More than 350 million is what you have to have in Spain to be considered super rich. Or at least, that is what Daniel and Nieves Entrecanales own, two of the brothers of the well-known family that controls most of the Acciona company and who close the Forbes List of the hundred richest people in Spain in 2024.
It is increasingly difficult to enter this select club, since this year alone the combined assets of the fortunes that are part of it have risen by 27.7%, reaching 250.4 billion euros. These are heart-stopping numbers. Starting in 47th place, everyone has more than one billion eurosand at the top is Amancio Ortega, founder and majority shareholder of Inditex, with 120.2 billion, almost the same as the other 99 characters combined.
To contextualize these numbers, it is necessary to explain how Forbes magazine compiles this list. It is not an easy thing because «The Spanish business community is not distinguished by its transparency when it comes to exposing their real wealth to society,” according to their website.
First of all, it must be clarified that Forbes researchers don’t look at checking accounts, personal assets, or anything like thatmainly because these are components that are difficult to trace. Exactly, and as explained in a 2017 article, “investments in tax havens, personal assets, checking accounts, deposits and shares in investment funds, future pension plans or shares in securities accounts” are excluded, as well as real estate not grouped into companies, jewelry, works of art, collectibles or money deposited in foundations.
In most cases, Forbes ‘discovers’ the super-rich based on the analysis of the value of the main Spanish companies. Logically, this is easier to do with those that are listed than with those that are not. But even in the case of the former it is a difficult task, since some shareholders “hide their identity,” the magazine explained, through legal mechanisms such as SICAVs, which, as is known, are a type of investment funds. that are dedicated to investing the assets of their shareholders.
Logically everything is complicated with unlisted companies“which are controlled by families through a web of patrimonial companies,” they explain in the magazine. In these cases, the analysis of the individual and/or consolidated accounts of each of the groups is doubly important, as well as the movements in the holding companies.
#money #Forbes #list #richest #Spain
