Italy’s top 10 richest revealed

Silvio Berlusconi drops off the list

ROME – The top ten richest stock market players in Italy have been revealed; Leonardo Del Vecchio takes the leading position and Silvio Berlusconi slips from the list completely, economic commentators said on Monday.

 Del Vecchio, the founder of the huge lenses company Luxottica, is for the seventh year in the row in the lead for the ranking of the richest stock market player. Berlusconi, however, has been left out completely after years of success. Del Vecchio, the 83 year-old business man that started working as an apprentice at 15 and built the first world-wide lenses group with around 80 thousand staff, has a wealth of nearly 21 billion euros, 17 percent higher than last year.

 Del Vecchio’s wealth is double that of the second on the list, the brothers Rocca di Tenaris, giants that produce tubes for petroleum and gas transportation. Their wealth is a mere 10.72 million, however increasing by 28 percent with respect to 2017. On the third step of the podium is the couple Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, with a wealth calculated by their owners of their fashion house of 8.57 billion.

 The list was compiled by the Italian stock market, and, as every year, Milan Finance takes into consideration the value of the business participants in the organisation quoted by Piazza Affari.

 Moving nearer to the end of the list we have Stefano Pessina in fourth place with the Wagreens Boot Alliance, a multinational pharmaceutical industry worth 8.3 million (a drop of 23 percent respect to last year). A step lower and we have the Agnelli-Nasi-Elkann family, that thanks to the participation in Exor, the society that produces Lapo Elkann glasses, can boast a wealth of around 7 million, increasing by 6 percent.

 Behind Agnelli in sixth position are the Benetton brothers, down two places. Their family wealth of Ponzano Veneto fell thanks to the drop in the stock market in the past few days in the Atlantia holding company, which owns Autostrade, after the bridge collapse in Genoa. In the last week Atlantia has lost 4.6 million market capital, lowering the value of the Benetton brothers to 1.8 million.

 While Berlusconi slips from the top ten – he is in now eleventh position, with a little over 3 million – Luca Garavoglia joins, the 49-year-old president of the Campari group. Garavoglia’s wealth grew by 52 percent in a year with 5.44 million, bringing him to the seventh position on the list. After the Chian National Chemical Corporation, the group that controls the Pirelli (4.79 million), the top ten list ends with the French businessman Emmanuel Besnier (who owns Parmalat), with 4.4 million (dropping by 5.59 percent), and Alberto and Andrew Recordati (owner of the pharmaceutical group) with 3.42 million (decreasing by 9 percent).

 The ranking shows how the top 50 millionaires on the list control 87 percent of the wealth of the stock market, with an increase over 11 percent in the last year.

 Throughout the list, the luxury sector has performed well again; among the first 50 millionaires, nine are designers. The influence of foreign wealth is stable, even if they have shifting fortunes; the millionaire Paul Singer’s American fund Elliott has entered the list decisively, whilst the French businessman Vincent Bollorè, after the setback in Telecom and long battle in Mediaset, mourns his loss.

 cb