The share market bubble has delivered yet another record high in morning trade which is delivering untold riches to super funds, private investors and Rich Listers alike.
I’ve got a policy of buying $500 worth of shares in anything that is vaguely interesting and then selling half if they double to $1000.
Over the past two years, the following companies have qualified on this score:
Allco Finance, BHP Billiton, Caltex, CSR, Cudeco, Fortescue Metals, Incitec Pivot, Jubilee Mines, Just Group, Macquarie Bank, Minara Resources, Palladin Resources, Reece Australia, Seek.com, Tassal Group, Wattyl, Zinifex.
This morning’s new entrant was plumbing supplies group Reece Australia, which rose $3 to a record $25 yesterday.
This is a great story in itself because it means the controlling Wilson family, Australia’s lowest profile billionaires, last night held a stake worth a whopping $1.9 billion.
You can’t complain about the doubling in the Reece share price, but the board is the most entrenched in Australia. Try this for a line-up:
Alan Wilson, 65, executive chairman since 2001, CEO since 1974 and a director since 1969
Bruce Wilson, 60, director since 1970 and secretary from 1974 until retirement from executive duties in 1999
John Wilson, 68, non-executive director since 1974
Peter Wilson, 38, executive director since 1997 and now general manager operations
Ronald Pitcher, 67, director since 2003 and now chairman of the audit committee, keeping his old firm Pitcher Partners on their toes as auditor
That’s an average of 21 years, with the longest-serving executive director at 37 years and the longest-serving non-executive director at 36 years. However, when you consider the wealth they’re sitting on it’s a great story if anyone can get them to talk.
Others stocks that are getting close to the $1000 mark include: Aristocrat Leisure, Becton, David Jones, emitch, ERA, Harvey Norman, Macquarie Goodman, Nexus Energy, Qantas, Regional Express, Sunland.
The wealth effect on the overall economy from all this cannot be understated. The booming sharemarket is clearly sustaining the property despite recent interest rate rises, such that the Reserve Bank is now leaning towards another hike.
Even Malcolm Turnbull is getting seriously richer from his two biggest stockmarket exposures, Melbourne IT and Magellan Financial, which have both rocketed since the aspiring PM did deals which relinquished family control of Webcentral and the old Pengana Capital.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.