Jorge Paulo Lemann

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Jorge Paulo Lemann
Born August 26, 1939 (1939-08-26) (age 85)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Residence Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland[1]
Ethnicity Swiss Brazilian[2]
Citizenship Brazil, Switzerland[1]
Education Harvard University[3]
Net worth US$26.1 billion (November 2015)[3]
Spouse(s) Married, five children[3]

Jorge Paulo Lemann (born August 26, 1939)[4] is a Swiss-Brazilian investor. He is ranked as the 26th richest person in the world by Bloomberg Billionaire Index, with an estimated net worth of US$25 billion as of February 2015,[3] is Brazil's richest man and Switzerland's second richest.[5][6] As of 2015, Forbes Brazil listed Lemann as the top entry for the Richest Brazilians list.[7]

Early life

In 1939, Lemann was born in Rio de Janeiro to Paul Lemann,[1] a Swiss immigrant, who founded the dairy manufacturer, Leco, and Anna Yvette Truebner, a Brazilian of Swiss origin.[8][9][10] Lemann attended the American School of Rio de Janeiro.[11]

His father died in a bus accident in 1953, when Lemann was 14.[12] In 1961, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University. In his youth, he won the Brazilian national tennis championship five times.[11][13] He played for both the Swiss and Brazil Davis Cup teams,[1][14] and played at Wimbledon.

Family

Jorge Paulo Lemann is twice married and has six children. He shuttles between São Paulo, Rapperswil-Jona on Lake Zurich,[1] where his family lives, and St. Louis.[15][16] His first wife was Maria de Santiago Dantas Quental, a psychoanalyst who died in April 2005.[17] His second wife is Susanna Lemann, who gave birth to three children.[17]

Career

From 1961 to 1962 he worked as trainee at Credit Suisse in Geneva.[1] In 1966, the first company in which Lemann had equity interest, a lending company called Invesco, went bankrupt. Lemann had a 2% equity stake.[12] In 1971, Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles founded the Brazilian investment banking firm Banco Garantia. Undaunted by a horrific market crash that came only weeks later, Lemann was eventually able to build Garantia into one of the country's most prestigious and innovative investment banks, described in Forbes as "a Brazilian version of Goldman Sachs."[18][19] All three now help to control AB Inbev as members of its board of directors.

In 1994, he suffered a heart attack, at age 54.[20] In July 1998, Lemann sold Banco Garantia to Credit Suisse First Boston for $675 million.[13][18]

From 1990 to 2001, he served as a member of the board of directors of Brahma.[21] Lemann currently serves on the Board of Directors of Endeavor Brazil office. Endeavor is an international non-profit development organization that finds and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Later he and his partners, who founded private equity company GP Investimentos,[1] bought control of two Brazilian breweries (Brahma beer and Companhia Antarctica Paulista) that became AmBev. In 2003 AmBev had a pretax profit margin of 35 percent on sales of US$2.7 billion. By 2004, it controlled 65 percent of the Brazilian beer market and almost 80 percent of Argentina's, with monopoly positions in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia.[22]

AmBev merged with Interbrew of Belgium in August 2004. The stock of the combined firm, InBev, rose 40 percent during 2005. InBev then announced it would buy the American brewer Anheuser-Busch in 2008 for $46 billion in a highly controversial deal, making it the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch Inbev (abbreviated as AB Inbev) securing Lemann's status as one of the new "Kings" of beer.[23]

Lemann is a board member of Lojas Americanas S.A. and was a former board member of Gillette; Chairman of the Latin American Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange; founder and board member of Fundação Estudar, which provides scholarships for Brazilian students; and a member of the International Advisory Boards of Credit Suisse and DaimlerChrysler.

Lemann is among the backers of 3G Capital. In September 2010, 3G launched a $4 billion bid, at a 45% premium over market, for all the stock of Burger King. "3G was advised in the BK offer by Lazard, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Capital and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. 3G already has some experience in burgers and fries, having previously invested in Wendy’s."[24] Together with Berkshire Hathaway, 3G Capital acquired the H. J. Heinz Company for $28 billion in 2013. Its new CEO Bernardo Hees is a former manager of Burger King.[25] The same group announced the merger of Kraft Foods with the H. J. Heinz Company on March 25, 2015.[26]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Stefan Barmettler: Der Brauer vom Zuerichsee. Handelszeitung, Nr. 19, May 8, 2014, p. 7
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  21. Inbev Prospectus January 2005
  22. Richard Tomlison, The New King of Beer, Fortune Magazine, October 18, 2004
  23. Julie MacIntosh, Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon; 2010
  24. "Burger King to Sell Itself to 3G for $4 Billion", "Dealbook" blog, The New York Times, September 2, 2010, 9:50 am. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
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External links