Controversial miner Frank Timis joins billionaire club on British rich list

Romanian-Australian mining entrepreneur Frank Timis has ridden the resources boom to join Australia’s billionaire club, according to the latest edition of Britain’s Sunday Times Rich List.

The list, released on the weekend, claims Timis has a fortune of £670 million, or just over $1 billion, thanks to the strong performance of his mining interests.

One of his largest investments, in London-listed miner African Minerals, has climbed almost 70% in the last 12 months, thanks in part to surging iron ore prices and interest from Chinese investors in the company’s mining operations in Sierra Leone.

Timis’ stake in that business is worth about $350 million.

News that Timis has become the richest Australian on the Sunday Times Rich List comes just over a year after the Australian Securities Exchange took the unusual step of banning Timis from taking major shareholdings and directorships in two listed companies, Global Iron and International Petroleum.

The ban was later overturned, and both companies went on to list on the National Stock Exchange with Timis as a director.

However, documents lodged when Timis became a director highlight why he has been such as a controversial figure for decades.

Timis was convicted of heroin possession in his 20s, was bankrupted in 1984 and in 2002 he was banned from becoming a director of companies listed on the Toronto exchange.

More recently, he was the chief of Regal Petroleum, which is listed on London’s AIM market and was fined £600,000 after an investigation into a sharp fall in its share price in 2005. Regal’s share price fell after its oilfields were found to be unviable. Timis is no longer on the company’s board.

While Timis has not been listed on the BRW Rich 200 list, his director’s declaration to the National Stock Exchange states he holds dual citizenship in Romania and Australia.

The $650 million rise in Timis’ fortune puts him in front of fellow British-based Australian rich list members Michael Hintze (valued at $837 million) and Greg Coffey ($383 million).

The rich list suggests Britain’s wealthy continue to bounce back impressively from the GFC. Collectively, the 1,000 members of this list saw their fortunes jump 18% to just under $612 billion.

There are now 73 billionaires on the list, up from 53 last year and close to the peak of 75 recorded in 2008, just before the GFC.

Lakshmi Mittal, head of giant Indian group ArcelorMittal, topped the list for the seventh consecutive year, despite his fortune falling 22% to $17.5 billion.