Perron’s controlling interest

Stan Perron is one of the state's most successful entrepreneurs, having created an empire of immense proportions fuelled initially by his Toyota franchise and then iron ore royalties, and more recently by significant property assets and equities.

Last financial year, Mr Perron's flagship company Perron Investments Pty Ltd made a profit of around $250 million on net assets valued in the books at $1.15 billion.

That asset base has doubled in just four years, driven by a property and minerals boom, with the expectation that it will have grown again this year by a considerable margin.

The Perron empire controls significant amounts of retail shopping space as well as half of Central Park in Perth's central business district, part of almost $2.5 billion in total assets.

But according to Mr Perron, he doesn't really own anything.

As he told a group of entrepreneurs brought together by Ernst & Young for its Entrepreneur of the Year voting earlier this year, the Perron Group empire is housed in an entity with membership rather than shareholders, designed to operate in perpetuity.

"The company doesn't have any shareholders, so there is nothing they can sell," Mr Perron said.

The Perron entity, which has a board of directors, provides a distribution to Mr Perron and his family each year.

Family members can seek more money than what is allotted to them.

"It makes so much I can't spend it no matter how much I try," Mr Perron said, outlining a problem most people would like to have.

Mr Perron's money is not just there for the family.

He said he sometimes invested in proposals from budding entrepreneurs who regularly knock on his door seeking backing.

He said in the past 10 years he'd supported a handful of promising businesspeople who had succeeded.

"At least six people in the past 10 years have come seeking money; they are all millionaires," Mr Perron said, outlining the arrangement in which his company takes about 80 per cent of the equity.

In one example, an entrepreneur made $5 million, while Perron Group earned about $25 million from the project.

It would be wrong, however, to think that the Perron group has just been established as an indulgence to its founder and his family.

Instead, Mr Perron has also created a charity that shares in what the group does, receiving a payout matching whatever distribution the family gets - something of an insurance policy against future greed.

"Whatever we take out of the company, the same amount goes into the charitable trust," said Mr Perron who believes the structure will "go on forever".

"I think it's a beautiful set-up, but I am open to criticism."