The surging share price of technology company Codan Ltd (ASX: CDA) has propelled the wealth of Adelaide woman Pamela Wall past $1 billion, making her the nation's newest technology billionaire.
As first reported in The Australian's Richest 250 list, Ms Wall's wealth has recently ticked over $1 billion, given she owns 34.8 million shares in the company, which makes metal detectors and a range of high-tech communications devices.
The Codan share price is currently $30.22, trading near the 12-month high of $31.66 and up more than 100% for the year.
And shareholders who've held the stock for more than two years are sitting on even bigger gains. The stock changed hands for just $4.03 at the start of 2023, a more than 700% gain over the period.
Ms Wall is the widow of Codan co-founder Ian Wall, who set up the Adelaide company in 1959 with two friends, Jim Bettison and Alastair Wood.
The company listed on the ASX on November 27 2003, and is now worth $5.4 billion.
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Diversification to drive growth
Codan initially focused on communications technology products, supplying many military operations worldwide. In 2008, it bought metal detector developer and manufacturer Minelab.
In the past financial year, Codan reported revenues of $674.2 million across the group, up 22%, and a net profit of $103.5 million, up 26%.
The company also paid fully-franked dividends of 28.5 cents per share.
When gold shines, so does Codan
Codan's fortunes are often linked to the gold price, which has surged over the past year.
This is because demand for its Minelab metal detectors tends to be correlated with the demand for gold.
In its annual report released recently, the company said its Minelab Africa division had a strong year with revenues up 64%, "supported by the increasing gold price".
The company said it was also investing heavily in research and development.
A key pillar of our strategy is our ongoing capital allocation to invest in product development roadmaps, innovating and improvising existing products and bringing new products to market. Minelab has four new detectors scheduled for release during FY26, which will have a positive impact on FY26 revenues although the full year benefit of these releases will not be seen until FY27.
Codan had net debt of just $78.3 million at the end of FY25, for a debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.4.
