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Rich families

This Month

Mutual trust, Managing Partner Phil Harkness and Partner, Head of Strategy Tracy Conlan.

Myer, Baillieu family’s wealth firm eyes commercial property

Mutual Trust is the country’s largest and most significant multifamily office. It says there are opportunities in the big fall in real asset values.

  • Primrose Riordan
Bob Oatley’s children Sandy, Rosalind and Ian are considering a sale of Hamilton Island.

Oatley family empire carve-up starts with vineyards

The heirs to a fortune assembled by Bob Oatley are already attempting to sell Hamilton Island, their largest asset, for more than $1 billion.

  • Updated
  • Primrose Riordan

September

The State Theatre, a historic building being redeveloped by New World Development Co., in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s billionaire Cheng family is offering to buy the NWS Holdings Ltd. shares it doesn’t own in a HK$35.5 billion ($7 billion) deal that would help lower debt at New World Development.

A Hong Kong property billionaire with a big family dilemma

Younger heirs to the most established families need to prove business acumen is still in their DNA, amid rapid change in the economy and the financial world.

  • Shuli Ren
South African philanthropist, and Prospa’s largest shareholder, Martin Moshal.

Reclusive Sydney gambling mogul emerges as kingmaker in South Africa

Martin Moshal is the largest individual political donor in South Africa, according to electoral records analysed by a non-profit.

  • Primrose Riordan
Bob Oatley’s children Sandy, Rosalind and Ian Oatley are considering a sale of Hamilton Island.

Malaysian billionaires eye a bid for Hamilton Island

Not every sibling in the wealthy Oatley family is as enthusiastic to sell the prized asset purchased by Bob Oatley, the legendary sailor who died in 2016.

  • Primrose Riordan
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U-Boat Worx submarine.

Forget private jets: billionaires want their own subs

The implosion of the Titan private submersible killed five and shocked the world, yet multimillion-dollar underwater toys are more in demand than ever.

  • Caroline White
Eighty-eight per cent of wealthy families surveyed said it was possible to give children too much money.

Why Australia’s wealthy hide their true riches from friends and family

But one Rich Lister warns not talking openly about wealth can end badly for relatives left behind. 

  • Primrose Riordan
Caledonia’s Will Vicars.

Caledonia still believes in this loss-making US property stock

Will Vicars’ hedge fund started investing in the real estate platform more than 10 years ago, and the Packer and Fairfax families followed.

  • Primrose Riordan

August

Kwasi Kwarteng resigned as chancellor in October.

New Fortescue hire Kwasi Kwarteng barred from advising on UK affairs

Kwasi Kwarteng has been barred from advising his potential new employer, mining magnate Andrew Forrest, about UK energy affairs and lobbying the British government.

  • Primrose Riordan
Former British chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Andrew Forrest offers work to former UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng

Kwasi Kwarteng helped spark a UK financial crisis and was sacked after five weeks.

  • Primrose Riordan
The Smorgon family and its development partners want to turn this Darlinghurst building into a local outpost of Soho House.

Sydney’s Soho House back to the drawing board as neighbours baulk

One resident said loud staff would “disturb the peace” on their breaks; another was worried knocked-over bins would attract people “looking for food”.

  • Primrose Riordan
Sydney Harbour in 2013, when more than half of Australian family offices had not yet been established.

Australia’s secretive family offices in decade-long boom

Australian family offices have grown exponentially over the past decade and their CEOs are among the best paid.

  • Primrose Riordan
Peter Edwards is the executive chair of the Victor Smorgan Group and Victor Smorgon’s grandson.

Melbourne’s wealthy Smorgon family reset their real estate strategy

Peter Edwards, Victor Smorgon’s grandson, says he is directing the property portion of the office’s Australian portfolio towards travel and hospitality.

  • Primrose Riordan
Australia has fewer millionaires.

Why Australia has 20pc fewer millionaires

About 1.8 million Australians have a personal wealth valued above $1 million, but the number shrank in 2022 because of interest rates, market and currency hits.

  • Duncan Hughes
Family office recruiters warn candidates not to expect too many super yacht invitations.

How to quit your corporate job and work for a billionaire

Family offices – secretive companies set up to manage the wealth of the uber rich – are looking further afield for staff.

  • Primrose Riordan
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Melior Investment Management chief executive Lucy Steed with Alberts executive directors Kirsty Albert and Ingrid Albert want companies to be more focused on gender diversity.

Albert family office gets loud in push for gender equality

The family behind AC/DC’s music label has spent years trying to stay under the radar. Now, they are using their name and capital to publicly champion gender equality.

  • Primrose Riordan and Jemima Whyte

Atlassian co-founders are $6b richer after earnings update

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have added around $3.2 billion to their respective wealth after the software company’s shares surged more than 23 per cent.

  • Tess Bennett
Frank Lowy made his fortune with his Westfield shopping empire.

Want to invest like the Lowys? Now you can

Assembly Funds Management, the investment house backed by the billionaire family, has begun raising finance for a second property fund.

  • Primrose Riordan

July

Many of the entrepreneurs who’ve become super rich are now seeking to manage and transfer wealth to their descendants in Asia. That’s resulting in a surge in family office demand.

Asia’s richest families fuel race for lucrative finance jobs

Trillions of investment dollars and top jobs in family offices that sometimes pay $1.5 million or more are up for grabs.

  • David Ramli

What this 28-year-old CEO plans for his famous luxury brand

Tag Heuer is set to return to top-dog status and Frederic Arnault is the man responsible for the transformation.

  • Bani McSpedden

The Australian Financial Review Magazine

BOSS Financial Review

British beauty entrepreneur Sarah-Jane Duncanson “Trinny” Woodall at the Park Hyatt, Sydney.

Life & Leisure

Living it up, but not at The Ritz: Raffles London at The Old War Office has been restored to full baroque Edwardian elegance.

Rich List

Chemist Warehouse paid $364m in dividends in the last 12 months.