Kerry Stokes, James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch, and adman John Singleton are among the media figures appearing in the 2022 Financial Review Rich List.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart topped the 40th annual list for the third year in a row, with a record $34.02 billion, up $3 billion from last year.
There are13 debutantes on the 2022 Rich List, helping drive the total wealth of Australia’s top 200 past half a trillion dollars to $555 billion, up from $480 billion in 2021.
There are a record 137 billionaires in Australia, up from 111 last year.
Included in the list are media figures:
#11 Kerry Stokes $6.99 billion ($7.18 billion) MEDIA, RESOURCES
AGE: 81, PERTH
"Stokes, the adopted only child of poverty-stricken parents, entered the workforce aged 14, first at a radio factory then a wool store. When, aged 19, he moved from Melbourne to Perth, he spent three days in a library to learn how to fix TV aerials. He noticed land was cheaper in his new home town and began selling lots. Property developments provided a bedrock to a fortune housed largely in Seven Group Holdings. It's best known for controlling the Seven television network and The West Australian newspaper, but profits are being driven by resources and industrial investments. Assets include Boral Group, Coates Hire and WesTrac."
#16 James Packer $5.95 billion ($5.72 billion) MEDIA, GAMING
AGE: 54, LOS ANGELES
"A new era beckons for the Packer dynasty when James cashes in his 37 per cent holding in Crown Resorts in return for $3.3 billion in cash from US privateers Blackstone. The scion of a line that has dominated Australia’s media landscape for nearly 100 years, most famously through father Kerry's ownership of Channel 9, James chose to make his mark in gambling after Kerry’s death in 2005. The sell-off of the media assets for glittering casinos in Macau and Melbourne has, after some profitable years, ended in ignominy after regulators found Crown no longer suitable to hold a casino licence."
#28 Lachlan Murdoch $3.95 billion ($4.43 billion) MEDIA
AGE: 50, SYDNEY
"Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son is chief executive of Fox Corp, housing Fox News and other leftovers from the sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney for $100 billion in 2019. That netted each of Rupert’s six children $US2 billion of Disney stocks, and a handsome dividend stream. Since relocating from Los Angeles last year, Murdoch has become impassioned about Australia, warning "our core values, our successes and even our history are under constant attack", sheeting home some blame to the public broadcaster. The resident of Bellevue Hill’s Le Manoir is waiting on the delivery of a 60-metre $150 million yacht."
#43 Prudence MacLeod $2.58 billion ($2.80 billion) MEDIA
AGE: 63, SYDNEY
MacLeod, eldest child of News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch, entered the Rich List in her own right in 2019 on receipt of her share of the $US12 billion the Murdoch family made when 21st Century Fox was merged with Disney in a $US71 billion deal. Some of the windfall has been plunged into philanthropic ventures, through the Macdoch Foundation she runs with husband and former News Corp executive Alasdair MacLeod. It is offering farmers a data-driven efficiency assessment, something the pair’s Wilmot Cattle Co took the lead on last year when it earned a record $500,000 from Microsoft for carbon credits.
#55 Gretel Packer $2.05 billion ($2.30 billion) MEDIA
AGE 55, SYDNEY
"Gretel, the daughter of the late Kerry Packer, grabbed a place on the Rich List after a 2015 settlement of the family’s media dynasty fortune with her brother, James. Advised by long-time confidant Will Vicars (No. 110), she has expanded her investments in recent years to include US real estate portal Zillow and a Sydney artificial intelligence software start-up, Omniscient Neurotechnology. She made about $5 million selling the family office headquarters in Sydney’s Hudson House to Ramsay Health Care chairman Michael Siddle for $13.5 million. She has interests in the arts and is vice president of the Art Gallery of NSW Trust."
#101 Grant Petty $1.38 billion ($592 million) MANUFACTURING
AGE: 53, MELBOURNE
"Petty surges up the list after revenue and net profit at his Blackmagic Design doubled in 2020-21, to $769 million and $153 million , as YouTubers and TikTokkers embraced its video gear. Electrical engineer Petty started his career in television post-production and saw how equipment costs locked out creative people. Starting Blackmagic in 2001, he oversaw the invention of a video capture card allowing professional editing on desktop computers. This led to a handheld camera business line and, in 2009, the acquisition of Hollywood’s colour-correction system of choice, DaVinci Resolve."
#107 Bruce Gordon $1.33 billion ($870 million) MEDIA
AGE: 94, BERMUDA; WOLLONGONG
"Gordon’s career began at his father’s fruit stall outside the old Lyceum Theatre in Sydney. Working vaudeville stages as a magician and puppeteer put him into the milieu of television as it was starting in the mid-1950s. By the mid-1970s he was running international sales for Hollywood studio Paramount. In 1979, he ceded control of some Ten shares to Rupert Murdoch so Murdoch could buy it; Gordon got the WIN network cheaply in return. He is now the largest shareholder in Nine Entertainment. His Birketu vehicle is planning a $400 million residential, entertainment and shopping complex in Wollongong."
#174 John Singleton $768 million ($731 million) MEDIA, INVESTMENT, PROPERTY
AGE: 80, SYDNEY
"At 80, the larrikin spirit of ‘Singo’ lives on. At mate and fellow Rich Lister (No.31) Gerry Harvey’s Magic Millions thoroughbred auction in January, one stud was offering a $500,000 Ferrari as a prize to buyers. So Singleton parked a beaten-up maroon Holden right next to it. Harvey’s retail empire was a key early client for Singleton’s burgeoning advertising empire, which started with the ‘ocker’ catchphrases of his SPASM agency, and later partnered with multinationals Ogilvy & Mather and J. Walter Thompson. Singo made $80 million selling out of radio in 2019, and has extensive property on NSW’s Central Coast."
The overall list TOP 10 (worth a collective $219.35 billion):
1. Gina Rinehart – $34.02 billion (up from $31.06 billion) – Resources, Agriculture
2. Andrew Forrest – $30.72 billion (up from $27.25 billion) – Resources
3. Mike Cannon-Brookes – $27.83 billion (up from $20.18 billion) – Technology
4. Scott Farquhar – $26.41 billion (up from $20 billion) – Technology
5. Anthony Pratt & family – $24.30 billion (up from $20.09 billion) – Manufacturing
6. Harry Triguboff – $21.25 billion (up from $17.27 billion) – Property
7. Clive Palmer – $19.55 billion (up from $13.01 billion) – Resources
8. Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht – $13.80 billion (up from $7.98 billion) – Technology
9. Ivan Glasenberg – $12.20 billion (up from $7.39 billion) – Resources
10. Frank Lowy – $9.27 billion (up from $8.51 billion) – Property
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