The five wealthiest families come from the USA, Mexico and Spain, in Austria the Piech-Porsche clan leads.The greatest assets are not only in the hands of individuals, often the wealth is spread over a large clan. By comparison, the assets of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, currently amount to around 141.3 billion US dollars. This is followed by Bill Gates with 93.1 billion US dollars and the American major investor Warren Buffett with 82.2 billion US dollars.
However, according to a report in men’s magazine GQ, Bezos and Gates are joined by the heirs of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, a discount supermarket chain in the USA, who died in 1992 and is the richest family clan in the world. Walton opened its first branch in Arkansas in 1962, and Walton assets now total 133 billion US dollars. Like most of the super-rich, the family does not carry their wealth to the outside world, but rather behaves in a withdrawn and modest way.
The Koch family’s assets are estimated at around 82 billion US dollars. The owners of Koch Industries, based in Kansas, USA, which is active in 50 countries, are thus in second place among the richest families in the world. The company’s business areas include not only crude oil and natural gas, but also chemicals, energy, asphalt, artificial fertilizers, food and plastics. The turnover of Koch Industries is not known, but is estimated at around 100 billion US dollars. The Group is headed by the brothers Charles and David Koch, who are also politically active.
Third place, with assets of around 80 billion US dollars, is also held by the Mars family from the USA. The food company Mars Inc., headquartered in Virginia, USA, not only produces snacks such as Mars bars, M & M’s or Yummy, but also other food, pet food and products for animal hygiene, vending machines and plant care products. The company is represented in 78 countries and at more than 400 locations. The annual revenue amounts to approximately 35 billion US dollars. Fourth-generation family members, like their ancestors, avoid the public. They don’t give interviews, there are no photos and only some of them have first names at all.
Just behind in fourth place is the family of Carlos Slim Helú, whose assets are estimated at 77.1 billion US dollars. The family members live in Lebanon, Europe and Mexico. The Mexican himself is considered the seventh richest person in the world, he holds shares in various companies and built up his own company empire in Mexico. It includes insurance companies and railways, telecommunications companies and real estate, hotels and construction companies.
Der erste europäische Familienclan belegt den fünften Rang. Die Familie rund um Amancio Ortega, dem Gründer der Modekette Zara aus Spanien, besitzt ein Vermögen von rund 72 Milliarden US-Dollar. Ortega begann als Laufbursche in einem Bekleidungsgeschäft, 1975 gründete er den ersten Zara-Shop und daraus entwickelte sich das größte Modeimperium der Welt.
Im österreichischen Ranking der reichsten Familien liegt der Familienclan der Piechs und Porsches mit einem geschätzten Vermögen von 35,7 Milliarden Euro an erster Stelle (Quelle: Der Trend, Stand 2017). Dahinter folgen mit Abstand der öffentlichkeitsscheue Red Bull-Besitzer Dietrich Mateschitz mit 9,13 Milliarden Euro und die Erben des Industriellen Friedrich Karl Flick mit sechs Milliarden Euro.
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