Catalonia heads ranking of wealthy individuals
Isak Andic still holds the biggest net worth, with €4,200 million
More and more Catalans continue to appear on the list of multimillionaires compiled by the renowned Forbes magazine. Its most recent guide to the 100 wealthiest Spaniards shows that Catalonia is home to most members of this privileged club, since 28 of the 100 richest Spaniards are either Catalan or have based their fortunes in Catalonia. This represents one person more than in 2015 and two more than in 2014. Madrid stands in second place, with 25 billionaires, one less than last year.
If we look at the names of these 28 people, the top positions on the list are occupied by the same individuals as ever. According to the list Forbes published yesterday, the President of Mango, Isak Andic, is still the richest Catalan, with a fortune of 4,200 million euros. In fact, the founder of the Mango fashion chain is ranked fifth overall in Spain, followed by Sol Daurella, also a Catalan, who now heads the newly merged Coca-Cola European Partners, with an accumulated wealth of 3,700 million. The Grífols family figure in the top ten of the richest Spaniards, taking the tenth spot with a net worth of €2,500 million. Among the wealthiest Catalans are names such as the Carulla i Font family, owners of Agrolimen; Demetrio Carceller, President of Damm; Josep Maria Serra Farré, President of Catalana Occident, and Jorge and Antonio Gallardo Ballart, of the Catalan pharmaceutical company Almirall.
Nevertheless, Catalonia is not the wealthiest region overall, mainly because the largest fortune in Spain accounts for a significant proportion of the whole, namely more than 35% of the 198,425 million euros owned by the top 100 fortunes in Spain. As a result, Galicia is the wealthiest region thanks to Amancio Ortega, whose fast fashion giant Inditex is based there. Galicia is home to eight individuals who together possess over 80,000 million euros.
Amancio Ortega rules
Catalonia trails far behind, with 34,475 million euros owned by 28 individuals; last year the total was 32,725. Only two regions in the whole of Spain are not home to a single multi-millionaire: Castilla-La Mancha and Navarre.
Thus, Amancio Ortega, the proprietor of fashion brands such as Zara and Massimo Dutti, possesses a personal fortune of some 71,000 million euros, with the president of Mercadona, Juan Roig and his wife, Hortensia Herrero a distant second, with a fortune of 8,000 million euros. In third place come the chairman of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino, and his siblings, who have around 7,650 million euros.
Catalonia and Spain share something in common in their rankings, in that the individuals that occupy first place are both giants of the fashion industry. The textile sector alone accounts for 81,500 euros, thanks to Inditex and Mango. Fashion is followed by the food and construction sectors. The former, headed by Juan Roig of Mercadona, generated 18,150 million, while construction generated €16,450. Nevertheless, in terms of the number of wealthy individuals, the food industry is the leading sector with nine names on the list. In Catalonia, for example, Thomas Meyer, the owner of Desigual, also appears on the list of billionaires in this sector.
Women, an exception
So, according to these figures, the profile of the Spanish billionaire is a man (women only account for 14% of the capital) of 62 years of age, in the fashion or food industry. They are also more likely to be Catalan or based in Catalonia.
