Chanel co-owner Gérard Wertheimer is the richest in Switzerland, according to the richest list of the magazine Balance 2023. He pushes the brothers Peter, Jonas and Mathias Kamprad of the Ikea founding family from the top.
With a fortune of 41 to 42 billion, Chanel co-heir Gérard Wertheimer, who lives in Geneva, is now in first place, as the balance sheet magazine writes. His grandfather, Pierre Wertheimer, was co-founder of the Chanel fashion house.
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Legend: 1st place Gérard Wertheimer has a fortune of 41 to 42 billion francs. His wealth comes from the luxury goods, fashion, real estate and wine industries. IMAGO / PanoramiC
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Legend: 2nd place The Hoffmann, Oeri and Duschmalé families (in the picture André Hoffmann, spokesman for the Roche owner family) have assets of 26 to 27 billion francs. KEYSTONE/Alessandro della Valle
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Legend: 3rd place Klaus-Michael Kühne has assets of 24 to 25 billion francs. Among other things, he is the majority owner of the logistics service provider Kühne + Nagel. Keystone/EPA/INGO WAGNER
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Legend: 4th place The Safra family owns the J. Safra Group, a global company that includes banking and financial institutions. imago images/Manuel Geisser
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Legend: 5th place Gianluigi Aponte has a fortune of 18 to 19 billion francs. He created the largest container shipping company in the world. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
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Legend: 6th place The Bertarelli family (in the picture Dona and Ernesto Bertarelli) has assets of 16 to 17 billion francs. In 2006 the family sold the family company Serono. KEYSTONE/Salvatore Di Nolfi
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Legend: 7th place Andrey Melnichenko has a fortune of 16 to 17 billion francs. This comes from the chemical, fertilizer, coal and investments sectors. Keystone/AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell
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Legend: 8th place The family around Jorge Lemann made their fortune of 15 to 16 billion francs from beer, fast food and investments. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
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Legend: 9th place The Blocher family around former Federal Councilor Christoph Blocher has assets of 14 to 15 billion francs from the chemical, plastics, food and media sectors. KEYSTONE/Valentin Flauraud
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Legend: 10th place The sons of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad (who died in 2018), Peter, Jonas and Mathias, have assets of 13 to 14 billion francs. Ikea
With an increase in assets of three billion francs, he is also in first place among the richest people with the greatest increase in assets this year, as the balance sheet also reports.
The Oeri, Hoffmann and Duschmalé families are in second place with 26 to 27 billion. For 2023 they recorded a loss of four billion francs because Roche’s share price crashed.
Ikea founding family still in the top 10
The assets of Peter, Jonas and Mathias Kamprad, the naturalized sons of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad who grew up in Vaud, are largely housed in a foundation. This led to a “fundamental reassessment of the assets attributed to the brothers” in 2023.
With assets of 13 to 14 billion, the Kamprad sons remain in the top ten.
Almost half are foreigners
The magazine also writes that the wealth of the 300 richest has fallen from 820,975,000,000 to 795,025,000,000 francs – a decline of 3.2 percent. It is the second decline in a row, after only increasing for 13 years in a row.
Switzerland remains a country of the super-rich, the balance sheet states. Every second of the 300 richest people is a billionaire. Almost half of this would be made up of foreigners who live in Switzerland, are registered here and pay taxes.
This year, the balance sheet also presented 19 new richest people who have at least 100 million francs in assets.