The founder and chief executive of drug therapy company Mesoblast has seen the value of his stake in the company leap from $72.4 million to $460 million in just one year, helping him climb to 12th place on BRW’s latest Executive Rich list.
The list, which ranks Australia’s richest managers and directors involved in the day-to-day running of top 500 companies is dominated by miners and led by Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest. The value of his stake in the company jumped from $4.79 billion to $6.23 billion following a surge in iron ore prices.
A group of familiar faces rounds out the top five. News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch is ranked second with a paper fortune of $5.68 billion, followed by James Packer with $3.6 billion from Crown and Consolidated Media, Seven Group Holdings chief Kerry Stokes with $1.8 billion and Westfield’s Frank Lowy $1.75 billion.
But is the phenomenal rise of Itescu to 12th place on the list that deserves to capture the most attention.
A distinguished scientist, Itescu listed Mesoblast on the ASX in December 2004. The company’s products are aimed at helping treat diseases including heart disease, diabetes and cancers.
The last 12 months have seen the company’s share prices leap from $1.90 to $7 after a string of successes, including news in December 2010 that a US drug company called Cephalon would buy a 19.9% stake in the business for $220 million to gain access to the company’s products. Cephalon made an upfront royalty payment of $130 million and could make payments of $1.7 billion after certain milestones are achieved.
The list also contains a number of members of the franchise sector, including Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij with $18.2 million worth of shares, Retail Food Group executive director Nigel Nixon with a stake valued at $16 million and Ivan Hammerschlag, the executive chairman of Athlete’s Foot owner RCG Corporation. He owns $12.9 million of shares.
Another name well known to SmartCompany readers is M2 Communications boss Vaughn Bowen. The value of his stake in the business has leapt from $18.1 million to $38.5 million in the last 12 months.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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