The 300 richest individuals and families in Switzerland have a net worth of 595 billion francs ($581 billion). The figure rose by some six billion francs from 2014, according to Swiss business magazine Bilanz.
The family of the Swedish founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, remains in the number one position with a fortune estimated at 45 billion francs, up by two billion francs from the year before.
Ingvar Kamprad, 86, returned to Sweden last year after living near Lausanne for 40 years, but his three sons (Peter, Jonas and Mathias) hold Swiss passports.
Ikea has stated in the past that estimates of the family’s fortune have been inflated.
Forbes magazine assessed Ingvar Kamprad’s wealth earlier this year at $3.4 billion. The differences in estimates derive from an interpretation of whether assets are owned or controlled.
The second wealthiest was the Swiss-Brazilian business tycoon Jorge Paulo Lemann, the largest shareholder of the world’s biggest brewer, AB-InBev. His assets were estimated at around 28-29 billion francs, up three billion francs from 2014.
Lemann surpassed the Hoffmann and Oeri families, who control the Roche pharmacy giant. Their fortunes dropped one billion francs to 25-26 billion francs, Bilanz said.
Newcomers on the list include Andrea Agnelli, an heir to the family which founded the Fiat auto business in Italy. Bilanz put his assets as worth between one billion and 1.5 billion francs.
Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian bestselling novelist now living in Geneva, also joined the list along with Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who runs one of his offices from Zurich.
Their wealth is estimated at more than 100 million francs each.
The wealthiest 300 people together earned 95% as much as all the average wage earners in Switzerland combined, according to the Swiss Trade Union Federation.
Bilanz says the assets of most of the richest families in the country have gone up steadily in the past few years. Thirty, however, saw their wealth decline during the last year.
