Who wants to be a
billionaire?
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet may get all the headlines as the world’s richest men, but here in Europe there are plenty of super-rich businessmen enjoying everything the continent has to offer.
David Mattin reports
David and Simon Reuben
Country UK
Business Property
Fortune €3.3bn
Mystery has surrounded the secretive Reuben brothers ever since their emergence, in the 1990s, as one of Britain’s richest families. Born in Mumbai to parents of Iranian-Jewish descent, David, 68, and brother Simon, 66, arrived in London as penniless teenagers in the 1960s. A complex series of killer deals – their chameleon-like career spans post-Soviet Russian steel and aluminium, hotels and luxury property – has seen them amass a fortune that, even at conservative estimates, runs into billions.
Landing in London with next to nothing, the Reubens lived for a while in a Jewish shelter before building a small fortune trading in property and carpets. Mega-wealth came after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Fearlessly leaping into the economic chaos that most investors dared not dip their toe in, the brothers snapped up huge chunks of Russia’s privatised aluminium industry, sold off by President Boris Yeltsin.
By 1995, their company TransWorld controlled 5% of the world’s aluminium production and boasted an annual turnover of almost €6bn.
By 2000, the Reubens had sold their aluminium interests to Roman Abramovich – now owner of Chelsea FC – and exited Russia. Since then, they’ve concentrated on luxury property, acquiring a central London portfolio managed through a complex web of offshore companies based in Bermuda and Luxembourg. Simon is officially a Monaco resident and works primarily in Geneva. They have homes on the French Riviera and in Florida, too.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the brothers, who are – according to The Times of London – among Britain’s 10 richest families. In 2000, Fortune magazine alleged connections between the Reubens and the Russian mafia during the 1990s. The Reubens sued and a regulator’s inquiry cleared them of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, the affair stung the brothers, and in 2003 they decided on a PR strategy reversal, establishing the website reubenbrothers. com to allow the public a window on their business operations.
These days, says Simon: “I could live on 1% of my assets.” That’s a mere €30m.
Ingvar Kamprad
Country Sweden
Business Home furnishings
Fortune €24bn
You’ve probably never heard of this reclusive 81-year-old Swede, Europe’s richest man according to Forbes magazine. Chances are good, though, that you own a piece of his furniture. Ingvar Kamprad is the solitary, little-known visionary who founded the IKEA empire. The flat-pack furniture chain began life in 1943 and now has 235 stores worldwide. It’s been estimated that one in 10 Europeans are conceived in an Ikea bed.
Despite his vast fortune – characteristically, Kamprad disputes the Forbes valuation – the entrepreneur is best known among devotees for a rigid frugality. He drives a battered old Volvo to work, flies economy and, on a trip to London in 2000, he travelled around the city via the underground. But this picture of a supremely level-headed, self-denying businessman – a mainstay of the IKEA corporate culture – is only half the story.
For a start, there’s a long-standing battle with alcoholism. Kamprad has spoken openly about his addiction to vodka, blaming a stint sourcing furniture material in 1960s Poland. Vodka, he says, was drunk at every business meeting – but these days he has the problem firmly under control. Even less well known, though, are his teenage years as an active sympathiser with Nysvenska Rorelsen, the Swedish political party that praised Hitler and called for anti-Jewish laws. Today, a repentant Kamprad calls this period: “The biggest mistake of my life.”
These days, it’s not all frugality for the billionaire who made IKEA into what he calls “a global cult brand”.
Instead of living in Sweden – which imposes some of the highest taxes in the world – he and his second wife Margaretha live in a villa in the glitzy mountain resort of Verbier, Switzerland, frequented by Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan. There’s also a vineyard in Provence, which he calls “my very expensive hobby”. Meanwhile, shrewd business sense saw him transfer ownership of Ikea to a complex Dutch charitable trust, minimising tax and protecting the company from a hostile takeover. Try taking that apart with an allen key.
Amancio Ortega
Country Spain
Business High-street fashion
Fortune €17.8bn
Without doubt the most mysterious member of Europe’s mega-rich, Ortega is the private business brain behind high-street clothing chain Zara. It’s Europe’s largest fashion retailer – a staggering 3,300 stores across 64 countries add up to a fortune that makes Ortega the eighth richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. But the 71-year-old billionaire has never granted an interview and there are almost no photographs of him in the public domain.
The son of a railway worker from Leon, Ortega started work at 14 as an errand boy in a clothes store. By 1975, he had established his own business making bathrobes. But it is Zara, the fashion company Ortega launched at his sister-in-law’s kitchen table, that made him mega-money. It revolutionised high street fashion in the 1980s by taking catwalk trends and reproducing them for customers at much lower prices.
Crucially, a razor-sharp business operation – dubbed ‘fast fashion’ – in which designers and production teams work at a vast HQ in La Coruna, meant Zara could go from paper drawing to in-store product in 15 days. Most other retailers took months. The business model was so good that Harvard Business School wrote a report on it, and when stores such as TopShop and H&M followed in its wake, the age of disposable fashion was born.
It’s said that Ortega still personally approves new designs. Insiders say the mystique around the Spaniard masks a down-to-earth and diligent man. In 2001, when Ortega’s holding company went public – earning Ortega €4.5bn – he reportedly shunned celebration, clocked in at work as usual and ate lunch in the company cafeteria. Still, he manages to split his time between Madrid, Paris, London and Lisbon, where he owns homes. As for other luxuries, he’s known to have a few horses. But what’s that to a man whose fortune grows by €2m a day?
Silvio Berlusconi
Country Italy
Business Property and media
Fortune €8.7bn
The 70-year-old two-time former Prime Minister of Italy is surely one of the most flamboyant – and certainly one of the richest – politicians to tread the world stage. Still leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party, Berlusconi also owns three national television channels, a clutch of newspapers, Italy’s largest publishing house and European football champions AC Milan. “I am a man to whom nobody can compare,” Berlusconi has observed, and it’s hard to argue. And that’s before we get started on the face-lifts, the women and the time he jokingly suggested his wife might find the prime minister of Denmark attractive.
The man Italians call Il Cavaliere is self-made. The son of a bank clerk and a secretary, Berlusconi made his first fortune via property deals around Milan. A consummate operator, he befriended Italy’s elite to ensure he stayed one step ahead of planning regulations.
A second fortune came with his media company Fininvest, and by 2001 – the year he became Prime Minister for the second time – Berlusconi shared an opulent 70-room mansion in Milan with his second wife Veronica.
By then he had inserted himself into every part of Italian life – Italians even coined the word Berlusconismo to describe the single-handed takeover. No wonder he sometimes calls himself “the anointed one”. Italians, though, have another nickname: The Great Seducer. Berlusconi has made little attempt to hide his fondness for beautiful women. He’s famous for sporting a perma-tan and for hiding wrinkles with a thick layer of foundation.
In 2002, Italians even saw photographs of him entertaining a young secretary on a yacht in Sardinia. More eyebrows were raised, though, when at an EU meeting in 2005, he implied that he would seduce the Finnish president Tarja Halonen in order to secure a favourable end to negotiations. He later defended the comment by saying anyone who had seen a picture of Halonen would be aware that he was joking.
FR » Qui veut être millionnaire?
David et Simon Reuben
Pays: UK; Business: Immobilier; Fortune: €3.3 milliards Le mystère entoure ces frères, qui restent assez secrets sur leur carrière, qui s’est développée dans l’acier de la Russie post-soviétique, dans l’hôtellerie et l’immobilier de luxe. A une certaine époque, ils contrôlaient 5% de l’aluminium dans le monde. Dans un esprit de controverse, le magazine Fortune a laissé entrevoir d’éventuelles connexions entre les Reubens et la mafia russe.
Ingvar Kamprad
Pays: Suède; Business: Equipements pour la maison; Fortune: €24 milliards Vous n’avez peut-être jamais entendu parler de l’homme le plus riche d’Europe, mais vous possédez sans doute l’une de ses pièces de mobilier – on estime qu’un Européen sur 10 est conçu dans un lit IKEA. Malgré sa fortune, Kamprad conduit une vieille Volvo et vole en classe économique bien qu’il vive dans une villa dans la station de ski la plus chic, à Verbier, en Suisse. Il y a aussi un vignoble en Provence, qu’il désigne comme “mon très coûteux hobby”.
Amancio Ortega
Pays: Espagne; Business: mode prêt-à-porter; Fortune: €17.8 milliards Ortega est le cerveau derrière l’entreprise privée de mode prêt-à-porter, la chaîne de vêtements Zara, mais ce milliardaire n’a jamais accordé une interview, et l’on ne trouve littéralement aucune photographie de lui dans le domaine public. Ce fils de cheminot a inventé un modèle de fabrication rapide dans le monde de la mode, source d’inspiration d’une brillante étude à Harvard. Aujourd’hui, il se partage entre ses nombreuses maisons à Madrid, Paris, Londres et Lisbonne.
Silvio Berlusconi
Pays: Italie; Business: Immobilier et Media; Fortune: €8.7 milliards Ce septuagénaire, à deux reprises Premier Ministre d’Italie est le plus flamboyant – et le plus riche – des politiciens. L’homme que les Italiens surnomment ‘Il Cavaliere’ possède trois chaînes de télévision nationales, une poignée de journaux, la plus grande maison d’édition du pays et l’équipe championne de football d’Europe, AC Milan. Il est réputé pour son teint bronzé en permanence, pour dissimuler ses rides sous une couche épaisse de fond de teint et pour avoir un jour déclaré qu’il avait séduit la présidente de Finlande.
NL » Wie wordt miljardair?
David en Simon Reuben
Land VK; Activiteit Vastgoed; Fortuin 3,3 miljard euro Rond deze geheimzinnige broers en hun activiteiten hangt een waas van mysterie. Hun loopbaan werd gekleurd door post-Sovjet-Russisch staal, hotels en luxewoningen. Op een bepaald moment hadden ze 5 % van de wereldwijde aluminiumvoorraad in handen. Fortune magazine sprak zelfs van vermeende connecties tussen de Reubens en de Russische maffia…
Ingvar Kamprad
Land Zweden; Activiteit Meubels en huisraad; Fortuin 24 miljard euro Je hebt misschien nog nooit van de rijkste man van Europa gehoord, maar je hebt waarschijnlijk wel een van zijn meubels in huis! Geschat wordt dat één op tien Europeanen in een IKEA-bed wordt verwekt. Ondanks zijn rijkdom rijdt Kamprad met een versleten Volvo en vliegt hij in economyclass. Toch woont hij in een villa in de blitse Zwitserse wintersportplaats Verbier. Verder heeft hij nog een wijngaard in de Provence, die hij ‘mijn zeer dure hobby’ noemt.
Amancio Ortega
Land Spanje; Activiteit Confectiemode; Fortuin 17,8 miljard euro Ortega is het brein van het privébedrijf achter de populaire keten Zara. De miljardair heeft echter nog nooit een interview toegestaan, en er werden bijna geen foto’s van hem gepubliceerd. Deze zoon van een spoorwegarbeider vond een businessmodel uit voor “snelle mode”, met meer dan twee collecties per jaar. Het model diende als inspiratie voor een gunstig Harvard-rapport. Hij verdeelt nu zijn tijd over zijn huizen in Madrid, Parijs, Londen en Lissabon.
Silvio Berlusconi
Land Italië; Activiteit Vastgoed en media; Fortuin 8,7 miljard euro De 70-jarige, tweevoudige ex-premier van Italië is de meest flamboyante – en rijkste – politicus. De man die door de Italianen ‘Il Cavaliere’ wordt genoemd, bezit drie nationale televisiezenders, een reeks kranten, Italië’s grootste uitgeversmaatschappij en Europees voetbalkampioen AC Milaan. Hij staat bekend om zijn bruine kleurtje, om de dikke laag foundation waarmee hij zijn rimpels verbergt en omdat hij zwoer de Finse president te zullen verleiden.
Images Camera Press, Reuters, Corbis,
Rex Features, Alamy, Getty Images
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