“What makes it morbid or spicy is ordering it”
Amancio Ortega, Sandra Ortega, Rafael del Pino, Juan Roig…for 14 years the richest Spaniards have had their own list of the ‘Top 40’, better known as the ‘List of the 100 richest Spaniards’ prepared and published by the Spanish edition of Forbes magazine every November. “What makes the list morbid or spicy is ordering it. It’s not so much the quantities, which are interesting, as the order and conclusions you draw,” confesses the editor and director of this publication for more than a decade Andrés Rodríguez (Spainmedia) in conversation with ’20 Minutos’. Like every year, to enter this ‘select club’, A minimum wealth of 450 million euros was required, although for ‘smaller’ fortunes there are classifications by autonomies (‘The richest by autonomies’), which is also published by Forbes Spain. Which, ironically, has left such media figures as the former tennis player left out of the main list. Rafael Nadal (345 million euros) and the president of Banco Santander Ana Patricia Botin (350 million).
“Logical” and “not totally predictable”
If the ‘List of the 100 richest Spaniards’ were a cover, its ingredients would be logic, the least possible predictability and rigour, because 14 years after its first publication there are still those who do not really like to appear on it: “It has to be a logical list“, that is to say, that someone who sees it does not say ‘what a list!’, Rodríguez responds when asked about the recipe to prepare this particular classification. To this basic ingredient he adds that “it cannot be a totally predictable list” although in the case of the richest he admits that we are dealing with “a mathematical list.” You can only be included if your assets are equal to or greater than 450 million euros. Which leaves less room for provocation or surprises.
“It has to be a logical list, that is, someone who sees it doesn’t say ‘what a list!’
“I would like to be able to place someone on the list who would surprise and everyone would talk about it,” confesses the editor and director of Forbes about this particular list. A “dish” easily digestible – “half chewed, half digested” – and a job, he adds, to which one must dedicate hours of consultation based on different sources such as the business results of some of the large Spanish companies without neglecting “reputation”. That is, do all this work with rigor and admit that “when you have an amplifier like this brand, which is impressive, you feel confident.”
The ‘discretion’ of our great fortunes
Do you remember any interviews in the past with figures such as the founder and largest shareholder of Inditex Amancio Ortega, for example? Do names like that sound familiar to you? Tomas Olivo (sixth fortune of Spain)? Or that of Isabel Castelo d`Ortega (39th place)? The first is the largest asset in the Region of Murcia (4.6 billion euros) and manages a long dozen of the most profitable shopping centers in Spain through General de Galerías Comerciales SA and the second, together with her daughter Isabel Elena de Mandalúniz, controls 96% of the insurance group. Sunset which closed last year with a pre-tax profit of 127.8 million euros.
Regarding the discretion that characterizes many of our great fortunes, and their prudence when faced with this type of listings, Andrés Rodríguez points out that “they become convinced that we have to publish the great fortunes of this country and that we are not tax inspectors. What is not known is the order of the national list.” Along these lines he adds that they also “realize that we do our work with rigor” and, remember, that “in some cases” the wealth It equals influence and it equals power. Sometimes, the editor adds, it’s something mathematical: “the more money I have, the more influential I am and the more powerful.”
Generational change on the Forbes List?
Regarding the continuity that permeates the List in key positions, with some specific emergences such as that of some family sagas (the Abel Matutes, the Rubiralta,…), Rodríguez admits at various points in the conversation that “the list is still not very permeable, moves little because the sectors move little” in reference to activities related to technological innovation or the agri-food industry. “Another thing we often say is that, when there is someone very disruptive, Normally it finds capital outside of Spain and takes the company abroad. So, it is not measured here,” laments the head of Forbes. He even uses the expression “talent drain.”
“They are becoming convinced that we have to publish the great fortunes of this country and that we are not tax inspectors. What is not known is the order of the national list”
In any case, the editor of the legendary American newspaper in Spain and former head of ‘Rolling Stones’ among other publications, warns that “Never in the history of humanity will so much wealth be transferred: firstly because the planet has never been so rich and, secondly, because we have never lived so much; We have 28 octagenarians managing 50%.” In this sense, he adds that “all that wealth is going to be transferred to their heirs who belong to the Baby Boom and are in their 60s.” Which, in his opinion, will not only change the Forbes List of the richest in Spain but will also change aspects such as the way they interpret their business challenges. “Any generation improves or worsens what the founder did”points out Andrés Rodríguez, who cites examples such as Rafael del Pino (Ferrovial) or Amancio Ortega himself and the orderly succession at the head of Inditex with his daughter Marta Ortega. Then, he adds, it remains to be known whether this ‘changing of the guard’ will be progressive or “accumulate” in a short time.
