The richest CEO on the ASX

At least and last some (positive) publicity for EWC and Stewart. Apart from what we know (ie. Stewart’s wealth on the basis of his shareholdings in EWC (but not counting his much more considerable wealth b virtue of his owning EWI), the AFR article not only points out that there are numerous examples of CEO’s having such large stakes in the companies they manage, taking small salaries and , over the years, increase shareholder value. In any case, the most critical reference in Stensholt’s article is his reference that, after any years of showing only potential, EWC looks like delivering for its shareholders.

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Meet the richest CEO you've never heard of

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12 Feb 2017

by John Stensholt
Stewart Elliott would have to be the wealthiest chief executive with the lowest public profile on the ASX.
He does not have the $18.2 million pay packet Macquarie Group CEO Nicholas Moore enjoyed in the 2016 financial year, but he does surpass Mr Moore in one respect: the size of his wealth.

Mr Elliott is the CEO and executive chairman of Energy World Corporation, a little-known but increasingly successful company with a range of oil and gas assets dotted around Australia and south-east Asia.

EWC only has market capitalisation of about $680 million, but Mr Elliott holds a stake of about 37 per cent in his company worth about $285 million. Shares in EWC have doubled in the past year and are up 50 per cent since January 1.

Reclusive TPG founder David Teoh is Australia's richest CEO. Daniel Munoz
Mr Elliott's share wealth is considerably more than that of Mr Moore's admittedly still healthy holding in Macquarie, now worth about $179 million.

EWC, which one time counted James Packer's hedge fund Ellerston as a shareholder (Ellerston made a considerable profit on buying and then later exiting the stock almost a decade ago), is lightly traded on the ASX. But after several years of potential, it seems to be finally delivering for its shareholders.

EWC, which has power and gas stations in Indonesia and an LNG plant in the Philippines, delivered a record gross profit of $US111 million in 2016 and a net profit of $US28 million ($36.7 million) and claims to have more than $1 billion assets under construction.

But Mr Elliott is not even among the top 200 highest paid CEOs on the ASX300, taking home a relatively paltry $604,515 pay packet consisting entirely of fixed remuneration.

Kerr Neilson of Platinum Investment is part of the small pay, big wealth club. Patrick Cummins

Small pay, big wealth
He is one of many CEOs with huge paper fortunes but who receive considerably less in salary and bonuses each year in comparison to their peers.

Some are founders or long-term CEOs of relatively small companies like EWC, such as Andrew Hansen of Hansen Technologies, who have big stakes in their companies held over decades.

Mr Hansen, the CEO of the customer care and billing technologies firm established by the late Ken Hansen, has a shareholding worth about $140 million. His take-home pay in 2016 was $1.09 million, including a short-term bonus of $313,420, to place him 176th on the list of highest-paid CEOs.

Ramsay CEO Chris Rex is not a CEO founder but still has a huge stake and paper fortune in Ramsay Healthcare. Daniel Munoz

Another is Corporate Travel Management CEO and founder Jamie Pherous, now a member of the BRW Rich List. Mr Pherous established CTM with just two employees in 2004 and has established a global presence from its Brisbane headquarters.

He still holds almost 22 per cent of CTM stock, having listed the company on the ASX in mid-December 2010 at $1 per share and market capitalisation of only $70 million.

CTM is now worth more than $1.7 billion and its share price has surpassed the $16.00 mark, giving Mr Pherous a stake worth $360 million. But the CTM boss only received a $708,000 salary in 2016.

The CEO with the biggest paper fortune is another founder in TPG Telecom's David Teoh, who has a shareholding worth about $1.8 billion but received a salary package worth $3.3 million in 2016 – making him only the 58th highest-paid CEO in the country.

Billionaire Kerr Neilson, the founder and CEO of Platinum Asset Management, is another of the "small pay, big shareholding" club. His stake is worth $1.6 billion, but his 2016 pay was only $488,700.

One exception to the rich founder rule is Ramsay Health Care CEO Chris Rex. He only joined Ramsay, which was founded by the late billionaire Paul Ramsay, in 2008. Less than a decade later, Mr Rex's stake in Ramsay is now worth $120 million.

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