AUGUST 13, 2019
In the hour that it takes a new Walmart employee to earn the $11 starting wage, the family that owns the retail giant has banked $4 million.
In fact, the third-generation heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton have amassed a $191 billion fortune to top Bloomberg’s list of the richest families in the world. And that has grown by $39 billion since the Waltons topped the list last year.
The report breaks that out to the Walton fortune increasing by an eye-watering $70,000 per minute, $4 million per hour or $100 million per day.
Walmart rang up $514 billion in sales from more than 11,000 stores across the globe, Bloomberg added. And the family holding company Walton Enterprises owns a 50% stake in Walmart, which paid out $3 billion in dividends last year.
It’s been a good year for all 25 of wealthiest families in the world, however, who collectively control almost $1.4. trillion in total wealth, which is a 24% increase from last year.
And American dynasties took the top three places on the elite list. The candy-making clan behind Mars Inc. is in second place with $127 billion in wealth that was sweetened by $37 billion since last year. And the industrialists/politicians behind Koch Industries take third with $125 billion.
The Saudi royal family lands at No. 4, with Bloomberg estimating that the House of Saud is worth $100 billion — although the report notes this is a lowball figure drawn from cumulative payouts that royal family members are guessed to have taken over the last 50 yeas from the executive office of the king. The total wealth controlled by its 15,000 extended family members from its oil reserves, land deals and government contracts is probably much higher.
Family-owned fashion houses Chanel and Hermes, the beer makers at Anheuser-Busch InBev as well as Nutella-makers Ferrero also rank highly on the list.
Here are the top 10 richest families in the world, as reported by Bloomberg.
- The Walton family, behind Walmart: $190.5 billion
- The Mars family, behind Mars: $126.5 billion
- The Koch family, behind Koch Industries: $124.5 billion
- The Al Saud family: $100 billion
- The Wertheimer, behind Chanel: $57.6 billion
- The Hermes family, behind Hermes: $53.1 billion
- The Van Damme, De Spoelberch and De Mevius families, behind Anheuser-Busch InBev: $52.9 billion
- The Boehringer and Von Baumbach families, behind Boehringer Ingelheim: $51.9 billion
- The Ambani family, behind Reliance Industries: $50.4 billion
- The Cargill and MacMillan families, behind Cargill Inc.: $42.9 billion
Courtesy/Source: Market Watch
