Perth-based Wright Prospecting has confirmed its status as one of the country's most profitable companies, lifting its annual earnings on the back of higher iron ore prices and paying a whopping $172 million dividend to its owners.
UPDATED: Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Kerry Stokes, Bianca Rinehart and Angela Bennett are the wealthiest people in Western Australia, according to a new rich list.
The descendants of iron ore pioneer Peter Wright have received total dividends of $702 million over the past three years, according to recently lodged financial statements that also reveal the big legal expenses they have paid.
SPECIAL REPORT: Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and its subsidiary, Roy Hill Holdings, have moved to the top of the Business News annual ranking of private companies in Western Australia, as their surging revenue put them ahead of building company BGC Australia.
SPECIAL REPORT: The five WA people with the largest holdings in listed companies have earned around $1.5 billion in dividends in the past five years, with Andrew Forrest and Kerry Stokes leading the way. Click through for our list of 50 directors and investors with holdings worth more than $11 billion between them.
A new global ranking says Sydney is the top city in Australasia for the ultra-wealthy, but despite being home to Australia's richest woman, Perth failed to rate a mention.
Former corporate lawyer Ian Cochrane has joined the board of Ausdrill as deputy chairman, adding to a suite of board positions on the private companies of some of Perth's wealthiest families.
Woodside Petroleum has spent the past 60 years focused on the development of its own projects in Australia, but in the space of one year, two major takeover deals collectively worth $15 billion look set to reshape the Perth-based energy giant.
The new owners of Quadrant Energy have spoken to Business News about how the $2.7 billion acquisition came together and their plans for the oil and gas producer.
Two of Perth's prominent business families have shed light on their future plans, after the Bennett family struck a deal to buy a marina operation in Fremantle from the Kailis family.
Macquarie Capital's Kate Vidgen has been named as the inaugural chair of newly formed oil and gas company Quadrant Energy, which will have six directors representing its three owners – Macquarie, Brookfield Asset Management and Angela Bennett's AMB Holdings.
The third daughter of late mining heir Michael Wright has succeeded in her bid to extract much more than she was left from his will, with a judge ruling she should get $25 million.
Some of Perth's top company directors and dealmakers, including Michael Smith, Ian Cochrane, Michael Ashforth and Tony Iannello have been recruited to help run prominent family companies.
It's not easy to feel sympathy for Perth's super-rich as they watch their fortunes shrink, but the problems of Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Kerry Stokes, Angela Bennett and Stan Perron are a powerful pointer to the problems facing everyone in Western Australia.
The appointment of investment banker Michael Ashforth as manager of the Bennett family's $1.5 billion fortune highlights the maturing of Western Australia's private wealth market.
Rio Tinto has boosted its global iron ore production to a record level during the June 2013 quarter, as it reviews new options to achieve its growth target at its Pilbara operations. Rio has also disclosed the high cost of a legal dispute with Gina Rinehart's company Hancock Prospecting.
