Article by Mark Di Stefano, courtesy of Financial Review.
To go with the slavish full-page ads to celebrate Donald Trump‘s election victory, Gina Rinehart’s next move is to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the US sharemarket.
Her Hancock Prospecting filed 13F disclosure forms with the SEC last Friday. These need to be filed quarterly if an investment manager has more than $US100 million ($157 million) in assets.
It looks like the first disclosure of its type. And although it’s unclear when her US stock picking took place, it is a snapshot of a bulging $US1.3 billion portfolio for the 2024 calendar year.
Rinehart owns $US23.6 million of Fox Corp stock, the Rupert Murdoch-founded broadcaster of Fox News, now led by Lachlan Murdoch. She’s dipping her toe back into media after flights of fancy at Ten Network and the old Fairfax, and what better place than the American right’s mainstream megaphone. Last year, Rinehart pumped advertising money into News Corp (the other Murdoch media apparatus) to endlessly appear in its newspapers as sponsored content.
She also has an $US8.4 million position in Tesla. She was recently pictured with Elon Musk in Florida after Donald Trump’s election, praising his transformation of Twitter into X, and calling for a local version of his DOGE government efficiency drive.
Rounding out a certain kind of trifecta is a $5.1 million purchase of shares in Trump Media & Technology Group. TMTG is another of the US president’s vanity projects and its sole purpose is to run Truth Social, his own version of X.
Last week, it posted a full-year loss of $US401 million. But it has a $US6.6 billion market cap. That doesn’t exactly reflect fundamentals, other than the fact Trump’s posts (they’re called “truths”) are there. Maybe getting the president’s market-moving thoughts first will eventually lead to a business model.
Like so many of Trump’s other schemes, buying into TMTG is something like getting tokens to show loyalty. Rinehart could buy some $TRUMP meme coin – what are the chances she has a crypto wallet?
Think of it as taking a ticket at the deli. Rinehart’s spending some tiny slice of her massive wealth on Trump, Musk and Murdoch stock, for the chance to edge closer into their circles.
Portfolio passions
But there are other companies closer to her direct business interests. Rinehart has built a $US262 million position in copper giant Teck Resources. It’s Canada’s BHP, which sold its coal business to Glencore in 2023. Teck’s zinc and (valuable) copper assets have stirred takeover speculation from everyone from Rio Tinto to the Saudis. The Canucks are adamant they aren’t for selling.
Rinehart’s holding represents about one per cent of Teck’s outstanding shares, so how strategic can it be? Is she banking on Justin Trudeau’s Liberals getting wiped out and an incoming right-wing government of friendlies?
Her second-largest position is $US216 million of stock in MP Materials, the Las Vegas-based rare earths miner she wants merged with ASX-listed Lynas Rare Earths. There’s also $US33 million in shares of Chile’s Sociedad Quimica y Minera, her joint-venture partner for the 2023 raid on Azure Minerals.
Then positions in energy giants Chevron ($US35.6 million), Exxon Mobil ($US26.7 million), ConocoPhillips ($US19.4 million), EQT Group ($US27.9 million), Antero Resources ($US14.9 million) and Occidental Petroleum ($US27.6 million), one also favoured by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Plus, small positions in auto-makers General Motors and Stellantis.
Almost half the portfolio is filled out with passive index names. Rinehart has bought more than $US580 million worth of products from Invesco, BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard.
One of Australia’s fiercest business operators opting to tip many millions into the US stock market via index huggers is a curious decision. Maybe a further signal to the president of your unbridled support for his economic project.
Published on: Feb 19, 2025
