Len Ainsworth’s wealth up $200m, doesn’t notice - 27th June 2014

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Len Ainsworth says he doesn’t sit around watching share prices. ’Why would I? I can’t do anything about them. So I don’t really care.’ Photo: Nic Walker

Billionaire Len Ainsworth laughed when told sharemarket gains made him one of the big winners on the coming BRW Rich 200 list.

Read the full BRW Rich 200, with links to bios of every entrant.

“No, I don’t sit around watching share prices,” the 90-year-old said.

“Why would I? I can’t do anything about them. So I don’t really care.”

Ainsworth’s wealth reached $1.82 billion on the BRW Rich 200 list this year, ­published in the AFR Magazine ?on Friday, enough for him to place 19th, up $200 million from 2013.

Although he chairs poker machine maker Ainsworth Game Technology, a large portion of his family’s wealth is derived from rival Aristocrat Leisure.

A rising Aristocrat share price has increased the family wealth by about $160 million over the past 12 months.

Since January 1, Aristocrat shares have risen about 15 per cent and offset a similar decline in Ainsworth Game Technology stock.

Aristocrat, ironically, was founded by Ainsworth in the 1950s. Yet the billionaire does not hold any direct shares in the company now, a result of a deal he struck with the rest of his family 20 years ago.

After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, Ainsworth handed ­control and ownership of Aristocrat to his seven sons, Geoff, Stephen, Mark, Paul, Simon, Kjerulf and Christian, his wife Gretel and ex-wife Betty.

Family stake remains intact

In a move designed to keep the family stake intact, a condition of the deal was that if they sold their shareholding in his lifetime they would have to pay him a chunk of the proceeds.

Despite a notable court case involving Kjerulf, the family stake in Aristocrat remains intact and is worth close to half of the Ainsworth fortune.

“They’re doing all right and trying to pick up the American market, which you can’t go too wrong with,” Ainsworth said.

“It’s what we are trying to do [at ­Ainsworth Game Technology], too.”

He is one of several on the Rich List to increase their wealth this year due to surging share prices.

Andrew and Paul Bassat’s combined wealth increased about $150 million to $465 million thanks to share gains in SEEK, the online job search company the brothers co-founded.

The value of John and Robert Kirby’s stake in Village Roadshow increased close to $100 million in a year, enough to boost their wealth to $590 million.

Stockmarket vagaries also mean some Rich Listers have lost money.

Wotif.com’s Wood loses place

In the case of Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood, sliding share prices mean his wealth fell enough to knock him off the list this year.

Wood debuted on the Rich List in 2007 with $251 million. The value of his Wotif stake has halved over the past 12 months to about $105 million.

In that time, though, Wood has continued his donation of Wotif shares to the University of Queensland Endowment Fund and sold off some of his stake on the market. His latest substantial shareholder notice lodged to the ASX in November showed he had given 4.3 million shares to UoQ since his previous notice in June 2011.

It also revealed Wood had sold more than $18 million of shares in two transactions, about $10 million in December 2012 and $8.9 million in October 2013.

Other notable stockmarket losers include Peter Bond, the managing director of Linc Resources – whose shares have fallen enough to cut $170 million from his wealth this year – and Silviu Itescu of Mesoblast. After a stellar run in recent years, a falling share price cut his wealth by 10 per cent after reaching $400 million on last year’s list.

The BRW Rich 200 is out on Friday, June 27, inside AFR Magazine, and online at BRW.com.au.

(BRW)