and also private assets. They've got a big, tattering empire
- 9:55Speaker 2: that owns Iram Williams, for example, so assets like that.
- 9:58Speaker 2: So there fifty to fifty except for the little bit
- 10:00Speaker 2: that she's got on top, which actually turns out to
- 10:02Speaker 2: be about a billion dollars worth.
- 10:04Speaker 1: He's got big dreams too about green hydrogen and all
- 10:07Speaker 1: sorts of other things.
- 10:08Speaker 4: I'm saying, anyone who says Hygien hasn't got a massive
- 10:12Speaker 4: future a muppets, she tends.
- 10:15Speaker 1: To invest more in things like real estate with her money.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Is that a more sensible strategy right now? Do you think?
- 10:22Speaker 2: Well, again, it goes back to that volatility, right, there's
- 10:24Speaker 2: a scarcity when it comes to real estate.
- 10:26Speaker 3: I think you.
- 10:27Speaker 2: Still see Sydney Prestige property still setting all sorts of
- 10:30Speaker 2: records all the time.
- 10:31Speaker 3: So maybe that's a bit of a safe have.
- 10:33Speaker 2: And look, you never know with companies in the stock exchange,
- 10:36Speaker 2: there's that sentiment. As I go back to it, it
- 10:38Speaker 2: can really vary very quickly, and more passive assets like
- 10:41Speaker 2: that can be safe for Yeah.
- 10:48Speaker 1: And number nine is someone I've never heard of, Michael Darrell.
- 10:51Speaker 1: What's his story.
- 10:52Speaker 2: He's a guy that behind Stone Peak, which is a
- 10:54Speaker 2: New York basically infrastructure investment company, owns a lot of
- 10:57Speaker 2: infrastructure assets around the world and yet made his money out.
- 11:00Speaker 3: Of the spotlight.
- 11:01Speaker 2: But he's doing very very well. He's an Aussie on
- 11:03Speaker 2: Wall Street, big crinol Sharks fan.
- 11:05Speaker 3: He's a very interesting guy.
- 11:06Speaker 2: He's got a one hundred and fifty million dollar house
- 11:09Speaker 2: across the water from mar A Lago in work in Florida.
- 11:12Speaker 3: We since he spent his weekends.
- 11:13Speaker 1: And have you been watching him? Of course where else
- 11:16Speaker 1: would you go? Have you been watching him climb the
- 11:19Speaker 1: ranks towards this number nine.
- 11:21Speaker 2: Percenttionast couple of years, he's gone really really well. The
- 11:23Speaker 2: more assets of that company accumulates on its balance sheet,
- 11:26Speaker 2: the more it tends to get valued. So in that
- 11:28Speaker 2: way he has moved up. But again it's a little
- 11:30Speaker 2: bit more of an old fashioned sort of asset owning business.
- 11:34Speaker 1: And number ten is probably the ultimate old fashioned businessman
- 11:37Speaker 1: with a real log cabin story. Kerry Stokes, who grew
- 11:40Speaker 1: up in relative poverty, became one of the most powerful
- 11:44Speaker 1: figures in Australian mining and media and now is stepping back.
- 11:49Speaker 1: Really why is he still at number ten?
- 11:51Speaker 2: Well, it's because of other industries. Actually, the media plays
- 11:54Speaker 2: a very very small part of his holdings these days.
- 11:57Speaker 2: So his seven Group or SGH it's what it's now
- 11:59Speaker 2: known NAZ has a whole bunch of other more sort
- 12:02Speaker 2: of mining services or construction or infrastructure related companies like
- 12:06Speaker 2: the Caterpillar business that's here in Australia, for example, borrel
- 12:09Speaker 2: which makes building material. So that's where the real strength
- 12:12Speaker 2: of his wealth is now. I mean clearly, being a
- 12:16Speaker 2: media mogul brought him a lot of influence and power
- 12:18Speaker 2: over the years, but it's almost like a sliver of
- 12:20Speaker 2: what his wealth is now.
- 12:29Speaker 1: Now. On the cover is someone else who I haven't
- 12:31Speaker 1: heard of John I'm learning a lot this time. Matt Lattimore.
- 12:34Speaker 1: Who is he?
- 12:34Speaker 3: He's a Queensland cole baron.
- 12:36Speaker 2: I think he's got a really interesting story too. So
- 12:38Speaker 2: he grew up in regional New South Wales and we'll
- 12:41Speaker 2: see on our website on Friday that we've got video
- 12:44Speaker 2: of him going to see his parents back there, and
- 12:46Speaker 2: it's corporate jet footage.
- 12:48Speaker 3: All these things you have to do with the riches
- 12:49Speaker 3: two fifty I think.
- 12:50Speaker 1: So with you on the corporate general I've.
- 12:52Speaker 2: Met a colleague as well, so we we're had a
- 12:55Speaker 2: great time filming meeting of the parents. Looking around where
- 12:58Speaker 2: a guy comes from and sort of quite humble beginnings.
- 13:01Speaker 2: He goes off to university in Queensland. He moves over
- 13:04Speaker 2: to Japan, studies the language there, goes into the library
- 13:08Speaker 2: and starts reading about trading and what are the big
- 13:11Speaker 2: trades between Japan and Australia. Well, it turns out to
- 13:14Speaker 2: be coal and resources, so he gets a job in
- 13:16Speaker 2: that industry. It goes to a couple of different places,
- 13:19Speaker 2: including West Farmers, and then decides to form his own
- 13:22Speaker 2: business and Resources about fifteen years ago. Now starts basically
- 13:27Speaker 2: by working in the coffee shops around Brisbane and just.
- 13:30Speaker 3: Keeps growing and growing and growing and growing.
- 13:33Speaker 2: And now his company is making one hundred million dollars
- 13:35Speaker 2: net profit every year trading coal and buying other commodities.
- 13:39Speaker 2: He's very interested now in steelmaking. He's one of the
- 13:42Speaker 2: contenders to buy the Wayala Steel Works in South Australia.
- 13:45Speaker 2: So he's right at the pointy end of that. And
- 13:48Speaker 2: he's got this corporate jet that he uses a business tool.
- 13:51Speaker 2: He flies South America, North America, Asia, Europe. He's on
- 13:55Speaker 2: the road a lot or in the air a lot.
- 13:57Speaker 1: Did you have to talk him into letting you come
- 13:59Speaker 1: on board? What was he happy to talk?
- 14:01Speaker 2: I think he wanted to show that a guy that
- 14:03Speaker 2: does come from just a pretty normal family. His mum
- 14:05Speaker 2: and dad were fantastic showing us all old clippings of
- 14:08Speaker 2: when he was an athlete, an eight hundred meter runner
- 14:09Speaker 2: in high school and winning medals there. He actually puts
- 14:12Speaker 2: some of his persistence down to the training that he
- 14:14Speaker 2: used to do but little athletics, which I thought is
- 14:16Speaker 2: a great story. So yeah, it's quite interesting to see where people,
- 14:19Speaker 2: you know, not everyone's born into wealth, and there's just
- 14:21Speaker 2: that persistence and there's great stories. I mean, we obviously
- 14:25Speaker 2: rank all these people when it comes to the numbers,
- 14:27Speaker 2: but I think what we try to do differently in
- 14:29Speaker 2: this magazine is just too just tell stories about interesting people.
- 14:33Speaker 2: At the end of the day, it's a collection of
- 14:35Speaker 2: interesting people that I think have got interesting stories behind them,
- 14:38Speaker 2: and there's all sorts of weird and wonderful ways that
- 14:40Speaker 2: they get on this list.
- 14:41Speaker 1: It's nice to see someone enjoying their wealth. I mean
- 14:44Speaker 1: I say that because a lot of the people who
- 14:47Speaker 1: who are on the list, maybe they are quietly enjoying
- 14:50Speaker 1: their wealth, but they certainly don't want you, you know,
- 14:52Speaker 1: you to write about it, do they.
- 14:53Speaker 2: Well, I think you'll find a lot of them talk
- 14:54Speaker 2: to me on background, but they don't necessarily want to
- 14:56Speaker 2: be public. I would say the vast majority of the
- 14:58Speaker 2: list actually do talk to us. I end up having
- 15:00Speaker 2: these crazy conversations that I think you're worth one point
- 15:03Speaker 2: two billion, and they will come back to me and say, no,
- 15:04Speaker 2: it's one point two to three billion. So this is
- 15:07Speaker 2: the bizarre world that billionaires can inhabit at times. But yeah,
- 15:11Speaker 2: there's a lot of interest. I can assure you that
- 15:13Speaker 2: when the list hits the website or comes out in print,
- 15:15Speaker 2: that the two fifty on the list watch it pretty
- 15:17Speaker 2: closely in and I hear pretty quickly if there's any
- 15:19Speaker 2: issues with it.
- 15:20Speaker 1: I'm sure you do. John, Thank you very much, Thanks Claire.
- 15:33Speaker 1: John Stensholt is the editor of the list Australia's Riches
- 15:36Speaker 1: two fifty. It's out now and you can see who's
- 15:39Speaker 1: making and losing money right now at the Australian dot
- 15:43Speaker 1: com dot au