Crikey

The 2007 BRW Rich List is due out next week and it will show that Australia has never seen so much wealth created in a single year.

Having debuted last year at $443 million, Platinum founder Kerr Neilson will leap straight into the top five with a net worth of about $3.5 billion  — the largest single gain by anyone in the history of the magazine. The headline on his entry should be “We’ve never been so wrong”.

Then again, we first named Neilson as a BRW omission in 2005, but claimed he was only worth $300 million.

BRW limits itself to the top 200 individuals and 50 families and we’re likely to find that the cut-off for such a list will soon hit $200 million, well up from last year’s $130 million.

We continue to help BRW in its research by maintaining the Crikey Revised Wealth (CRW) list of people that the Fairfax journalists have missed.

BRW’s bizarre refusal to include anyone from Macquarie Bank will surely end this year. The CRW already includes six from the Millionaire Factory  — Allan Moss, David Clarke, Richard Sheppard, Nicholas Moore, Mark Johnson and Bill Moss  — and today’s new batch includes a seventh, Michael Carapiet.

Keep the suggestions coming into smayne@crikey.com.au as we count down for the first BRW Rich List since the struggling magazine moved from Melbourne to Sydney and lost many of its staff.

Five more names for the Crikey Revised Wealth list

Andrew Abercrombie: the founder and controlling shareholder of the recently listed financial provider Flexigroup controls a stake worth $177 million.

Chris Norman: one of the founders of Perth-based ship builder Austal who is still a non-executive director and retains 26.6 million shares that are now worth $95 million after a recent surge.

Graham Rowley: former Rio Tinto executive,  now operations director of Fortescue Metals and owner of  2.15 million shares worth $72.5 million based on last night’s close of $33.75.

Kim Robinson: executive chairman of the $1.5 billion Kagara Zinc whose 16.78 million shares are now worth $117.5 million after a recent surge.

Michael Carapiet: Macquarie Bank’s joint head of investment banking who pocketed $23 million last year and $16 million in 2005. Also owns 525,934 shares worth $49 million and has a further 356,838 options which are well in the money.