The coronavirus pandemic may have washed through Australia's economy, causing job losses and business collapses, but it has barely affected the country's billionaires.
A look through the ranks of this year's AFR Rich List reveals Australia's ultrawealthy have in fact boosted their fortunes despite the pandemic. The total wealthof Australia's richest 200 people has increased by A$80 billion over the past year – and average of A$400 million each.
In some cases, the results make perfect sense.
Take Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. The fortunes of the two 40-year-olds increased from A$9.6b each to A$16.9b, thanks to the sharp rise in shares of their Nasdaq-listed tech company Atlassian. With more people working at home and working remotely, demand for Atlassian's online work collaboration tools is strong and will likely last beyond the pandemic's passing.
Surging iron ore prices have also boosted the fortunes of Australia's miners. Iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart is once again Australia's richest person, with A$28.9b, up from A$13.8b a year earlier. Her four children are each worth A$2.1b in their own right.
Andrew Forrest is the next richest Australian, after shares in his iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group hit a new high and his fortune almost trebled to A$23b.
Antony Pratt is third with a fortune of just under (well, a quarter of a billion dollars under) A$20b. Covid has boosted the fortunes of his US and Australian Visy packaging company – more online shopping means more corrugated cardboard boxes to hold the deliveries and more takeaway and home-delivered food means more aluminium and cardboard packaging.
But some surges in wealth are surprising and counterintuitive, even to the billionaires themselves.
At the start of the pandemic, plumbing and bathroom suppliers company Reece suspended dividends and raised A$600m in extra capital to help see it through the pandemic. But the company seemingly hadn't counted on the huge number of Australians who decided to renovate their homes during lockdown.
Reece's profits were up 13 per cent compared with the year before and the resulting share price rise increased the wealth of majority owner Alan Wilson from A$4.1b to A$4.9b, enough to put him at number 12 on the rich list.
Shopping centre owners, as you might imagine, have seen their wealth fall as retail tenants shut up shop and stopped paying rent.
Frank Lowy, who owns Westfield malls in Australia and New Zealand, saw his wealth slip form A$8.6b to A$8.3 billion and fellow shopping centre owner John Gandel's wealth has slipped by about A$1.1b to $5.5b.
You might expect bricks and mortar retailers to suffer a similar fate, but many of these also have online operations and so were able to capitalise on the shift to ecommerce.
Solomon Lew was literally in tears in late March when discussing government aid for business with treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Since then, things have been looking up.
Lew - whose Premier Investments owns chains including Just Jeans, Smiggle, Peter Alexander, Dotti, Jay Jays and Portmans - stood down 12,000 of his staff, stopped paying rent at shopping centres and raked in A$69 million in wage subsidies from governments around the world.
Meanwhile, his wealth has increased from A$2.8b to A$3.7b as online sales rose by 70 per cent and earnings were boosted by rental holidays and the wages subsidies.
Shoppers take advantage of sales at Harvey Norman. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Who knows how any of his stood down workers feel about his A$900m windfall?
The chief beneficiary of increased demand for whitegoods and computer and TV equipment, arising from people going online to buy equipment to work from home and keep themselves entertained, was Gerry Harvey. The boost in Harvey Norman's share prices has seen Harvey's wealth rise from A$1.9b to A$2.6b.
To be fair, Harvey's increase didn't happen just by accident. He already had a solid online offering and ramped up a huge marketing campaign when the lockdowns began.
Just about every day the print edition of the Sydney Morning Herald comes wrapped in full page ad spreads from the company.
Not everyone has benefitted. The three founders of discount travel agency Flight Centre – Geoff Harris, Bill James and Graham Turner – don't appear on the list for the first time since the 1990s, as the pandemic decimated the travel industry.
But overall, the pandemic has been good for Australia's wealthiest citizens.
Australia's 200 richest individuals and families are worth $424b, up from $342b in 2019. In 2019, a fortune of A$472m or more would get you on to the list of the country's 200 wealthiest citizens. But now you need A$540m to get a look in.
And all up there are 104 billionaires in Australia, up from 91 last year.
