GINA Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting mining giant has delivered the second largest financial result in its history, producing a bumper $5.8bn net profit. The company’s 2022 result, contained in accounts for Hancock lodged with the corporate regulator on Wednesday, included big profits for Mrs Rinehart’s mining operations and investments such as a stake in rural holding Australian Outback Beef.
Gina Rinehart has crashed the agreed buyout of Warrego Energy — launching a $280 million counter offer that could flush out more suitors for the Perth Basin gas play. Hancock said it saw Warrego as “complementary and a strategic fit”. It also suggested it was open to further consolidation in the region if successful, citing the opportunity to “collaborate with parties including existing Warrego joint venture partners and others with interests in Warrego’s areas of operation”.
Warrego Energy is now the centre of a three-way takeover tussle, with Gina Rinehart launching a $280 million counter offer after failed talks with the target’s board. Hancock’s takeover papers lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange revealed the group had been in confidential takeover talks with Warrego but those talks had “now ceased”.
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has emerged as a third bidder for takeover target Warrego Energy, with the West Australian gas developer already fielding bids from Strike Energy and Beach Energy. Hancock Energy director Stuart Johnston described the offer as “attractive and compelling for Warrego shareholders, including in light of recent proposals they have received”. A bidder’s statement has been lodged with the securities regulator and Mr Johnson encouraged Warrego shareholders “to accept the offer at their earliest opportunity”.
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting says billions of dollars in future royalty and tax revenue for the WA economy would be in jeopardy if multi-employer bargaining codes are forced onto the mining sector. Hancock Prospecting chief executive Garry Korte said a six-week period of strike action at Port Hedland would cost $9 billion in lost iron ore export revenue and an estimated $551m in lost mining royalties to the WA Government. “If the Bill were to pass in its current form it would open the door to a confrontational industrial relations system that could cripple our industry and result in poorer wage outcomes for our workers,” he said.
Sailing out across the turquoise waters of Port Hedland harbor aboard the Anangel Explorer, a vessel laden with the first shipment of iron ore from the US$10 billion Roy Hill Mine, is a moment that stands out of many milestones for mining magnate Gina Rinehart, the Executive Chair of Hancock Prospecting.
