Iris Fontbona: The Success Story of the Richest Latina
Chilean Businesswoman Iris Fontbona, the richest person in Chile and the 35th in the list of World Billionaires, has an assessed net worth of $9.9 billion as of Jan 2016.
Fontbona has acquired her net worth from her husband Andronico Luksic, the man who was behind the birth of their family's fortune. In 1980, he founded Luksic Group, a company focused on beverages and mining businesses.
Luksic died of cancer in 2005. After his death, his company was inherited by Fontbona and their 3 sons, Guillermo, Jean Paul and Andronico. After inheriting the Luksic Group, Fontbona managed to make their family business grow and reach its new heights of success.
Though her wealth has decreased compared to last year, she is still ranked as the most successful entrepreneur by Forbes followed by Eliodoro Matte and Sebastian Pinera in the business mining field. According to World Top 10, the business which made her name included in the Forbes list is the Luksic's copper mining business, Antofagasta, which is managed by her son, Jean Paul.
Antofagasta, with a total market capitalization of around £12.1 billion, is now considered to be one of the largest mining companies not just in Latin America but also the largest in the world. The mining business has also been included in the London stock exchange list as the 33rd biggest mining company. It is active in exploring minerals in Chile and Peru with four copper mines located at Tesoro, Esperanza, Pelambres and Michilla. The business is run with the equity participation in Antofagasta Minerals, Aguas Antofagasta of Chile, Tethian of Australia and via railroad to Bolivia from Antofagasta. It also earns additional annual revenue of $4.5 billion as it ventures with other mining industries in Turkey, Australia, Europe, Africa and other parts of America.
Aside from Antofagasta, the family also holds the majority of stocks of Quinenco, which, as stated by Success Story, is a company active in energy, beer, manufacturing, banking transportation and services. Quinenco, headed by one of Fontbona sons, Andronico, is a Chile-based company which is engaged in financial and industrial sectors. The company has almost 69,000 employees and has aggregated sales revenue of about $20 billion in 2014. Fontbona's family owns about 81 percent of the total company shares.
With all the efforts she has put into her family's business, her businesses turned into the largest brewer in the world, the biggest copper mines, the biggest shipping company and the 2nd biggest bank in Chile.
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