WA’s billionaire Forrest empire in for smaller cheque as iron ore price falls

Andrew and Nicola Forrest will receive their smallest cheque in seven years from iron ore giant Fortescue, as prices for the commodity that made them billionaires continue to fall from dizzying heights. The 22-year-old listed mining giant reported a $US3.4 billion ($5.2b) profit for the 2025 financial year on Tuesday, shedding about $2.3 billion on what the company made last year. The weaker performance was the result of an 18 per cent slump in how much Fortescue received per tonne of iron ore for the year. As a result, the dividend the Forrests are in line for will fall from roughly $2.22 billion in 2024, to $1.24b for 2025. While unlikely to cause any real financial grief for the billionaire empire, it’s a far cry from the approximate $4b paid in 2021. Despite recent setbacks in his mission to power the world on green hydrogen, Mr Forrest told investors the fuel remains “critical to our future.” “Its day is coming,” he said in the group’s annual report, released on Tuesday. “When the cost of producing green hydrogen inevitably reaches parity with fossil fuels, Fortescue will be ready.” Fortescue, like other iron ore majors, has reaped the rewards of a huge period of industrialisation in China that demanded hundreds of millions of tonnes of the steelmaking ingredient from WA. But with steel demand from the Middle Kingdom now slowing, prices for a tonne of iron ore are hovering consistently around $US100 a tonne. In 2021 at its peak, a tonne of iron ore would fetch over $US200/t. Andrew and Nicola Forrest — who have been separated since July 2023 and own about 36.74 per cent of Fortescue through their private business Tattarang Pty Ltd — are unlikely to come into dire straits. An equal split of the Fortescue dividend for the year would still be a tidy $620m each. Per a recent list compiled by Forbes, the Forrest family is worth about $16.1 billion. Though a compilation of Andrew and Nicola’s wealth as individuals by The Australian Financial Review estimates Ms Forrest is worth about $12.83b, compared with Mr Forrest’s $12.68b. Fortescue dug and shipped a record amount of iron ore at 198.4 million tonnes, but the price it received has fallen from $US103.01 to $US84.79. As a result of the weaker performance, the board scaled back yearly shareholder dividends to $1.10 a share, compared with the $1.97 investors received in 2024.