The big end of town is getting bigger

Australia’s private companies are getting bigger as concentration at the top end grows.

The BRW list of top 500 private companies shows that the number of $1 billion companies increased from 27 last year to 32.

The leading 57 companies accounted for half the revenue while last year it took 75 companies to tally up to 50%. Many companies is also exited the list because they had been acquired by large companies, many of them on the list.

It has been another boom year for the insurance industry which includes stellar performing superannuation funds that dominate BRW’s list of top 500 private companies this year.

Head of the list is Australian Super followed by UniSuper, Sunsuper and REST. The insurance industry was up 28% to $64 billion followed by property and business services up 33% to $15.2 billion. The number of $1 billion companies increased from 27 last year to 32 and overall revenue was up 14.5% to $190 billion. This is almost double the 7.8% growth in revenue of the nation as a whole.

High profile new arrival on the list is Therese Rein’s employment services firm, debuting at 262 with revenue of $175 million. Second high profile debutant is the family company of Robert Gerard, a new investment vehicle which has stakes in electrical and lighting companies, Lighting Corporation, Pierlie and Mistral.

The cut off for the list is $71.1 million revenue.