How some Rich Listers doubled their fortune in 2023 while others fell

But there was one iron ore baron whose fortune fell. Andrew Forrest, who split from his wife Nicola, has seen his wealth shrink by the greatest degree among his billionaire peers as his total assets nearly halved.

Dr Forrest topped the list of the greatest falls in fortune, from $31.4 billion at the end of 2022 to $16.7 billion at the end of 2023. Asked about the change, Dr Forrest pointed to his philanthropic plans.

“While we both live well, each of us were and are only trustees of our wealth for others, through philanthropy,” Dr Forrest told The Australian Financial Review. “We were only ever holding this wealth for others.”

The Forrests have pledged to give away half of their wealth in their lifetime, and donated almost $5 billion worth of Fortescue shares to their own charity, the Minderoo Foundation, midway through last year.

The Forrests’ break-up was preceded by Dr Forrest giving half of his holding in the couple’s flagship private investment company to Ms Forrest, followed by a series of changes to their personal entities. The vehicle has a 36 per cent shareholding in ASX-listed Fortescue Metals.

At the time, these changes moved Mr Forrest from second to 10th on the Rich List, while Nicola Forrest joined the Rich List for the first time in eighth with an estimated $14.6 billion fortune.

“We made the call that it was better for everyone if we didn’t live right on top of each other, but we still absolutely support each other,” Dr Forrest said in August of the split.

Atlassian’s Mr Cannon-Brookes’ fortune will also be tested by the imminent asset split with his soon-to-be former wife, Annie Todd.

Embattled Shimao Property Holdings chairman Hui Wing Mau’s assets were smashed by the collapse of the Chinese property market last year, a major driver of the East Asian nation’s economy. His wealth plunged 37.7 per cent from $5 billion to $3.1 billion over the past 12 months, according to the Rich List data. In 2021, Mr Hui was worth $11.7 billion, according to that year’s Rich List.

Shimao, one of China’s distressed developers, started defaulting on its billions of offshore debt last July. Recent court auctions have struggled to sell off the company’s vast land plots. The crisis led to a fire sale of his 3 million-hectare cattle empire in WA’s East Kimberley to a consortium that includes one of Canada’s biggest fund managers, Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

Conversely, media mogul Kerry Stokes’ wealth increased from $6.8 billion to $10.1 billion, as Seven Group’s shares climbed in value, despite the pain of the bill for Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case.

Alan Wilson and his family – shareholders in Reece Group, the country’s biggest bathroom and plumbing supplies chain – grew their wealth by about 55 per cent from $5.5 billion to $8.5 billion. Shares in the group were up more than 60 per cent in the past year, as the group managed to lift higher-end prices despite the pain in the construction industry.

Crypto millionaires are back

Little-known crypto and blockchain millionaires, who have appeared on the Financial Review Young Rich List in the past, chalked up substantial gains. The former Macquarie Group bankers behind green bitcoin miner Iris Energy, Daniel and Will Roberts, both saw their individual fortunes rise by 266 per cent from $19 million to $71 million. Iris shares rose 500 per cent over the period.

Crypto gaming entrepreneurs, the Warwick brothers, also experienced one of the strongest reversals of fortunes over the past year. The rise comes as digital assets made a comeback last year, despite the prosecution of crypto-kings Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance chief Changpeng Zhao.

Bitcoin has surged by more than 150 per cent in the past 12 months, with part of the excitement linked to expectations US regulators may allow fund managers to launch exchange-traded funds tied to bitcoin’s spot price early this year.

Three of the Warwick brothers, Kieran, Grant and Aaron, sustained heavy losses in early 2022 with the sell-off in crypto assets, and then lost hundreds of millions of dollars from their personal wealth after a hacker drained funds from their video game treasury in February of that year. Tokens from their blockchain-based game Illuvium are trading more than 130 per cent higher than they did a year ago.

Kain Warwick’s derivatives trading platform, Synthetix, introduced a way for people to lend their cryptocurrencies to others, who would then use them to help establish new blockchain products. His wealth rose 75 per cent rise over the past year, from $210 million to $368 million, and his Synthetix token increased in value by 180 per cent over the past 12 months.

The data also includes the diminishing fortunes of pub moguls struggling to sell a pint in a downturn.

Poker machine and pub baron Bruce Mathieson suffered an 11 per cent decline in his fortune from $1.9 billion at the close of 2022 to $1.7 billion at the end of December 2023. Mathieson has been leading a boardroom shake-up of gambling and alcohol company Endeavour Group. The Financial Review revealed in October that Mr Mathieson had taken out a margin loan against his 15 per cent stake in the group, but rejected suggestions it was affecting his financial capacity.

Perth entrepreneur Megan Wynne of Advanced Personnel Management, or APM, a significant player in the welfare-to-work industry, was hit by a 31 per cent drop in her holdings from the end of last year to the end of this year, the data showed. Shares in APM have slid by about 50 per cent over the past 12 months.