Fewer billionaires in Switzerland

Ernesto Bertarelli is Switzerland's "richest" billionaire Keystone Archive

According to the US financial magazine, Forbes, there are fewer and fewer billionaires in Switzerland.

From 2001 to 2002, the number of seriously wealthy Swiss individuals dropped from 16 to 13, as a turbulent stock market and a strong dollar took their toll.

Topping the list of Swiss billionaires is Ernesto Bertarelli, the founder of the Geneva-based biotech company, Serono. Bertarelli and his family are sitting on a $8.4 billion nest egg (SFr14.3 billion), more than enough to make any bank manager smile.

But Bertarelli lost almost $2 billion last year as he saw his fortune drop from $10.5 billion. However he still has more than enough money to pursue his dream of taking part in the America’s Cup yachting race, where he plans to navigate for the Swiss entry, team Alinghi.

Haefner second

Second in the Swiss list is Walter Haefner, the man behind Amag Autoimporte, whose personal fortune amounts to $5 billion, just $300 million down on last year.

Pierre Landolt and family, who are major shareholders in the pharmaceutical firm, Novartis, are third with just under $5 billion.

The entrepreneur, Stefan Schmidheiny, is fourth with $3.1 billion while Sergio Mantegazza, the head of luxury travel operator, Globus, is fifth with $2.8 billion.

Mantegazza is one of the few Swiss billionaires who saw a rise in his bank balance last year. His personal fortune increased by $7 million between 2001 and 2002.

Holcim’s chief executive, Thomas Schmidheiny, also saw his wealth increase to $2.4 billion but the head of Swatch, Nicolas Hayek, saw $1.1 billion wiped off his personal fortune leaving a balance of $2.4 billion.

There were also regular appearances from billionaires, Martin Ebner, George Thyssen-Bornemisza, Will and Isolde Liebherr , Klaus Jakobs, André Kudelski and the head of the Swiss People’s Party, Christoph Blocher.

Struck off the list

Notably absent from this year’s list were Marc Rich, Benjamin de Rothschild and Pincus Green, who have been relegated to the lowly ranks of multi-millionaires

The Forbes list was however dominated by Americans with Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, the richest man in the world for the eighth consecutive year with $52.8 billion.

Gates was followed by fellow American Warren E. Buffet and Germany’s Theo and Karl Albrecht, the brains behind the discount retailer, Aldi.

Forbes published the findings in their annual feature “The world’s richest people”.

swissinfo with agencies