This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Mar 5, , pm EST. Nov 9, , pm EST. Nov 2, , pm EDT. Oct 30, , am EDT. Oct 22, , pm EDT. Oct 3, , am EDT. Sep 4, , pm EDT. Aug 28, , pm EDT. Edit Story. Sep 18, , pm EDT. Gallery: Top 50 Billionaires View gallery. Some of these dynasties have shaped entire industries, including in media, banking and construction services.
In spite of being Brazil's biggest media company, Globo has resisted going public and remains a family business. The Villelas and the Setubals are also in that category. Together they share control of Itausa, a holding company that in turn controls Itau Unibanco Holding, the largest private bank in the Southern hemisphere. Both families are known in Sao Paulo as "fifteenths," or families whose own history of wealth and power dates back four centuries to the s.
Not all Brazilian families have managed to maintain such wealth throughout the years. One of the most notorious examples of losing a fortune are the Matarazzos, an enterprising clan of industrialists of Italian heritage.
The commercial empire of the Matarazzos was the biggest in Brazil and probably of all Latin America in the early s, employing more than 30, workers in plants textiles, foodstuffs, odd other miscellaneous products. At the time, the Matarazzos attributed its plight to the government's economic policies. In order to be ready for this sort of adversity, public offerings have become a way for Brazilian family-owned companies to fund their expansion. Over the past five years or so, Brazil experienced a wave of businesses filing for IPOs whose origins can be traced back to mid, when, after more than a decade of spartan economic policies, the country started to show signs that it would fulfill at least part of its fabled potential.
The large majority of these companies are controlled by family groups. For many Brazilian families who aim to grow their economic power, external shareholders may be necessary to achieve that.
Source of wealth: media. Source of wealth: banking. Source of wealth: conglomerate Votorantim. Source of wealth: conglomerate Camargo Correa. Source of wealth: Itausa. Source of wealth: soybeans. Batista - 10 relatives, no individual billionaires. Source: beef processing. Odebrecht - 15 relatives, no individual billionaires. Source: diversified. Setubal - 25 relatives, no individual billionaires. Igel - 7 relatives, one billionaire Daisy Igel.
Source of wealth: gas, petrochemicals. Source of wealth: toll roads. Feffer - 5 siblings, no individual billionaires. Source of wealth: pulp and paper. I'm a journalist covering everything from media issues to the world of that very particular group of people who are just as rich as they are media shy.
I also write about…. I also write about my native country of Brazil and its growing importance as a global player, from a Brazilian-who-spends-a-lot-of-time-abroad point of view.
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