Wealth of the 300 richest people in the country at a new record high
Published: Thursday, Nov 28th 2024, 23:10
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The wealth of the 300 richest people in Switzerland has never been as high as it is this year. According to the "Gold Balance Sheet", the total wealth of the "super-rich" rose by 4.8% this year to a total of CHF 833.5 billion.
Calculated per capita, the 300 richest people own an average of just under CHF 2.8 billion. By way of comparison, when the business magazine "Bilanz" first estimated the wealth of Switzerland's richest people in 1989, the average wealth of the 100 people listed at the time amounted to CHF 660 million.
Land of the super-rich
Switzerland remains a country of the super-rich, "Bilanz" noted on Thursday. More than one in two of the 300 richest people - 152 to be exact - are billionaires. The ten richest people in Switzerland alone own a total of CHF 218 billion, or more than a quarter of total wealth.
Previously, the wealth of the "super-rich" had shrunk in 2022 and 2023, the magazine points out. However, the 833 billion francs now calculated exceed the previous record from the coronavirus year 2021.
Geneva-based Gérard Wertheimer, whose grandfather Pierre Wertheimer co-founded the Chanel fashion house, is still at the top of the list. However, there is a drop of bitterness for the first-placed man: his fortune has fallen by around CHF 4 billion to just CHF 37 to 38 billion.
The Genevan is followed by the Oeri, Hoffmann and Duschmalé families in second place. The families behind the pharmaceutical company Roche are estimated to be worth between 28 and 29 billion Swiss francs, 2 billion more than last year. According to "Bilanz", they owe the increase in family wealth primarily to the year-on-year rise in the price of Roche shares.
Promoted and relegated
The biggest climber is the Firmenich family, which contributed its eponymous food and cosmetics manufacturer to the merger with the Dutch Royal DSM. The recovery in DSM-Firmenich's share price has boosted the Geneva-based family's assets by CHF 5 billion to between CHF 14 and 15 billion, according to Bilanz estimates.
Transport magnate Klaus-Michael Kühne was able to increase his wealth by CHF 3 billion. The same applies to South African billionaire Johann Rupert, whose holdings include the luxury goods group Richemont, and the Schindler/Bonnard family of the Schindler elevator group.
In addition to Wertheimer, the Swiss-based Jacobs family of entrepreneurs is also among the decliners (-5.75 billion). And the sons of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad are now only sitting on 10 to 11 billion Swiss francs (-3 billion), according to estimates by "Bilanz". Finally, the weak Swatch share price has made Nayla, Nick Jr. and Marc Hayek around a billion poorer.
Und Newcomer
Every year, however, "Bilanz" also unearths "newcomers": Twelve new richest people who have a minimum fortune of 100 million francs. These include the brothers Milan and Tomas Prenosil, owners of Confiserie Sprüngli, and Galderma CEO Flemming Ørnskov.
However, the "most important" newcomer is Giancarlo Devasini, who has become rich with cryptocurrency. Bilanz" estimates the Italian's assets at 7 to 8 billion Swiss francs. He is followed by the German Christian Angermayer (1-1.5 billion), the Bitcoin investor and founder of the biotech company Ribopharma.
©Keystone/SDA
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