Excerpt of article by Peter Ker and William McInnes courtesy of the Australian Financial Review.
Australia’s iron ore oligarchs might have hogged the headlines, but Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest and Chris Ellison aren’t the only ones enjoying fantastic dividends after the nation’s most important export industry enjoyed its annus mirabilis.
The biggest five exporters of Australian iron ore have already declared dividends totalling $59.5 billion for the year to June 30, and that could grow further when Mrs Rinehart’s Roy Hill Holdings publishes its accounts in coming months. The sheer size of that record dividend haul ensured there was plenty left over for lower-profile investors, after Fortescue chairman Mr Forrest took his $4 billion, Mrs Rinehart took $3 billion, and Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison scooped $61.67 million.
Close to $30 million of Fortescue cheques were sent to Melbourne’s south-east over the past year, where the philanthropic foundation of transport industry entrepreneur Peter White is based.
The foundation helps to fund accommodation for homeless youths and women escaping domestic violence, and Fortescue filings suggest the foundation grew its stake in Fortescue over the past year as record iron ore prices and low operating costs promised to create a tidal wave of fully franked dividends. A separate, private company linked to Mr White called Pelmavigel was a new entrant into Fortescue’s top 20 shareholder list over the past year, with that company set to receive at least a further $12 million of dividends from the West Australian miner.
The wealth generated by Fortescue in the Pilbara iron ore region has also flowed towards Sydney’s southern beaches, where one of the company’s earliest and most reclusive investors, Kie Chie Wong, is understood to live.
Mr Wong’s company Emichrome was the sixth-biggest shareholder in Fortescue at June 30, making it eligible for $333 million of dividends for the past year alone.
That extraordinary haul could push Mr Wong and his family further up the Financial Review Rich List, having occupied 41st place in the 2021 edition.