The 10 Richest People in the Euro Zone

As the European debt crisis deepens, many ordinary citizens have felt the impact of deep cuts to government benefits combined with cuts in public- and even the private-sector wages. But crisis-hit Europe is also home to many ultra-wealthy individuals whose personal fortunes are on the rise.

While Spain may soon require a full bailout, one of its citizens recently became the wealthiest person in the euro zone with a personal fortune of $40.2 billion, according to Wealth-X, a provider of intelligence on ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals. Four more of Europe’s richest are French, with combined fortunes of $72.7 billion.

It is unsurprising that calls to tax the euro zone's wealthiest members are gaining traction. New French president Francois Hollande is doubling taxes for those with assets valued above 4 million euros ($4.9 million) and in Germany a new plan is being floated calling for a “forced loan” program, in which the wealthy lend money to their governments, to be paid back over time.

Click ahead to find out who are the ten richest people in the euro zone and how they made their money.

By Bianca Schlotterbeck
Posted 26th of July 2012

Estimated Net Worth: $11.2 billion each.
Origin of Wealth: Aldi Nord, supermarket

Berthold and Theo Albrecht Jr. inherited the German discount super market chain Aldi Nord from their father, the late Theo Albrecht. Little is known about the brothers, who are as secretive as their father and uncle (see slide two). Theo Jr. (61) has one child. Berthold (57) has 5 children. They both serve on the supervisory board of Aldi Nord.

Estimated Net Worth: $11.5 billion
Origin of Wealth: Dassault Group, aviation

Serge Dassault is the chairman and CEO of Dassault Group, a group of companies that includes aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation and the conservative daily French newspaper Le Figaro. He inherited the group from his father, Marcel Dassault.

A member of France’s conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party and a former mayor of a Paris suburb, Dassault was outspoken in the recent French election in his support of Nicolas Sarkozy over the Socialist Party's Francois Hollande. A victorious Hollande has refused all interview requests from journalists at Dassault's paper.

This year Dassault aviation scored a massive win over the Eurofighter consortium when its Rafale fighter was selected by India for 126-aircraft procurement in a $10 billion deal.

Estimated Net Worth: $13.6 billion
Origin of Wealth: Luxottica, sunglasses

Leonardo Del Vecchio, Italy’s second richest man, is the founder and chairman of Luxottica Group, a leader in luxury and sports sunglasses. Luxottica owns many well-known brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley, and has licensing deals with Chanel, Prada, and most of the other large fashion houses. The group owns 7,100 sunglass stores all over the world, including the Sunglass Hut chain.

Born in Milan in 1935 into poverty, Del Vecchio was sent to an orphanage following the death of his father. He began working at a metal works, making spectacle parts, before founding Luxottica in 1961. His success led him to acquire other brands, and to the listing of the company in New York in 1990 and Milan in 2000.

Estimated Net Worth: $14.2 billion
Origin of Wealth: PPR, retail

François Pinault is a self-made French tycoon who is the majority shareholder of luxury retail company PPR, which owns the Gucci Group (Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, and Alexander McQueen). In 1992, he created Artemis, a private company entirely owned by the Pinault family. Artemis controls the Château-Latour vineyard in Bordeaux, the news magazine Le Point and the daily newspaper l’Agefi.

François Pinault also controls the auction house Christie’s, a world leader in the art market. A lover of art and owner of one of the most avid collectors of contemporary art, Pinault acquired the prestigious Palazzo Grassi in Venice in May 2005 to house and exhibit his part of his collection.

Estimated Net Worth: $16.4 billion
Origin of Wealth: Ferrero SpA, chocolates

Michele Ferrero, Italy’s richest man, owns Ferrero SpA. Founded in Alba, Italy in 1946 by Ferrero’s father, Pietro, Ferraro is the fourth largest chocolate maker in the world, known for its Kinder, Nutella and Tic Tac brands. Pietro’s great idea was to create a chocolate-like sweet using hazelnuts, which were abundant in the countryside around Alba in the post-war years, instead of expensive and scarce cocoa. Nutella, made from a hazelnut-cocoa base, is now the best-selling sweet spread in the world.

Michele started in the family business when he was 20 and was leading it by 32. He is known for a reclusive nature that seems to nurture innovation. He reportedly took five years to discover how to bend the wafers that go into his Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The company is now run by Michele’s son Giovanni, and operates more than 70 affiliated operations, with 38 business units and 18 production plants in more than 100 countries.

Estimated Net Worth: $23.7 billion
Origin of Wealth: LVMH, luxury retail

France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault is chairman, CEO and majority owner of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which controls over 60 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Tag Heuer watches, Donna Karan, Fendi, Dior, Moët & Chandon champagne and other companies.

Bernard Arnault is actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, and has become a master of acquiring new brands and hiring new talent to reinvent them. In March 2011, LVMH bought the Italian jeweller Bulgari in a bid to develop more of a presence in the "hard luxury" market.

Arnault is reported to be in hot pursuit of French fashion house Hermes, raising his stake in the company to 22.3 percent despite resistance to the takeover from the Hermes family. CEO Patrick Thomas recently provoked outrage by likening Arnault’s opportunistic buying to "the raping of a beautiful woman."

Estimated Net Worth: $23.7 billion
Origin of Wealth: L’Oreal, cosmetics

Europe’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt is one of the principal shareholders of L’Oreal, one of the world's largest cosmetic and beauty companies. The only child of L'Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, who built a beauty empire on a patented hair dye, Bettencourt has generally shunned attention and grants few interviews.

Since 2007, however, Bettencourt has been the subject of media frenzy over her relationship with photographer and socialite François-Marie Banier, who is accused of exploiting Bettencourt's frailty to reap gifts valued at about 1.3 billion euros. The relationship has also led to the estrangement of her daughter, Françoise. Bettencourt was in the news more recently for her alleged funding of conservative French politicians, including former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Estimated Net Worth: $26.0 billion
Origin of Wealth: Aldi Sud, supermarket

Karl Hans Albrecht, Germany’s richest man and second richest in the euro zone, founded the German discount supermarket chain, Aldi, alongside his brother Theo. Born in 1920 to a humble family from Essen, Germany, the brothers took over their mother’s small grocery store after World War II, expanding it into a chain of more than 12 stores. In 1961, they changed the name to Albrecht's Discount or "Aldi" for short.

Soon afterward, the brothers divided the business. Theo took charge of the stores in the northern part of then West Germany, renaming it Aldi Nord and expanding across Europe. In 1979, Aldi Nord acquired Trader Joe's. Karl took on the southern German stores and expanded Aldi into the U.K., Australia and the United States. Combined, Aldi has more than 8,200 stores worldwide, about half of them in Germany.

Karl Hans Albrecht resigned from his position of chairman of Aldi in 2002 and relinquished all control of the company. Rarely seen in public, he is an obscure figure, and at 92, the eldest on the list of Europe's wealthiest.

Estimated Net Worth: $40.2 billion
Origin of Wealth: Inditex, retail

Amancio Ortega Gaona, the richest man in the euro zone and fifth richest man in the world, is a Spanish fashion executive and founding chairman of the Spanish clothing merchandiser, Inditex. Though he resigned as chairman last year, he still owns 59.29 percent of the company, which is the parent of Zara, Massimo Dutti, Berschka, and other brands.

Ortega’s wealth has surged even as Spain suffers from a financial crisis that has sent borrowing costs spiraling and unemployment hovering at above 20 percent. By expanding in emerging markets, the company continues to outperform, beating forecasts with a 30 percent rise in quarterly net profit to 432 million euros ($538 million), on sales of 3.4 billion, in recent earnings.

The self-made son of a railway worker, Gaona started as a runner for various shirt stores in Galicia, Spain. His first store, opened in 1975, would grow into the popular fashion house Zara. Gaona keeps a very low profile and has never given an interview.