The region’s richest billionaires include a telecom tycoon, a mining magnate and a cofounder of Facebook.
By Gigi Zamora, Forbes Staff
Much is up in the air in Latin America: Mexico may see its first-ever female president, the Argentine peso is collapsing amid the country’s highest inflation in three decades and Brazil’s new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva continues to wrestle with a deeply polarized political environment. But one thing is certain: billionaires in the region are booming, both getting richer on average and adding new members to their ranks.
The average Latin American billionaire’s net worth rose by 23% on this year’s World’s Billionaires list, which also welcomed 21 new faces from the region, compared to just 1 last year. In all, Forbes found 110 members in Latin America, worth a combined $530 billion, up from $413 billion in 2023.
Nearly 20% of the total comes from one person: Carlos Slim Helú, who is worth an estimated $102 billion. Slim debuted on the list in 1991, with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion, but after more than three decades of growing his diversified empire, he is now the 14th-richest person in the world. He crossed the $100 billion threshold over the past year thanks to a surge in the Mexican peso and a stock jump of his industrial conglomerate Grupo Carso. Slim, who has long reigned as the wealthiest person in Latin America, held the No. 1 spot on the World’s Billionaires’ list for four consecutive years, from 2010 to 2013, before he was surpassed by Bill Gates.
In total, 63 of Latin America’s richest saw their fortunes increase over the past 12 months. Among the gainers: Colombian banker Jaime Gilinski Bacal ($7.7 billion) added $4.1 billion to his net worth after acquiring Colombia’s largest processed foods company, Grupo Nutresa, in March, in a joint deal with Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company. Also richer this year is the president of Banco BTG Pactual, André Esteves ($6.6 billion), who added $1.9 billion to his fortune after shares of the Brazilian financial firm rose 81% over the past year amid strong financial results.
This year, Latin America added 21 new billionaires and 10 returnees to Forbes’ annual list. Cristina Junqueira ($1.4 billion), Nubank’s cofounder and the head of its Brazil division, joins the fintech’s CEO, David Vélez ($10.8 billion), in the ranks.
Other notable newcomers include Mexico’s five Coppel brothers, who boast a combined net worth of $9.5 billion thanks to their family’s Coppel department store chain, and Brazilian Maria Consuelo Dias Branco ($1.2 billion), who owns a majority stake in publicly traded food manufacturer and distributor M. Dias Branco, which makes products such as pasta, cookies and crackers.
Notably missing this year is former Chilean president Sebastian Piñera, who was worth an estimated $2.9 billion when he died in a helicopter crash in February. Inheritance matters have yet to be settled.
In all, eight Latin American countries have a billionaire citizen on the list.
Here are the top 10 richest people in Latin America.
NET WORTHS ARE AS OF MARCH 8, 2024.
10. Carlos Alberto Sicupira & family
Net Worth: $8.9 Billion (vs. $8.6 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Beer | Citizenship: Brazil
Carlos Sicupira, Jorge Lemann and Marcel Herrmann founded the private equity firm 3G Capital in 2004. In 2013, 3G and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought H.J. Heinz, which later merged with Kraft. Sicupira and Lemann also founded Endeavor Brazil, a nonprofit that aids entrepreneurs. The organization has backed 17 unicorns and has supported more than 2,000 companies since its launch in 2000.
9. David Vélez & family
Net Worth: $10.8 Billion (vs. $4.5 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Fintech | Citizenship: Colombia
Even after selling 25 million shares (worth more than $190 million) of his Nu Holdings stake in 2023, the cofounder and CEO of Latin America’s largest fintech is still 140% richer than last year. Shares of the São Paulo-based firm, which provides digital banking services, jumped 146% over the past year on the heels of record financial results and a growing customer base. Nubank’s parent company announced $1 billion in net income for 2023 compared to $9.1 million in losses for 2022. As of December, the company boasts 94 million users.
8. Marcel Herrmann Telles & family
BELGA/AFP via Getty Images
Net Worth: $10.9 Billion (vs. $10.6 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Beer | Citizenship: Brazil
Marcel Herrmann co-owns private equity firm 3G Capital with Lemann and Sicupira. In December, the billionaire investor furthered his succession plans and transferred his $5.8 billion stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev to his son Max Van Hoegaerden Herrmann. Herrmann, Lemann and Sicupira have already transferred their shares in the publicly traded real estate company São Carlos Empreendimento to their children.
7. Ricardo Salinas Pliego & family
Net Worth: $13.4 Billion (vs. $10.9 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Retail, media | Citizenship: Mexico
Salinas’ fortune may have grown by 23% in the past year but Mexico’s third-richest person and the owner of retailer Grupo Elektra is in hot water with the country’s tax officials. After Forbes finalized Salinas’ net worth, the Mexican government announced the businessman’s companies owed a whopping $3.8 billion in taxes. Salinas, who also owns the media company TV Azteca, announced on an X (formerly Twitter) post that he would sue the Mexican president’s spokesman and his team for publishing the debt documents.
Getty Images
6. Jorge Paulo Lemann & family
Net Worth: $16.4 Billion (vs. $15.8 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Beer | Citizenship: Brazil
Along with Hermann and Sicupira, Lemann is a shareholder of Anheuser-Busch InBev, producer of Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Stella Artois beers. Through their private equity firm 3G Capital they also own stakes in Restaurant Brands International, parent of Burger King and Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons.
5. Vicky Safra & family
Net Worth: $20.6 Billion (vs. $16.7 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Banking | Citizenship: Brazil
Vicky Safra and her children inherited her husband Joseph Safra’s fortune after he passed away in 2020; he was the world’s richest banker at the time. Vicky’s oldest son, Jacob, oversees the family’s Swiss bank, J. Safra Sarasin, plus Safra National Bank of New York. Son David manages Banco Safra in Brazil. Son Alberto sued his family in New York in 2023, claiming his stake in Safra National Bank of New York was diluted; the case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction in March 2024. Vicky Safra was born in Greece and retains both Greek and Brazilian citizenship. She resides mostly in Switzerland.
4. Iris Fontbona & family
Net Worth: $25.7 Billion (vs. $23.1 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Mining | Citizenship: Chile
The widow of Andrónico Luksic (d. 2005) and her children inherited a multi-billion dollar mining business along with a diversified Chilean conglomerate. Her step-son Andrónico Luksic Craig, who led Quiñenco as chairman since 2013, stepped down in December. Meanwhile, his brother Jean-Paul chairs the board of the family’s mining business Antofagasta, which brought in $6.3 billion in revenue in 2023.
3. Germán Larrea Mota-Velasco & family
Net Worth: $27.9 Billion (vs. $26.6 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Mining | Citizenship: Mexico
Germán Larrea, press-shy and elusive, built his fortune by expanding Grupo Mexico after taking over as president and CEO in 1994. The conglomerate owns the country’s largest mining company, producing nearly one million tons of copper a year. Larrea was reportedly in talks to acquire Banamex, Citigroup’s Mexican banking unit, for $7 billion. In May, the deal was scrapped as Citi announced it would pursue an IPO for that arm instead.
Bryan van der Beek/The Forbes Collection
2. Eduardo Saverin
Net Worth: $28 Billion (vs. $10.2 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Facebook | Citizenship: Brazil
The Facebook cofounder’s wealth has jumped by an estimated $17.8 billion since last year, making him Brazil’s richest citizen in 2024. Saverin was born in São Paulo but grew up in Miami. Shares of Meta, which make up the bulk of his fortune, have tripled since last year and his stake, estimated at less than 5%, is now worth $27 billion. In 2015, Saverin, who is a resident of Singapore, founded venture capital firm B Capital, which has more than $5 billion in assets under management.
1. Carlos Slim Helú & family
Net Worth: $102 Billion (vs. $93 Billion in 2023) | Source of Wealth: Telecom | Citizenship: Mexico
Slim, who ranked as the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013, was worth $74 billion at his peak in 2011. Though there are now 13 others ahead of him, he’s still wealthier than he’s ever been thanks largely to a 60% jump in shares of his industrial conglomerate Grupo Carso, which reached deals of over $655 million to boost its investments in the energy sector.
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Publish date : 2024-04-04 03:00:00
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