Tony Sage - Biography

Biography

Born in Gloucester, England, on 26 June 1960, Sage, as a child, regularly travelled between England and his mother's home town of Salerno in Italy. His family moved to Australia in 1967 and resided first in Adelaide, then Melbourne and Sydney before transferring to New Zealand in 1975. In 1978 he returned to Australia, enrolling at Churchlands College (now part of Edith Cowan University) in Perth where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business (Accounting and Finance) in 1980. He later became a Fellow of the Society of Certified Practising Accountants, a Chartered Accountant, and a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia. He has three children Jessica, Emily and Matthew.

Sage acted as a funds manager for the property trust group Growth Equities Mutual Limited based in Western Australia. From the late-1990s, he financed and managed a range of listed mining and exploration companies including Cape Lambert Resources, African Petroleum, Cauldron Energy, Gabriel Resources, International Petroleum, International Goldfields, Fe Limited, Kupang Resources, Glory Resources and successfully floated African Iron which he subsequently sold to Exarro for approximately $400m.

In 2008, Sage sold the Cape Lambert iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for A$400 million to Chinese firm, China Metallurgical Group Corporation. The project had been purchased two years earlier for approximately A$20 million and during the 24 months that followed, Cape Lambert Iron Ore Ltd spent approximately A$50 million on exploration activities.

He was a founder of radio network Red FM, which was later sold to WA Newspapers Limited for a considerable profit, and is also a former owner of the West Perth nightclub, Onyx Bar, which opened in 2005. In June 2008, Sage purchased a 49 per cent stake in the Perth Fashion Festival. Sage is also the publisher of the very successful KURV magazine.

Sage became sole owner of the Perth Glory soccer team after completing a buy-out of partner Mr Brett McKeon in February 2008.

In 2012 he and Benny Elias were reported to be investigating the formation of a Perth team in the National Rugby League competition, in a similar setup to that of Newcastle mining entrepreneur Nathan Tinkler. However, NRL authorities later ruled out inclusion of any new teams until at least 2017.