🗞️ Billionaires

Good morning. The wealth of Australia’s billionaires grew by almost $50,000 a minute last year.

Gina Rinehart topped the list for the 7th year in a row. The mining colossus’ fortune grew an estimated 2% over the past year to $39B.

$39B.... let that sink in.

All the headlines and more below...

KMART IS OPENING A 3,800 SQM FURNITURE STORE TO GO AFTER IKEA'S MARKET SHARE

Wesfarmers is launching K Home, a standalone Anko-branded homeware store in Melbourne's eastern suburbs this month. It's designed around room-set displays and curated collections, closer to an IKEA showroom than a discount shop floor. The store will stock the complete Anko range plus furniture and storage items previously only sold online.

Anko's advantage is supply chain control. It has roughly 1,000 people in Asia handling design, manufacturing engagement and raw material sourcing. That's made it hard for competitors to match on price. Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott told investors in May that wealthier customers were increasingly buying Anko products. Furniture sales in particular were growing strongly.

Kmart's managing director wants to double the retailer's sales to $20B within a decade. This trial tests whether Australian shoppers will cross-shop IKEA for furniture if the price is right and the store looks similar enough.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Corporate leaders are increasingly treating AI as a scarce resource as complex agentic models drive exponential token usage and soaring costs without guaranteed productivity gains. LINK

• The Fair Work Commission has awarded a 4.75% pay rise for almost 3M award workers and a 6% boost for 100,000 minimum wage earners as economists warn of inflation risks. LINK

• Australia posted its first trade deficit since 2017 as surging data centre equipment and fuel imports, weaker mining exports and higher oil prices pushed the current account deficit to $27.1B. LINK

• Oxfam has found Australia now has a record 178 billionaires with total wealth of $686B, as the 20 richest hold more than the bottom 3M households. LINK

• Australian enterprises are rapidly adopting AI but only 30% are deeply transforming their business, as La Trobe University partners with industry to produce AI-ready graduates. LINK

OPTUS IS NOW AUSTRALIA'S MOST DISTRUSTED BRAND, BEATING FACEBOOK AND TEMU

Optus topped Roy Morgan's quarterly distrust rankings, ahead of Facebook/Meta, Temu, Woolworths and Coles. Telcos remain the most distrusted industry overall, followed by social media platforms and mining.

The two supermarkets had started to recover before the Federal Court ruled Coles deliberately misled customers. That ruling wipes out the progress. At the other end, Bunnings held top spot for trust, followed by Aldi, Kmart, Commonwealth Bank, Apple and Big W. Myer climbed one place to seventh.

The timing couldn't be worse for Optus. It launched a multi-million-dollar trust campaign last month with full-page ads signed by CEO Stephen Rue admitting the fatal outage "should never have happened."

COMPANY NEWS

• Anthropic has confidentially filed for a US IPO as investor appetite for artificial intelligence faces a major test after it last raised $65B at a $965B valuation. LINK

• The Victorian government is reviewing KPMG contracts worth $24M directly and $195M via consortia to check for data misuse as federal authorities review whistleblowing laws. LINK

• The NRL has begun negotiations for a 5-year, $4B broadcast rights deal from 2028 as Foxtel, Nine, Amazon Prime Video and Southern Cross Media submit competing bids. LINK

• CBA has appointed a new creative agency to work with its in-house team on evolving brand strategy and customer connections as it ends a 14-year partnership with M+C Saatchi. LINK

• Wesfarmers is transferring its Blackwoods and Workwear industrial and safety business into Bunnings from 1 July to boost SME growth and efficiencies, with contributions recognised from H1 2027. LINK

• SRG Global has secured $1.85B of multi-sector contracts and lifted FY26 EBITDA guidance to $168M while initiating above-consensus FY27 guidance of $190M to $200M. LINK

• CBA CEO Matt Comyn has warned that AI costs will rise unpredictably as companies scale complex use cases. LINK

• Collins Foods has completed the acquisition of 8 KFC restaurants in Bavaria, increasing its German network by about 50% and adding higher-margin stores from 1 June. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

Eating meat is the norm everywhere

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: A third patient got a Neuralink brain implant. The work is part of a booming field.

Draft Pick: Serena Williams announces return to professional tennis with Queen's Club doubles wildcard.

Doctor’s Pick: Smoke engulfed their cities. Did it make their children sick?

TRIVIA

How much did this 1,470 square metre house in Broadbeach, QLD sell for?

The property has 5 bedrooms, 4 garages and 5 bathrooms.

Answer below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWER

$9 million

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