Cork industry magnate and serial investor Américo Amorim (pictured) again takes the top place in the ranking of Portugal’s rich.
Amorim’s assets are valued at €3.3 billion but the octogenarian businessman who chairs the Amorim Group and also is the main shareholder of Galp saw his fortune reduce by over €1 billion in the year due to problems at Banco Popular in Spain and negative results from banks in Mozambique and Brazil.
The Espírito Santo family listing has disappeared without a trace from the ranks of the heavily loaded, as complied by Exame magazine, which concludes that "the rich are less rich" with the 25 largest fortunes in Portugal now valued at €14.3 billion at the end of 2013, down from €16,7 billion the year before.
"For the first time in ten years of tracking, the Espírito Santo family is not on the list of the largest fortunes", with five casualties, all shareholders of the Espírito Santo Group which has crashed and burned.
Alexandre Soares dos Santos, owner of Jerónimo Martins supermarkets, stays in second place with an estimated €1.6346 billion to spend, but even this is down €500 million from the previous year.
Belmiro de Azevedo, the owner of Sonae, climbs one place to third, while the Guimarães de Mello family of the José de Mello Group which is involved in chemicals, real estate and road concessions, falls to fourth.
The richest woman in Portugal is still the highly controversial businesswoman Maria Isabel dos Santos who comes in ninth place on the Rich List. Maria dos Santos is a major shareholder of Jerónimo Martins and has a fortune estimated at €429 million, down from €574.9 million the previous year. She also has the misfortune to be the daughter of Angola's President who controls the oil-rich country with military vigour.
Fortunes held in illicit offshore hidey holes are not counted in this survey, otherwise others such as former Prime Minister José Sócrates, or his very rich relative who holds onto his money from the Freeport scam, (allegedly) certainly would be in the top 25.
See also: http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/how_to_rip_off_a_bank_esprito_santo_style
