Gina Rinehart - Personal Wealth

Personal Wealth

Rinehart first appeared on the 1992 BRW Rich 200 list, published annually in the Business Review Weekly (BRW), following the death of her father earlier that year. She has appeared every year since, and became a billionaire in 2006. Due to Australia's mining boom in the early 21st century, Rinehart's wealth has increased significantly since 2010, and she has diversified investments into media, taking holdings in Ten Network Holdings and Fairfax Media. According to BRW, she became Australia's richest woman in 2010, and Australia's richest person in 2011, and the first woman to lead the list. In 2012, Rinehart became the world's richest woman, surpassing Wal-Mart owner Christy Walton. BRW estimates her wealth at A$29.17 billion, with Ivan Glasenberg being her closest rival, with net wealth estimated at A$7.4 billion. BRW stated that it was now possible Rinehart would become the first person with a net wealth of US$100 billion.

In 2007, she first appeared on Forbes Asia Australia's 40 Richest, with an estimated wealth of US$1 billion; more than doubling that the next year to US$2.4 billion; and then, in spite of the global financial crisis, by 2011 had more than trebled to US$9 billion; and doubled again in 2012 to US$18 billion. Releasing the results in February 2011, Forbes was the first to name her as Australia's richest person; with BRW conferring the same title in May that year.

In June 2011, Citigroup estimated that she was on course to overtake Carlos Slim, the Mexican magnate worth £46 billion (US$74 billion) and Bill Gates, who is worth £35 billion (US$56 billion), mainly because she owns her companies outright. Using a price-to-earnings ratio of 11:1 that applied at that time to her business partner, Rio Tinto, the Australian internet business news service, SmartCompany, stated: "It is possible to see Rinehart's portfolio of coal and iron ore production spinning off annual profits approaching US$10 billion", giving her a "personal net worth valuation of more than US$100 billion". In January 2012, there were further media reports that Rinehart's estimated wealth has increased to A$20 billion following estimates that the Roy Hill project was notionally valued at A$10 billion. Forbes magazine listed her wealth in 2012 as US$18 billion.

As of December 2012, According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index Rinehart is the 37th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of 18.6 billion.