Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart has lost her bragging rights and her title as Australia’s richest person.
The 61-year-old chair of Hancock Prospecting, worth US$8.5b, was knocked off the top of Forbes rich list by another woman, 65-year-old Blair Parry-Okenden, who is worth US$8.8b.
Ms Parry-Okeden is an American heiress who grew up in Hawaii and lives in near-seclusion in a rural village in Scone. Her fortune was built after her mother’s death in 2007, when she inherited a quarter of American media conglomerate Cox Enterprises. The company was started by her grandfather, twice governor of Ohio and failed U.S. Democratic presidential candidate in 1920, and is managed by her brother.
According to Forbes, Rinehart’s fortune plummeted by several billion in the past year, the most of any Aussie.
“The majority of that drop was due to the fact that she resigned as executor of a trust that held a 23.45% in the Perth family firm Hancock Prospecting, after a protracted legal dispute over its control. Now that money is counted as solely belong to her four children, two of whom are continuing with a legal challenge over disputed royalty payments during her time as trustee,” Forbes said.
“Falling iron ore prices also took a toll, continuing to batter a fortune that is down over $9 billion in two years.”
Here are the top 10 richest Australians:
1. Blair Parry-Okeden, $US8.8 billion
2. Gina Rinehart, $US8.5 billion
3. Harry Triguboff, $US6.9 billion
4. Frank Lowy, $US5 billion
5. Anthony Pratt, $US3.6 billion
6. James Packer, $US3.5 billion
7. John Gandel, $US3.2 billion
8. Lindsay Fox, $US2.8 billion
9. David Teoh, $US1.95 billion
10. David Hains, $US1.9 billion
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