The Amancio Ortega of other countries: from the richest woman in Portugal to the nickel man of Russia

Few people are better known in Spain than Amancio Ortega. The founder of the textile giant Inditex and the richest man in the country has amassed a fortune that, currently, according to Bloomberg data, stands at 86,000 million dollars (79,600 million euros), which places him as the fifteenth richest rich of the world. On the list of billionaires, other names appear that, although they are not very famous in Spain, could well be classified as the particular Amancio Ortega of their countries. Altogether, the fortune of the ten potentates that make up this selection amounts to 347,000 million dollars, four times that of the founder of Inditex.

India: Mukesh Ambani

The richest man on this list and in India holds the 11th position in the world ranking with his assets of 106.3 billion dollars. Most of this money comes from the 42% he owns of the total shares of Reliance Industries. This business conglomerate dedicated mainly to petrochemicals has the largest refinery on the planet and is valued at $230 billion, making the company one of the largest listed companies in the world.

Ambani does not drink alcohol or eat meat, he is a Bollywood fan and has special protection from the Indian Government after receiving threats. His father, Dhiubhai Ambani, was the founder of Reliance Industries. When he died of a heart attack in 2002, he did not leave a will, which sparked a conflict between Ambani and his brother that was sealed by dividing the company with the mediation of his mother. In his residence in Bombay, Antilia, a 27-story tower with 600 servants that was initially valued at 400 million dollars, live his wife, his three children and the architect of peace in the business empire: his mother.

China: Zhong Shanshan

Nicknamed lone wolf for his business style, Zhong Shanshan is the richest person in China and the 22nd in the world. Less known than other tycoons of the Asian giant, such as Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, Shanshan has 61.5 billion dollars, compared to Ma's 29.9 billion. He drinks his wealth from bottled water. He owns 84% ​​of Nongfu Spring, a listed company dedicated to this business that capitalizes almost $61 billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in addition to 73% of Beijing Wantai Pharmacy, a manufacturer of vaccines and hepatitis tests.

Born in Hangzhou in 1954, Shanshan failed his university entrance exams twice. The third time was the charm and he entered the Open University of China. A journalist by profession for five years in the early 1980s, he left his job to venture into the bottled water sector. Already in 1996 he founded Nongfu Spring, his passport to the list of billionaires. Showing off his journalistic background, and as a description of what drove him, he once wrote that “money alone is not enough. My goal is much higher.”

Germany: Klaus-Michael Kuehne

As globalization intensified, so did the rate at which Klaus-Michael Kuehne's wealth increased. For those familiar with logistics or Germany, his last name is well known, not in vain the company he lends it to is one of the main shipping companies on the planet and his family is the richest in Germany. Beyond 53% of Kuehne Nagel, a company that in 2023 brought in 25,752 million euros with a profit of 1,470 million, he also has 30% of Hapag-Lloyd, another world-renowned shipping company.

Klaus's grandfather, August Kuehne, founded the firm in 1890 with his partner Friedrich Nagel. In 1966, after eight years learning the family business, Klaus was named CEO, beginning a stage that was characterized by diversifying the business beyond the traditional maritime branch. Currently, in addition to being the largest shareholder, he is honorary president of the listed company. According to Bloomberg, his mansion in Switzerland is shaped like the command deck of an ocean liner, he bought rights to seven Hamburg soccer players and in 2013 opened the Castell Son Claret, a luxury hotel on the island of Mallorca.

Italy: Giovanni Ferrero

Not the Prancing Horse, not Gucci. In the country of Ferraris and haute couture, the title of richest person falls to a man dedicated to a much sweeter business than those previously mentioned: Giovanni Ferrero. The company behind Nutella, Kinder eggs and Ferrero Rocher chocolates, three brands that need no introduction, provides Giovanni with a wealth of $34.8 billion, making him the 41st largest billionaire in the world. In 2022, Ferrero International was selling its products in 170 countries around the world, obtaining 14.3 billion euros in revenue.

As in other cases on this list, Giovanni's fortune has its roots in the inheritance left to him by his ancestors. His paternal grandparents opened a modest cake shop in Alba during the Second World War, his great-uncle created an Italian distribution network and his father, Michele Ferrero, undertook the international assault on the Ferrero house. In 1997, Michele handed over control of the company to Giovanni and his brother Pietro. The two shared the leadership until 2011, when Pietro lost his life in a cycling accident in South Africa. Since 2015, the year his father died, Giovanni has been the richest man in Italy.

Russia: Vladimir Potanin

Officially, Vladimir Potanin is the largest fortune in Russia. This clarification is necessary due to the dubious wealth of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Also officially, as he detailed in January in order to run for election, Putin has a 77 square meter apartment in Saint Petersburg and just over half a million euros. His megayacht confiscated in Italy and the palace on the shores of the Black Sea that, according to the opposition Alexei Navalny, he owns say otherwise. Still, according to Bloomberg, Potanin has $31.7 billion, more than any Russian in the ranking.

The official tycoon, Potanin, holds the presidency and 37% of Norilsk Nickel, a company that is the largest producer of nickel and palladium on the entire planet. According to the company itself, it produces 43% of all palladium, 17% of all nickel and 12% of all platinum. Potanin studied in Turkey, is a big fan of ice hockey and chess and has pledged to donate most of his wealth to charity. After having worked in the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the Soviet Union for eight years, when the collapse came, he together with Mikhail Prokhorov founded Onexim Bank, which became the largest private bank at that time. In exchange for lending money to the needy Russian government at the time, he got stakes in natural resource companies.

Nigeria: Aliko Dangote

With $22 billion under his belt, Nigerian Aliko Dangote is the wealthiest man in all of Africa and the 81st in the world. His grandfather was already rich thanks to the kola nut business, but Dangote founded his own business originally dedicated to the sale and purchase of cement, which took him to heights never before seen on the African continent. First came the cement; then, food; then, oil, automobiles and even education. Thus his conglomerate, Dangote Group, became a vast and diversified business empire. Recently, his most colossal project to date, a refinery with the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of oil a day, was launched with the aim of “changing the history of Nigeria.”

A priori, Dangote was dedicated to the import and sale of foreign products. Still living in Nigeria, he spends about half the year traveling around the world. During one of his getaways to Brazil, he had the idea that crowned him definitively. He stopped importing and selling to start manufacturing products in the area in order to cover the basic needs of the Nigerian population. A firm believer in the self-sufficiency of a country as a path to prosperity, Dangote saw the potential of providing services to his 227 million compatriots.

Austria: Mark Mateschitz

The 31-year-old Austrian Mark Mateschitz makes him the youngest billionaire on the list. In addition to his young age, Mateschitz is, without a doubt, the one with the most energy of all of them for another reason. His assets valued at $22.5 billion come from the 49% he holds in Red Bull, the largest energy drink manufacturer in the world.

Mark inherited that fortune from his father, Dietrich, in 2022. He was the one who, on a trip to Thailand in 1982, discovered a drink called Krating Daeng (Red Bull, translated into Spanish) that was owned by Chaleo Yoovidhya, who became his 49% equal partner. In 2023, according to company data, 12.1 billion cans of Red Bull were sold, generating revenues of 10.6 billion euros.

Czech Republic: Renáta Kellnerová

Telecommunications, real estate, finance, mechanics, tourism… The PPF investment group, with 40 billion under management, is a major company in the Czech Republic with a presence in 25 countries. Founded in 1991 by Petr Kellner, an economist and salesman of Ricoh printers at the beginning of his career, PPF is currently in the hands of Renáta Kellnerová, his widow and main heir with 59.4% of the group, after the fatal helicopter accident in which Petr succumbed in 2021.

Petr Kellner looked for opportunities after the triumph of the Velvet Revolution and the subsequent loss of power by the Communist Party. His investment vehicle bought stakes in the companies that were privatized. Renáta is the richest woman in the country with 11.7 billion dollars.

Argentina: Marcos Galperín

Co-founder and CEO of Mercado Libre, the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America, Galperín is the richest in Argentina with his 7.7 billion dollars. Diversification into payments, logistics and classifieds, as well as its popularity, has raised Mercado Libre's value to $86 billion. Galperín retains 8% of this Nasdaq listed company.

The richest Argentine wanted to be a rugby player before being a businessman. Turning the corner, he left a budding career in sports to study economics in the United States. When he finished his studies he returned to Argentina, where he worked three years at YPF; Later, he completed an MBA at Stanford and there he birthed the germ of what is now Mercado Libre. Galperín comes from a wealthy family and is changing his profile. Before he shied away from the spotlight, now the local press speculates that he intends to buy the largest private television network, Telefe, formerly owned by Telefónica.

Portugal: Maria Fernanda Amorim

Maria Fernanda is the richest person in Portugal with a net worth valued at $5.3 billion, according to Forbes. Her wealth is the result of the inheritance left to her by Américo Amorim, her husband and president of Corticeira Amorim, a listed Portuguese company that has been the largest cork manufacturer in the world practically since its founding in 1870.

Although it is the origin of the family fortune, Corticeira is not the jewel in the crown. That position is held by a stake equivalent to 18% of the shares of Galp, the oil and gas company valued at 11.4 billion euros, almost ten times the market capitalization of Corticeira. Paula Amorim, the eldest of the three daughters of Maria Fernanda and Américo, is the president of Galp and the one called to continue the family legacy.

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