clive has the most marbles

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24726123-3122,00.html

Queensland tycoon Clive Palmer defies economic gloom



Daryl Passmore

November 29, 2008 11:00pm

QUEENSLANDER Clive Palmer has laid claim to the title of Australia's richest person as the global financial crisis reshapes fortunes.

The iron-ore magnate has lost about $500 million on paper since July, but told The Sunday Mail yesterday he still had assets of about $6 billion.

That puts his wealth ahead of some of the biggest names in Australian business, whose fortunes have been eroded by the collapse on the stockmarket.

Mr Palmer headed The Sunday Mail's Queensland Top 100 Rich List revealed in August, and several others in the exclusive club have also managed to weather the storm, including internet entrepreneur Graeme Wood, gas developer Bob Bryan, coal magnate Ken Talbot and retail king John Van Lieshout.

Until recently the country's richest man had been Mr Palmer's main competitor, West Australia iron ore miner Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest.

However with shares in his Fortescue Metals Group plunging from $11.90 at the start of the financial year to $1.90 last week, Mr Forrest's fortune shrank from $9.4 billion to $1.5 billion.

Westfield shopping centre chief Frank Lowy's bank balance is $1.9 billion lighter, at $4.4 billion.

Media and gambling mogul James Packer has lost around $3.5billion from his empire and now has an estimated wealth of $2.6 billion.

Mr Palmer was a little coy about his meteoric rise through the ranks of Australia's wealthiest.

"I don't really think about money – it's just something you can use to create more jobs,'' he said.

''That's what matters."

Virtually unknown until two years ago, the 54-year-old Gold Coaster owns a giant iron ore deposit estimated at 160 billion tonnes in the Pilbara region of WA and has lucrative deals with Chinese Government-backed CITIC Pacific.

Mr Palmer lost about $350million on his stake in publicly-listed Australasian Resources but the vast majority of his holdings are through his private companies, Mineralogy and Resource Development International.

"We're in a good position because we have no debt," he said.

"We have plenty of cash in the bank and a safe income stream from our contracts with the Chinese.

''We're very happy with our strategy."

He said RDI would begin test drilling for oil reserves off the North West Shelf next month and at sites in the Canning Basin next year.

A takeover bid for Waratah Coal has begun but a proposed $5billion float of RDI on the Hong Kong and Australian stock exchanges has been put off until next year.

While many fortunes have been lost, Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood has managed to increase his personal wealth.

Since the start of the financial year, the price of shares in his online accommodation booking company has risen, pushing the value of his 25 per cent holding up from $149 million to $180 million and his overall wealth to an estimated $220 million – up from $208 million five months ago.

"We've held up well," Mr Wood said.

"We always suspected we were, if not recession-proof, then at least recession-resistant."

Also smiling is former Queensland Gas chairman Bob Bryan.

The company's take-over by the BG group last month saw him sell his shareholding for $98 million, about $20 million more than they were worth in July.

Now he is worth around $350 million.

Ken Talbot's decision to sell his stake in Macarthur Coal mid-year put more than half a billion dollars in his pocket that would have been wiped off the value of his shares.

He is worth around $1 billion.

Moving into second spot on the Queensland Top 100 is Super A-Mart founder John Van Lieshout.

Cashed up by the sale of the furniture chain two years ago, he is sitting on a $1.3 billion fortune.