The first economy of Spain hosts a good number of companies linked to outstanding surnames. There are many dedicated to construction and investment firms, and in some cases, politics and business have crossed in their history.
We close this series dedicated to the most important business families in each autonomous community of Spain with the most prosperous in Madrid . As is logical in the sociopolitical and economic heart of the country, multimillionaires proliferate in the central zone. Thus, Madrid is the region that contributes the most names to the Forbes list of The 100 richest Spaniards of 2021 :nothing less than 35 (more than a third). Although if we add those who come from other areas, but have their headquarters in the capital, the figure rises to 49. Their businesses are varied, although construction companies and investment firms abound; Cases in which politics and the business world go hand in hand are also not uncommon (Florentino Pérez, Villar Mir, José Lladó…). We review below the history and current affairs of the most distinguished Madrid clans.
Del Pino Calvo-Sotelo family: kings of infrastructures
Rafael del Pino Calvo-Sotelo (1958) is, with a net worth of 3,800 million, the richest businessman in Madrid and third in Spain . Since 2000, he has chaired Ferrovial —where he also acts as CEO and main shareholder, with a 20% stake—, the company founded by his father, Rafael del Pino Moreno, in 1952, with the initial objective of supplying materials to Renfe and which Over time, she became a powerful builder (Rafael Sr., who died in 2008, was listed among the 80 richest people in the world, according to the US edition of Forbes). Previously, Rafael Jr. held a directorship position at Zurich Insurance Group, Banesto and Uralita.
The Del Pino family owns 35.1% of Ferrovial . The four brothers of Rafael (who owns 20%) are also among the hundred wealthiest people in Spain. María, director of the group since 2006 and owner of 8% of the shares, occupies the seventh position with 2,200 million. The male brothers, Leopoldo (#13; 1,600 million), Joaquín (#33; 850 million) and Fernando (#79; 350 million) have always maintained a critical position with Rafael’s management. Although Leopoldo continues as a shareholder (through the instrumental Siemprelara), the other two have already left the company. Rafael del Pino Fernández-Fontecha, the oldest of the six children of the current president, is running as his successor. Ferrovial owns 25% of Heathrow airport, the largest in the United Kingdom, although latest newspoint to a possible sale. Among its recent projects is the construction of the new terminal at JFK airport in New York (United States). In the first half of 2022, it has obtained a net profit of 50 million euros.
Abelló family: millionaire investments
The Abelló clan began to amass its fortune back in 1919, when Juan Abelló Pascual set up the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Products Factory, a business expanded in 1949 with Antibióticos SA . His son Juan Abelló Galló (1941) took over the general management in 1966. In the 1980s, he sold both companies, the first to Merck and the second (partly) to Montedison, and entered Banesto. Today his empire gravitates around the Torreal Group, dedicated mainly to international investments. Juan Abelló Gallo, honorary president, occupies the sixth position of the richest businessmen in Spain , with a flow of 2,500 million in 2021.
The entire family is included in the board of directors . Anna Gamazo, his wife, is vice president. His sons Miguel, Juan Claudio, Alejandro and Cristian are proprietary directors (Miguel, as executive president, is the one who holds the reins). The group has stakes in Santander, Sacyr, Aston Martin, Swissport, Vodafone, Talgo, Laureate, Pepe Jeans, Hackett London, Famosa, the Ingesport or Germaine de Capuccini gyms, to name just a few companies. Juan Abelló and Anna Gamazo are also world-renowned art collectors, with works by Goya, Zurbarán, Murillo, Sorolla, Fortuny, Juan Gris, Dalí, Van Gogh, Degas, Klimt, Modigliano and Matisse.
Koplowitz Sisters: Media Entrepreneurs
Esther (1950) and Alicia Koplowitz (1952) are two of the most powerful women in this country, and one of the most popular businesswomen . Today the first is still president of FCC, the construction company that emerged in 1992 from the merger of Cycsa (Constructions and Contracts) and its subsidiary Focsa (Fomento de Construcciones). Cycsa had been the big business of her father, Ernesto Koplowitz, a Polish businessman of Jewish origin who came to Spain fleeing the Nazi horror and married the Marchioness of Peñalver here. Esther, however, does not appear on the Forbes list of The 100 richest Spaniards 2021 (although she hoards 200 million), unlike her sister Alicia, who occupies the seventh position with 2,400 million.
The origin of Alicia’s fortune lies in the sale of her FCC shares (28.2%) in 1998 to her sister Esther, who paid 136,624 million pesetas (about 821 million euros) for them. Subsequently, Ella Alicia created Omega Capital, a private investment office in which she continues as president (in 2021 she returned to FCC as proprietary director at the proposal of her sister). Her lives have run parallel in more than one aspect: both married the same year (1969) with two businessmen who had the same name (“los Albertos”, Cortina and Alcocer) and who were also cousins; They directed the company until 1990, when both couples, with a few days of difference, separated, giving rise to one of the most remembered stories of the Hispanic jet set .
Florentino Pérez and sons: powerful foundations
The president of the ACS Group accumulates 1,700 million euros , a figure that places him in position #12 of the richest in Spain. A civil engineer, Pérez (1947) began his career in politics at the end of the seventies at the hands of UCD, Adolfo Suárez’s party. In 1983 he began his activity in the private sector, chaining executive positions in Construcciones Padrós, SAE (French construction company) and OCP, before entering, in 1993, in Activities of Construction and Services (ACS) as boss. Since 2009 he has been president of Real Madrid CF (he was also president at an earlier stage, between 2000 and 2006). A widower, he has three children, Eduardo, Florentino and María Ángeles (“Cuchy”), who start businesses on his own. She is a journalist, although she focuses on managing her restaurant, El Bib; Eduardo manages the Ariadna Gateau pastry shop, while Florentino Jr. is in charge of Rosan Inversiones, Call Spoiler, One Nait and Ezamasan.
Riberas Mera brothers: materials for the automotive industry
Juan María “Jon” (1968) and Francisco José (1964) Riberas Mera are the sons of Francisco Riberas Pampliega, an industrialist from Burgos raised in Madrid, who in 1967 created Gonvarri (short for the surname of its founders: González, Varela, Ruiz and Riberas ), a modest company selling tin, guitar and piano strings, etc. Associated with Manuela Fernández Garrido, Aznar’s widow, he established Gonvarri-Aznar in 1959, a small steel and aluminum transformation plant for the automotive industry. Today the businesses of these two brothers are channeled through Acek, a group that brings together several companies, but is based on three fundamental legs: Gonvarri Industries, Gestamp Automoción (dedicated to the manufacture of metallic components for automobiles) and Acek Renovables. Francisco chairs Gestamp, while Jon does the same with Gonvarri. Jon is among the wealthiest personalities in Spain at #17 (with 1,300 million euros) .
Helena Revoredo and children: in complete safety
The Argentine Helena Revoredo (1947) is the owner of Prosegur, the leading security company in Spain (and third in the world), with 150,000 employees distributed throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia. It was her husband, Herberto Gut, who founded it in 1976 (Herberto died in 1997 in a car accident). The family also owns rustic farms in Ciudad Real and Cuenca, with a total area of more than 10,000 hectares. Through Procatinmo SL it owns several historic buildings in the center of Madrid. The four children of the couple share functions: Christian and Chantal are fully incorporated into Prosegur, he as CEO and she as director, while the little ones, Bárbara and Germán, manage Gubel SL, the patrimonial company of the saga. According to FORBES ,Helena Revoredo has 1,300 million (#21 in the ranking of the richest in Spain).
Alberto Cortina and Alberto Alcocer: financiers around the world
Returning to the story that we left halfway through when talking about the Koplowitz, after their departure from Cycsa, the cousins (bloodwise speaking) Alberto Cortina Alcocer (1947) and Alberto Alcocer Torra (1942) —grandchildren of the former mayor of Madrid Alberto Alcocer, who gives his name to a street—increased their stake in Banco Zaragozano and currently owns Alcor Holding, which controls 12.5% of ACS and 21% of the Ence paper mill . Recently, they have extended their radius of action to Africa, with the creation of the BDK Financial Group holding company , which controls the Bank of Dakar, in Senegal, through the Swiss firm Cinainvest SA (of which Pelayo Cortina is a director). Lands in Extremadura, Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha have to bore. Cortina and Alcocer respectively occupy thepositions #23 and #24 of the FORBES classification , with revenues of 1,200 and 1,100 million.
Villar Mir family: from the steel industry to real estate
Madrid-born Juan Miguel Villar Mir (1931) is one of the country’s most venerable businessmen . His journey began in 1987, with the purchase of Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, which in 1999 would become OHL. He leads the Villar Mir Group, a holding company that, after the recent sales of Energya VM, OHL Concesiones (where he retains 7% and the vice-presidency, held by his son Juan Miguel Villar Mir de Fuentes) and Fertiberia, now has in the metallurgical company Ferroglobe its benchmark company (with Javier López Madrid, brother-in-law of Juan Miguel Jr., as CEO). He retains, however, the real estate space. The nonagenarian boss has 900 million, and is ranked #29 among the richest in the country.
Lladó family: Madrid high society
Grandson of a deputy, son of a banker, minister in the Transition, ambassador to Washington… José Lladó Fernández-Urrutia (1934) has been everything, and, moreover, a businessman. In addition to acting as a director in various national companies, he built his fortune around Técnicas Reunidas , which since 1959 designs and builds oil and gas plants. According to FORBES , he hoards 700 million (# 40 of the richest in Spain). The nuptials of his five children have related him to other illustrious families; thus, María, an interior designer, was married to Jordi Pujol, Marta is married to Carlos Romero Duplá, son of the counts of Fontao, and her granddaughter Clara —daughter of Juan Lladó (1961), current president of Técnicas Reunidas— got married with Christian Gut Revoredo, CEO of Prosegur.
Entrecanales family: kings of infrastructures
It is the family behind Acciona . The patriarch, José María Entrecanales de Azcárate (1933-2008), married to Blanca Domecq Zurita, headed the family business Entrecanales y Távora (later Necso Entrecanales ycubiertas and, from 1997, Acciona). His son José Manuel Entrecanales Domecq (1963) is the current president of the company, while his brother Daniel holds the position of director and his sister Nieves chairs the Entrecanales Group. Another branch of the family is that of the Entrecanales Franco, descendants of Juan Crisóstomo, brother of José María; They are also present in Acciona, with Juan Ignacio in the role of vice president and Javier in that of director. FORBES allocates abundant funds to all of them, starting with Álvaro Entrecanales Domecq (700 million; #41) and followed by Javier and Mercedes Entrecanales Franco (550 million each; #53), Juan Ignacio and Inés Entrecanales Franco (500 million each; #59) and José Manuel and Nieves Entrecanales Domecq (450 million each; #62).
Other business families in Madrid
Among the most illustrious lineages of the capital’s business community are also the Mahou, owners of the brewery created by Casimiro Mahou in 1890 and today chaired by José Antonio Mahou Herraiz (600 million; #47); He is seconded by his brothers Alfredo and Fátima (375 million each; #73). Linked to the Mahou-San Miguel group are the Gervás Calvo, heirs of the former president of the firm Germán Gervás: his widow, Mercedes Calvo and her daughters Germina Christelle Eva and Ana Francisca (600 million each; # 45). Other outstanding lineages are the López-Belmonte Encina (the brothers Juan, Javier and Iván), the largest shareholders of Lavoratorios Rovi (600 million each; #46); the Álvarez Guils, shareholders of El Corte Iglés (the sisters Marta and Cristina own 550 million each; #52); the Gil Marins, that they maintain the construction and real estate businesses of their father, the ineffable Jesús Gil y Gil, as well as their participation in Club Atlético de Madrid (400 million include Miguel Ángel Gil Marín; #67); and the Carcellers, of DISA and Damm, commanded by Demetrio Carceller Arce and his brothers José, María, Lourdes and Carmen Carceller (300 million each).