It’s that time of the year again when the Australian Financial Review releases its ranking of the country’s two hundred wealthiest individuals and families.
Gina Rinehart continues to top the list for a fourth year in a row, while ten spots of the list are taken up by Australians of Greek heritage.
The founder of Fortescue Metals Group Andrew Forrest, is the runner-up with a personal net worth estimated at $33.29b falling a few billions behind Rinehart’s $37.41b, and Anthony Pratt & family close the top 3 with an estimated $24.30b.
Scrolling down the list the first Greek name one comes across is that of Nick Politis at no. 58. whose wealth is estimated to have dropped to $2.14b since last year.
Politis is the majority shareholder in Eager Automotives, which runs 200 dealerships in Australia and a part-owner of the Brisbane Broncos.
Tripoli-born Nick Andrianakos and family follow with an accumulated wealth of $1.49b.
Starting from humble beginnings managing a single service station in the ’70s, Andrianakos’ entrepreneurial spirit led him to acquiring over 50 petrol stations within a decade. And he didn’t look back since.
The Andrianakos family became increasingly active in the real estate market over the years, most recently acquiring 50 per cent of Adelaide’s Colonnades shopping centre.
At no. 105 in the list is Dennis Bastas, with the AFR introducing him as the pharmaceutical tycoon “you don’t know […] but you’ve probably taken his drugs”. His company manufactures about a third of all medicines falling under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and his personal wealth is estimated at $1.32b.
Bastas is closely followed by real estate mogul Con Makris and family as well as ”lords of the pearls’ Nicholas Paspaley and family, with the estimated wealth for both billionaire clans standing at $1.32b.
The founder of Consolidated Travel, Spyros Alysandratos is ranked 142 with an estimated fortune just shy of a billion ($995m). A migrant from the island of Kefalonia, Alysandratos became motivated to build his wholesale airline ticketing empire after been given the run-around by travel agents as he was trying to book a flight to Greece.
Retail entrepreneur and property investor Theo Karedis has an estimated net worth of $972m placing him at no.145. and is followed by son of the Hellenic Museum founder, Harry Stamoulis and family ranked at no. 152 with an estimated fortune of $935m.
Coming in at 179 is software and IT entrepreneur George Koukis who started working at Qantas as a newly arrived migrant from Greece in the early ’70s and “when nobody else volunteered, computerised the airline’s managed accounting system.” Property is listed as the source of his fortune worth $771m.
Last but not least in the rich Greek cohort (from our understanding) is the founder of Jubilee Mines Kerry Harmanis, ranked at 181 out of Australia’s 200 richest, with a $763m net worth.
