200 Wealthiest Persons in Australia - including Kytherians and other Greek Australians

BRW Richest 200, Cover, 19th May 2004.

Every year the Business Review Weekly (BRW) magazine publishes a list the 200 wealthiest men and women in Australia.

See,

http://www.brw.com.au

Appraisals of the "200" issue of BRW range from "absolutely essential reading", to, "downright tacky".
However, it is invariably the best selling BRW of the year.

A good short summary of this years list appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Packer still the richest
May 19, 2004

Kerry Packer remains the richest man in Australia, making an extra billion dollars over the past year to boost his fortune to $6.5 billion.

The 66-year-old media magnate has again topped BRW Magazine's rich 200 list, followed by Westfield boss Frank Lowy and paper manufacturer Richard Pratt tying for number two place with $4.2 billion.

Mr Packer - whose media empire includes the Nine Network, ACP magazines and Melbourne's Crown Casino - has increased his fortune by more than $2.7 million a day since last year.

Overall, the richest Australians have increased their combined wealth by more than ever before, worth an extra $8.3 billion, or 13 per cent to $71.5 billion.

That's the biggest total in the 22 years of the BRW list.

There were two more billionaires this year - Perth investor Stan Perron and construction boss John Roberts - making 11 billionaires in total for Australia.

Retailer Gerry Harvey's fortune is back over the billion-dollar mark after dropping below it last year.

The highest debut to the 200 list was 64 year-old property developer Maha Sinnathamby.

He bought a new suburb in Brisbane called Springfield in 1992 for $7.9 million when it was just wasteland, and has been developing it into a planned community.

Mr Sinnathamby is now worth about $322 million.

Another debut was John Ilhan, known for his Crazy Johns mobile phone business, with a fortune of $300 million.

At just 39, Mr Ilhan is much younger than the 62-years average age of people on the list.

Although not quite making $1 billion in one year, Greg Poche's wealth shot up from $98 million to $700 million after he sold his Star Track Express transport company to Qantas and Australia Post last year.

Only 13 of the 200 people on the list are women.

The richest woman in her own right remains iron ore heiress Gina Rinehart, who owns $400 million.


The full 2004 list for both individuals and families is:


"Many of those on the Rich 200 are living far from their birthplace. Of the 200, 66 were born outside Australia, nine in Poland. There are six members each from Britain, South Africa and Greece. Four were born in China."

Of the Greeks - at least two are Kytherians:

99: THEO KAREDIS

140: NICK POLITIS

Clearly both are extremely high economic achievers, and will inevitably feature in the High Achievers section at kythera-island.net, in the near future.