Great letter to the Editor in todays West Australian

Originally posted by pintohoo: ↑

you need evidence that Australian resource companies are mostly foreign owned
that tells us a lot about you

“Based on the search results, a significant portion of Australian resource companies appear to be foreign owned:

1. According to a 2022 study, the top 30 companies in Australia by sales value (including both listed and unlisted companies) are 79% foreign owned[2].

2. The same study found that companies profiting from Australia's $62.5 billion LNG industry are on average 95.7% foreign owned[2].

3. A 2011 study commissioned by the Australian Greens concluded that 83% of the Australian mining industry is foreign owned. This estimate was later supported by Treasury analysis that put foreign ownership of major mining projects at 86%[4].

4. Specific examples of foreign ownership in resources include:

- BHP, once known as "the Big Australian", is 73% owned by American-based investors[6].

- Rio Tinto is more than 60% owned by American-based investors[6].

5. As of 2010, foreign investors partly or wholly owned 11% of farm land in Australia, with higher percentages in certain states like the Northern Territory (23.8%) and South Australia (12.1%)[3].

While the exact percentages may have changed since some of these studies were conducted, the overall trend indicates a high level of foreign ownership in Australian resource and mining companies, particularly from American investors.

Sources
[1] [PDF] economic-activity-of-majority-foreign-owned-business-in-australia.pdf https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/defau...ority-foreign-owned-business-in-australia.pdf
[2] Foreign investment in Australia: Australian big business is not ... https://apo.org.au/node/318210
[3] Foreign investment in Australian agriculture - Parliament of Australia https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...amentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/ForeignInvest
[4] Foreign investment in Australia - Australian big business is not very https://policycommons.net/artifacts/4630425/foreign-investment-in-australia/5454820/
[5] Economic Activity of Foreign Owned Businesses in Australia, 2014-15 https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5494.0
[6] Worried about agents of foreign influence? Just look at who owns ... https://theconversation.com/worried...-who-owns-australias-biggest-companies-123343
[7] [PDF] Foreign Investment Reform (Protecting Australia's National Security ... https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-10/c2021-193739-amec.pdf
[8] [PDF] Economic activity of foreign-owned businesses in Australia - 2014-15 https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/foreign-owned-businesses-2014-15-mining.pdf

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If you look at CBA it appears to be majority foreign owned too, in reality though many large institutional investors in Australia hold through US Banks and are listed under nominee accounts. So while they appear to be foreign Holders it's misleading