Article by John Stensholt courtesy of The Australian.
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has lodged a massive $7bn profit, one of the biggest results for a private company in recent memory.
The result for the billionaire’s mining and investment company is just shy of the $8.8bn net cash profit recorded by the Commonwealth Bank, the biggest company on the ASX, for the 2021 financial year.
Hancock’s result dwarfs the profits of every other Australian-owned private company and came on the back of booming iron ore prices and a strong performance by the company’s mining investments and agricultural assets.
The profit for the year to June came after revenue for Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock rose to a record $16.6bn from $10.5bn a year earlier and the business paid a huge $2.7bn in federal corporate and state taxes.
Hancock is one of the biggest taxpayers in corporate Australia and in financial terms it has sailed through the Covid pandemic.
Hancock’s profit was up from $4bn in 2020, and the company has made a whopping $15.4bn in combined profits in the last four financial years.
It has also provided for almost $1.23bn in dividend payments for Mrs Rinehart and her children on its balance sheet for the 2021 financial year.
The company’s assets include Hancock’s stake in the huge Roy Hill iron ore mine, which recently revealed a $4.4bn profit from the shipping of almost 60 million tonnes of the commodity annually, and the Atlas Iron business that made about $1bn net profit in its own right for the 2021 financial year.
Hancock also has a string of mining assets under development or exploration in Australia and around the world, and also owns 29,000 head of Wagyu cattle.
In a statement, Hancock said: “Under its dedicated leadership, Hancock is one of the most successful private companies in Australia’s history, and the most successful private mining and agriculture company in Australia’s history.
“It is also one of the most successful private mining companies in the world. Our staff are rightly proud of these achievements.”
Australian Outback Beef Pty Ltd, the 100 per cent owner of S. Kidman & Co Pty Ltd, reported revenue of $67 million for the 2021 financial year.
Its operations, including feedlotting and product branding, delivered a net profit after tax of $11.5 million.
So successful has Hancock been that the company has also built a share portfolio worth more than $1bn in just a year.
It said it has “established an equity investment portfolio during the year with a focus on ‘future metals’ including copper, rare earths and lithium”, and that the initial $669m investment had risen to $1.07bn in value by the end of the financial year.
In overall terms, Hancock’s $7bn net profit compares with private companies such as Anthony Pratt and family’s Visy and Pratt Industries, which usually makes more than $1bn annually from its Australasian and US operations.
Canberra billionaire Terry Snow’s Canberra Airport is the next biggest private company in profitable terms so far in 2021, based on financial reports lodged with the corporate regulator in recent months.
Canberra Airport made a $563m net profit in 2021, while Sam Kennard and family’s Kennards Self Storage recorded a $349m result and Laurence Escalante’s Virtual Gaming Worlds a $294m net profit. Other notable private company profits include Land Walker’s Walker Corporation at $174m, Jack Cowin’s Competitive Foods at $65m and Lindsay Fox’s Linfox at $6.2m.
For publicly listed mining companies, BHP made a $15.5bn net profit in 2021, while Fortescue Metals Group recorded a $14.3bn result.
Hancock is also undertaking ongoing exploration and evaluation of other mining projects, including undertaking a further 100,000 metres of drilling at its Mulga Downs project in Western Australia during the year, with pre-feasibility studies for the project planned for completion by next June.
The company is also seeking approvals for a metallurgical coking coal project in Alberta, Canada and is also exploring on prospective copper and gold tenements in Ecuador and a joint venture in the Victorian goldfields.
Mrs Rinehart’s wealth is derived from a majority stake in Hancock, which has huge mining, agriculture and investment assets now worth about $29bn on its balance sheet with little borrowings.
The Australian estimated in March that she was now the wealthiest person on The List – Australia’s Richest 250 with a $36.28bn fortune.
