Congratulations to this visionary business taipan of Thailand, Dhanin Chearavanont (Chinese name in simplified characters: 谢国民)!

He is one of the most talented and gutsiest entrepreneurs in the world whom I admire very much.

I had seen Dhanin Chearavanont made an eloquent speech and answer questions at an open forum in fluent Mandarin at the last 2011 World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention held in Singapore, and he had brilliant as well as wise ideas!

(This Forbes magazine cover image sourced from nationmultimedia.com)





(Image below sourced from economist.com)

HSBC Sells $7.4 Billion Ping An Stake to Thai Billionaire Dhanin

By Bloomberg News - Feb 1, 2013 7:12 PM GMT+0800

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA)’s $7.4 billion sale of its stake in Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. (2318) to Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont was cleared by regulators, ending six weeks of speculation over the deal’s fate.

Dhanin’s Charoen Pokphand Group Co. and HSBC said payment was made in cash after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission approved the sale of 976.1 million Hong Kong-traded shares in the nation’s second-largest insurer. The transfer will take place by Wednesday, HSBC said in its statement.

China Approves HSBC’s Sale of Ping An Stake to Thai Billionaire

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Pedestrians walk past a Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. advertisement in Beijing.

The transaction will generate a $2.6 billion profit for London-based HSBC, bolstering Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver’s efforts to revive earnings. CP Group said on Jan. 11 it had the resources to complete the purchase, damping concern the deal would collapse after Caixin Online reported that China Development Bank Corp. withdrew financing.

“Given all the twists and turns, this outcome is quite a surprise and the best for all,” said Li Wenbing, a Beijing- based analyst at Bocom International Holdings. “With a relatively passive investor like CP, Ping An’s management can maintain their control on the firm’s operation and leverage some of CP’s expertise in tapping the rural financial sector.”

Shares in Ping An have gained 23 percent in Hong Kong trading since Dec. 4, the day before the sale was announced. That’s 20 percent more than the HK$59-a-share that CP Group agreed to pay.

HSBC, which has gained almost 12 percent in the same time- frame, fell 0.3 percent to close at HK$88 on Feb. 1. The stock has advanced about 13 percent in London since Dec. 4.

Chinese Funding

HSBC agreed on Dec. 5 to sell its 15.6 percent holding in Ping An to four subsidiaries of CP Group in two phases for about $9.4 billion. The first stage, comprising shares valued at about HK$15 billion ($1.93 billion), was completed Dec. 7. The rest required approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission by the end of today.

The acquisition of four-fifths of the shares would be funded with cash as well as a financing agreement from the Hong Kong unit of China Development Bank, HSBC had said in December.

CP Group didn’t use that credit facility from China Development Bank, which is a policy lender based in Beijing, to finance any part of the purchase, said a person with knowledge of the transaction. The person, who asked not to be identified, didn’t say how CP Group raised funds for the deal. Today’s statements made no mention of how the deal was funded.

Seed Business

Dhanin, 73, planned to make a foray into financial services after spending more than four decades building a family seed business into Thailand’s biggest agricultural company and conglomerate. His net worth was an estimated $6.6 billion as of today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Almost 60 percent of the fortune is from overseas private companies.

The group’s historical ties to China include becoming the first foreign investor after Deng Xiaoping opened the economy in 1979, and continued management of local agricultural projects. CP said it could help develop rural areas in China through its investment in Ping An.

“This is good news as it removes the uncertainty,” Olive Xia, a Shanghai-based analyst at Core Pacific-Yamaichi International Ltd. who recommends investors buy the shares, said by phone. “We still prefer Ping An among Chinese insurers and the stock has some upside.”

Tale of an enterprising South African Jewish billionaire entrepreneur

South Africa Billionaire Unmasked Selling U.S. Groceries

By Robert LaFranco, Simon Packard and Renee Bonorchis - Nov 9, 2012 6:06 PM GMT+0800 Bloomberg

Four days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into New York City and the surrounding states, billionaire Nathan “Natie” Kirsh ambled through the aisles of a 75,000-square-foot Restaurant Depot warehouse he owns in College Point, Queens.

Dressed in a Gore-Tex jacket and loafers, the 80-year-old South African squeezed past dozens of independent restaurant owners picking through heaps of carrots, lobsters and hot dogs. A frenzied bottleneck formed as street vendors and restaurant chefs -- each handling several shopping carts full of goods -- vied for a spot in line to pay.

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South African Billionaire Nathan Kirsh

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Billionaire Nathan Kirsh said, “I want money, I just don’t want that money lying around. We are certain that inflation isn't going away, so it's smart to be borrowing cheaply and putting it into real assets."

Billionaire Nathan Kirsh said, “I want money, I just don’t want that money lying around. We are certain that inflation isn't going away, so it's smart to be borrowing cheaply and putting it into real assets." Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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Tower 42 In London

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Billionaire Nathan Kirsh agreed in December 2011 to pay 282.5 million-pound for the landmark Tower 42, the first skyscraper constructed in the City of London, seen here right.

Billionaire Nathan Kirsh agreed in December 2011 to pay 282.5 million-pound for the landmark Tower 42, the first skyscraper constructed in the City of London, seen here right. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

“Chaos,” said Kirsh, who has a net worth of at least $5.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “It’s fantastic -- and profitable.”

Through Brooklyn, New York-based Jetro Holdings, Kirsh controls 86 Restaurant Depots and 10 Jetro Cash & Carry stores, a chain that sells wholesale groceries to urban bodega owners. The closely held company generated at least $6.5 billion in revenue and $500 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in the last 12 months, according to a person familiar with the company’s financial performance.

The retailer has a value of at least $5 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, based on the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda and price-to-earnings multiples of two publicly traded peers: Issaquah, Washington-based Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) and Brampton, Ontario-based Loblaw Companies Ltd. (L)

One-Time Dividend

Jetro’s Ebitda margin is almost double that of Costco, the largest U.S. warehouse-club chain. Kirsh said Jetro generates bigger profits because the company doesn’t deliver or extend credit to customers. It also owns most of the land under its stores and sells more perishable goods.

“We are private, we are profitable and we have fun,” the billionaire, who has never appeared on an international wealth ranking, said in an interview at his office in North London in October. “We just don’t scream about what we do.”

Kirsh wants to expand his food wholesaling business to new markets and add to his real estate portfolio, which consists of properties on four continents worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He said the company is looking to build Jetro stores in Latin America and Asia, and wants to stock wine and spirits at its Restaurant Depots.

He raised $1 billion in a private debt placement in April as yields on U.S. corporate bonds fell, and used the proceeds to repay short-term debt and pay a one-time dividend to Jetro shareholders. Kirsh owns 63 percent of the company, and employees hold another 10 percent. Private equity firms CCMP Capital Advisors LLC and Leonard Green & Partners LP acquired 27 percent of Jetro in 2004.

Global Inflation

The billionaire is using some of the cash to buy property, which he said is a hedge against global inflation. He controls about 70 percent of the Jetro and Restaurant Depot warehouses, as well as residential and commercial real estate in the U.S., the U.K., South Africa and Australia.

“Our business in the U.S. is a big business that throws off cash and we strip that cash,” Kirsh said in London. “I just don’t want that money lying around. We are certain that inflation isn’t going away, so it’s smart to be borrowing cheaply and putting it into real assets.”

Kirsh’s empire extends beyond food and real estate. He owns 30 percent stakes in Crest JMT Leather, a U.K.-based tanner, and Holmes Place, an Amsterdam-based fitness chain. He also controls half of Mumbai-based pipe maker, KiTec Industries; 38 percent of Yehud, Israel-based Magal Security Systems Ltd. (MAGS), a security company he acquired from Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. in the late 1970s and listed on the Nasdaq in 1993; and 42 percent of Abacus Property Group (ABP) Ltd., the publicly traded Sydney-based real estate investment trust he helped to recapitalize in 2009.

Corn Milling

Kirsh made his first fortune in Africa. In 1958, he created a corn milling and malt business in Swaziland, a country 250 miles east of Johannesburg. Twelve years later, he acquired a South African wholesale food distribution business and began supplying stores owned by black shopkeepers, which were opening because of the government’s apartheid political structure.

The business grew to become the country’s dominant retailer and, by the mid-1980s, included furniture retailing, supermarkets, discount stores, an insurance operation and commercial property developments.
In 1983, South Africa-based insurance company Sanlam Ltd. (SLM) acquired 49 percent of his food distribution operation. Not long after, Kirsh learned that a top executive had gone on a building spree, entering into agreements to construct 22 shopping malls when Kirsh had only given him permission to build one. All of the malls were guaranteed by company assets. The commitment eventually cost Kirsh most of his fortune.

Entrepreneurial Icarus

Two years later, the South African economy began to stumble. Banks stopped lending to companies and countries began levying sanctions in a stance against apartheid. As interest rates soared, Kirsh approached Sanlam, which had minority rights on major financing decisions, about using a rights issue to pay down the mall loans.

Sanlam executives instead offered to inject the capital into the company, taking most of the assets in return. In the negotiations, Kirsh won control of Jetro, which then consisted of five stores on the east coast of the U.S.

“That was the end of an era,” he said about the episode in Adventures in Businessland, a corporate video he made in 2011 to mark his 51-year career. “Twenty-five years of work was blown away in one day.”
Under the headline “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” Kirsh was portrayed on the cover of Financial Mail magazine as an entrepreneurial Icarus, his face recoiling in dismay as he plummeted from the heavens.

“I got pulverized,” he told students at the London Business School in a 2011 lecture. “Therefore, one becomes a little bit more cautious to make sure you are not going to get pulverized a second time.”

Distribution Systems

Defeated, Kirsh moved to New York to run Jetro. He said he saw an opportunity to exploit weakness in the food distribution business in the U.S., which favored national grocery chains over smaller, independent stores.

“No one wants to run a huge truck out through Manhattan just to drop off four boxes, it just doesn’t make sense to them,” said Richard Kirschner, president of Jetro Holdings, in a telephone interview. “We were there to pick up the morsels.”

Jetro salesmen went from store to store talking up the benefits of shopping at their warehouse. The pitch: bodega owners no longer needed to buy more than they could sell, which would create more retail space in their stores. Without the burden of delivery costs and credit risks, Jetro was able to sell goods 20 percent cheaper than competing suppliers.

Restaurants, Bodegas

“When we arrived here, everybody just frowned on cash and carry as a meaningless form of distribution,” said Stanley Fleishman, Jetro Holdings CEO, who worked for Kirsh’s wholesale operation in South Africa and has been running the U.S. company since 1986. “The competition just blew us off as those guys selling second-tier product. That was the secret of our success.”

By the early 1990s, Jetro had grown to 10 outlets across the U.S. and was generating more than $400 million in revenue. Looking to modernize his management systems and fund expansion, Kirsh sold 80 percent of the business to Metro Holding AG, a Swiss supermarket business that was also a shareholder in Metro AG, one of Germany’s largest grocery conglomerates.

Jetro’s sales growth leveled off. Kirsh noticed that the restaurateurs shopping at his warehouses didn’t like jostling with bodega owners, who would shop less often and enter the checkout lines with ten-times the amount of goods.

Buffett Passes

He found a solution with Restaurant Depot, which he acquired in 1994, and turned into the company’s growth engine. Metro executives soon sold their interest back to Kirsh. Metro Holding has since been renamed Grospart AG, and is now a closely held investment company in Baar, Switzerland. A company spokesman said executives weren’t available for comment.

“I told them they were making a mistake,” Kirsh said. “The company was about to take off. I didn’t want them to come back in a few years telling me they were disappointed.”

Looking for capital to expand, Kirsh called on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) CEO Warren Buffett who, around 2003, passed on the opportunity to invest in Jetro. A year later, Kirsh sold a 27 percent stake to CCMP and Leonard Green. With the 2012 dividend, he said, the new partners have earned back more than their original investment. Buffett did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Both private equity firms declined to comment on the financial details of their investments in Jetro.

‘Stupid People’

Real estate, Kirsh said, is the only sector where “stupid people” can make money. In December 2011, he agreed to pay 282.5 million pounds ($455 million) for Tower 42 -- the first skyscraper constructed in the City of London -- and the five buildings that sit on its 2.2-acre plot. He paid cash, and later arranged a 20-year loan that covered about half of the acquisition cost. More U.K. property purchases are likely, according to Philip Lewis, Kirsh’s global head of real estate.

His other holdings include stakes in commercial properties in Western Australia, through a 50 percent stake in Jandakot, Australia-based Ascot Capital Ltd., and in San Diego, California, where he invested in a student and residential housing development near the campus of California State University San Marcos.

He has seen a 50 percent increase in the value of his stake in Abacus, the Australian REIT that controls two prime office properties in Sydney’s central business district, self storage locations and a shopping center in nearby Drummoyne.

Four Trusts

In October, Kirsh acquired a white-stucco fronted Georgian building next to London’s Madame Tussauds waxworks tourist attraction near Regents Park. The building will become the new headquarters for the Kirsh Group in June, bringing his disparate portfolio of assets and businesses under one roof for the first time.

The octogenarian said he has been thinking about succession, and plans to divide his assets into four trusts, leaving 75 percent of it to his family and the remainder to fund charities, including his favorite cause, helping entrepreneurs. None of his children work in the family business.

The operation, he said, will one day be managed by Ron Sandler, the former CEO of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market who was also appointed by the U.K. government as chairman of Northern Rock Plc, which was nationalized in 2008.

“We have properties all over the place, we are liquid and we do not have one unsuccessful business,” he said. “All of my businesses are profitable. I am in the best space I have ever been.”

US$5 billion question: What is self-made man Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) of the Philippines planning to buy now? My guesses: A brewery in Asean? An Asian airline? An airport?

My Comments:
This self-made businessman Ramon Ang is amazing: he comes out of nowhere as engineer to become trusted executive of Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco, Jr., he serves with total loyalty and remarkable success, he eventually rises to become the big boss of Southeast Asia's biggest and also oldest brewery and food conglomerate, he boldly diversifies San Miguel, and how he's on the way to becoming the possible No. 1 business leader in the Philippine economy with his most breathtaking corporate maneuvers! Whew!

My wild guess is it's possible San Miguel may buy the shareholdings of Japan's Kirin beer in the Singapore brewer of Tiger beer, since coincidentally Kirin beer is also a shareholder in San Miguel?









(Image of the September 2012 issue of Summit Media's Esquire Philippines magazine)

San Miguel Declines to Identify Acquisition Target

Oct 22, 2012 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) --

By Cris Larano

MANILA--San Miguel Corp. (SMC.PH) on Monday declined to name an acquisition target, citing confidentiality restrictions in the negotiations on the potential investment.

San Miguel President Ramon Ang told reporters Saturday that the Philippine conglomerate is planning a 5 billion acquisition that may be completed within the year, Bloomberg reported. He said San Miguel faces other regional companies in the bidding, but didn't name the target or the industry it is in, according to the report.

San Miguel "has been invited to participate and submit a bid for a possible investment...in line with the ongoing diversification programs and initiatives implemented by the company," San Miguel corporate secretary Virgilio Jacinto told the Philippine stock exchange on Monday.

"Owing to the confidentiality obligations imposed on the company, we are not in a position to disclose the salient features of the said investment opportunity," he said.

Over the past five years, San Miguel has moved away from food and beverage to heavy industries that provide higher returns for the conglomerate. It has acquired oil refiner Petron Corp. and bought minority stakes in power distributor Manila Electric Corp., toll road operator Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., Philippine Airlines Inc. as well as airports, power generation companies, and infrastructure development companies. In Malaysia, San Miguel last year took control of oil refiner Esso Malaysia Bhd.

Mr. Ang has said in previous interviews that the company was looking to acquire Asian firms with international operations as well as regional carriers to help Philippine Airlines launch more flights to the U.S. and Europe.

WOW! Billionaire Hedge Fund Tycoon John Paulson Donates US$100 Million for Central Park

My Comments:   I'm very impressed with this act! This guy is also a financial genius, a self-made businessman, a philanthropist from the Jewish minority, he's a business and civic leader.

Billionaire Paulson Donates $100 Million for Central Park

By Henry Goldman - Oct 23, 2012 10:53 PM GMT+0800 Bloomberg

Billionaire John Paulson and the Paulson Family Foundation are donating $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, the largest parks donation ever.

Paulson, 56, is founder of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund that manages $21 billion across 10 funds. Paulson was worth $11.8 billion yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His contribution will help renovate and maintain park facilities and pay for recreation programs, said Doug Blonsky, president of the conservancy, which is responsible for its maintenance and operations. Half will bolster the park’s endowment, which now stands at $144 million, Blonsky said.

Billionaire Paulson Donates $100 Million for NYC’s Central Park

Rick Maiman/Bloomberg

John A. Paulson, president of Paulson & Co.

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire John Paulson and the Paulson Family Foundation are donating $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, according to a news release today. (Source: Bloomberg)

Keyur Khamar/Bloomberg

Residential buildings line Central Park in this aerial photo taken over New York.

“The Conservancy is responsible for transforming and sustaining Central Park as the celebration of culture, nature and democracy that it is today,” Paulson said in a statement. “It is my hope that today’s contribution will help it endure and flourish.”

The park’s 843 acres (341 hectares) stretch from 59th Street to 110th Street in Manhattan and make up a leafy oasis on an island of concrete. Conservancy crews care for 250 acres of lawns, 24,000 trees, 150 acres of lakes and streams and 130 acres of woodlands, according to its website.

“Central Park is a paradise unlike anywhere else in the world today,” said Paulson, whose Fifth Avenue apartment faces the park’s east side and overlooks its reservoir. “I wanted the amount to make a difference.”

Queens Product

Paulson was raised in the middle-class Beechhurst section of Bayside, in New York’s Queens borough. As a child, his parents took him through the park in a stroller, he said. He was valedictorian at New York University and attended Harvard Business School.

After working in risk arbitrage at Bear Stearns Cos., Odyssey Partners and Gruss Partners, Paulson founded Paulson & Co. in 1994, with $2 million from friends and family.

Paulson in 2009 donated $20 million to New York University Stern School of Business and the following year, along with his wife, Jenny, donated $5 million to Southampton Hospital in New York, which named an emergency department after them.

Paulson also donated $15 million to a children’s and maternity hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador, according to a Nov. 21, 2010 statement.

The nonprofit Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980, according to its website. Its mission was to restore America’s foremost urban public space to the condition envisioned by its 19th-century designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. In 1998, the Conservancy and the city of New York signed a management agreement formalizing their then 18-year public- private partnership.

“Central Park has an enormous economic impact on our city -- 40 million annual visitors generating $1 billion in economic activity -- and that’s in large part due to the great work of the Central Park Conservancy, the Parks Department and the New York City Police Department, who have worked together since 1980 to restore Central Park to its glory and take it to new heights,'' Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a prepared statement. The mayor is founder and majority of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

Zara founder now richer than Warren Buffett, 3rd wealthiest billionaire in the world---self-made man Amancio Ortega of Spain!

No wonder when I had my exclusive interview with Japan's wealthiest tycoon and the founder of Uniqlo Tadashi Yanai, he told me his ambition is to surpass Zara fashion brand. Now I understand and know why. Read on...

Congratulations! Bloomberg recently published its Billionaire Index, and it has ranked self-made entrepreneur Amancio Ortega as the third richest man in the world with a net worth of US$47.4 billion.

The media-shy and low-profile Spanish businessman just surpassed the world-famous Warren Buffet, but Ortega still needs to earn $16 billion to eclipse another legend Bill Gates fopr world's No. 2 richest rank.

I'm originally torn between where to post this news, in the Will Soon Flourish blog on success or in the Will Soon Fashion blog.

Since the main phanomenon here in this news is not just Zara as a fashion brand or even the shared second article below on the inherited billions of the Zara and Prada heiresses, but my focus here in this post is to celebrate the success of the Zara founder as innovative and self-made entrepreneur plus the amazing rise in riches and high fashion purchasing power of such emerging market nations like China and Brazil, I've decided to post this item under the Will Soon Flourish blog celebrating flourishing success!

Congratulations not only to the founder of the global Zara fashion brand, but also to the new emerging economic powers China and Brazil---your new-rich consumers and buyers have helped some old world Europe families become so much richer despite the troubles in the Eurozone and USA economies.



Here's a short background on the world's new third wealthiest billionaire is Amancio Ortega of Zara.



Born in León in March, 1936, Amancio Ortega y Gaona is a self-made-man who started out at age 14 as a gofer in a shirt store in La Coruña, Galicia (north-western Spain).

In 1963 he started Confecciones Goa (his initials in reverse), which made bathrobes.

In 1975 he opened the first store in what would grow into the enormously popular global chain of  fashion boutiques called Zara.



(Images of Zara fasion)












Below is the Bloomberg news report on some of the young scions of the Zara and Prada fashion dynasties of Europe, and their fortunes courtesy of the rising buying power of such "economic miracles" as China and Brazil.

(Image of Prada fashion below)




Zara & Prada heiresses--- Hidden European Fashion Billionaires Undressed on China

By Robert LaFranco - Oct 19, 2012 7:02 AM GMT+0800

How to Become Very Rich From Europe's Debt Crisis

Surging demand for $100 Zara dresses and $3,000 Prada handbags in emerging markets has created three new billionaires who hail from countries at the center of the European debt crisis.

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Hidden Billionaires Unzipped From Europe With $950 China Shoes

Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg

A Prada SpA store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan.

A Prada SpA store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan. Photographer: Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg

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Hidden Billionaires Unzipped From Europe With $950 China Shoes

Thomas Lee/Bloomberg

Shoppers stand in front of a Prada SpA store on Canton Road in Hong Kong, China.

Shoppers stand in front of a Prada SpA store on Canton Road in Hong Kong, China. Photographer: Thomas Lee/Bloomberg

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Hidden Billionaires Unzipped From Europe With $950 China Shoes

Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

Customers queue to enter a Prada SpA store in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong, China.

Customers queue to enter a Prada SpA store in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong, China. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

Sandra Ortega Mera, the 44-year-old daughter of Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest man, is worth $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. She owns 1 percent of Arteixo, Spain-based Inditex SA (ITX), the world’s largest clothing retailer and owner of the Zara clothing chain, whose shares have gained 58 percent this year as unemployment in its home country hovers above 20 percent.

Marina Prada and her brother Alberto Prada Bianchi -- two grandchildren of Prada SpA (1913) founder Mario Prada -- are worth $2.6 billion each. Shares of the Italian luxury-goods maker are up 75 percent year-to-date in Hong Kong trading. The Italian government said in September the country’s gross domestic product will probably fall 2.4 percent this year.

“You can’t really get more of a difficult home market than Italy and Spain right now,” said Rahul Sharma, managing director at Neev Capital, a London-based retail advisory firm. “For both companies, the ability to deliver a sense of freshness to their customers has been a big part of their success in Europe. When customers feel like they are seeing something different they are a lot less price sensitive. That becomes aspirational when you go to Asia where the product seems more exotic.”

None of the three billionaires has appeared on an international wealth ranking. Jose Leyte, a spokesman for Sandra Ortega, said she declined to comment on her net worth. A spokesman for Prada in Milan said the siblings also declined to comment.

China, Brazil

Defying Spain’s and Italy’s ravaging debt loads and the threat of impending fiscal austerity measures, shares of Inditex and Prada are rising on the demand for their products in countries such as China and Brazil.
Zara’s pricing is an enticement for cost-conscious shoppers searching for affordable fashion. The chain offers items such as $17 scarves and $60 skirts. Inditex, which operates eight retail lines, opened 166 stores in about 100 cities during the first half, including 32 locations in China, the world’s second- largest economy. Zara’s first online store in China opened in September.

Inditex said last month that earnings rose 32 percent to 944 million euros ($1.2 billion) in the first half. Revenue increased 17 percent to more than 7 billion euros on the strength of its global market expansion, the company said.

$950 Shoes

Prada, which sells $3,000 handbags and $950 shoes, has benefited from Chinese consumers’ hunger for luxury goods. The company reported last month that first-half profit surged almost 60 percent to 289 million euros on a 19 percent revenue gain. Revenue of more than 1.5 billion euros was fueled by a 45 percent sales increase in the Asia Pacific region.

“We understand consumers from all over the world,” said Patrizio Bertelli, the company’s 66-year-old billionaire CEO, on the company’s earnings call Sept. 24. “For instance, Chinese consumers are much more fashion-conscious and aware of what they wear than they were a few years ago. Consumers globally need to be enticed to buy.”

Mario Prada opened his first luxury goods store in Milan in 1912. The store sold traveling trunks, leather handbags, beauty cases and leather accessories. In 1919, it became an official supplier to the Italian royal family. Prada emerged as an international brand in the 1970s, when his granddaughter Miuccia Prada led the company’s design strategy while Bertelli ran sales and distribution. Miuccia Prada, 64, is the company’s chairwoman. Bertelli is her husband.

Accumulated Cash

Marina and Alberto Prada, who are Miuccia’s older siblings and whose ages couldn’t be confirmed, work as consultants to the company: Marina in public relations; Alberto in location scouting and distribution. They each own 12 percent stakes in Prada worth more than $2 billion through three Milan-based family holding companies: Bellatrix, Gipafin and Prada Holding BV.

Since 2009, Marina and Alberto have each accumulated a cash portfolio estimated at almost $200 million, including proceeds from dividends and shares sold in last year’s initial public offering.
Miuccia Prada and Bertelli each own 28 percent of the company. Their stakes are valued at about $5.7 billion. They have both earned more than $500 million from compensation, dividends and share sales since the IPO.

Women’s Bathrobes

Inditex sold shares to the public in 2001, enriching both Amancio Ortega and his now ex-wife, Rosalia Mera. Mera, 68, who co-founded the company making women’s bathrobes out of the couple’s home in 1963, controls more than 4 percent of Inditex through Rosp Corunna, a closely held investment company based in La Coruna, Spain. Mera owns 86 percent of the shares held by the investment company; the couple’s daughter, Sandra Ortega, owns the remaining 14 percent.

While Sandra Ortega isn’t involved in Inditex management, she manages Rosp Corunna with her mother. The holding company sold about $550 million of Inditex stock in the IPO, and used the proceeds to fund a portfolio of startup companies, including Zeltia SA, a publicly traded Spanish pharmaceutical company, in which it owns a 5 percent stake.

Passing Buffett

Like her father, who passed Warren Buffett to become the world’s third-richest person in August, Sandra Ortega prefers to stay out of the limelight. A trained psychologist, she lives in Galicia on Spain’s northwest coast with her husband and three children.

Sandra Ortega also serves as vice president of the Fundacion Paideia Galiza, which focuses on helping disabled people integrate into general society. The foundation was inspired by her brother, Marcos, who is mentally impaired.

Retail accounts for almost half of the 20 biggest fortunes in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Amancio Ortega’s fortune now stands at $53.6 billion, more than $10 billion ahead of Ingvar Kamprad, founder of the IKEA furniture chain. Europe’s next three largest fortunes include L’Oreal SA cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who has a net worth of $25.5 billion, as well as Hennes & Mauritz AB chairman Stefan Persson and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA founder Bernard Arnault, both of whom have a net worth of about $25 billion.

Congratulations! Inspiring News and Success Story!

Softbank led by "rags-to-riches" tycoon Masayoshi Son, the buyer of America's third biggest wireless telecom firm Sprint Nextel Corp. through 70% of its stocks for US$20.1 billion!






Here are some reasons why I admire Masayoshi Son (not in any order of importance order):

1. He's a self-made entrepreneur




2. He personifies innovation

(Pronounced in Niponggo as "koushin", these are Japanese language kanji or Chinese characters for the word "innovation")





(Below are Japanese language kanji or Chinese characters for "innovation")


(Masayoshi Son with the late Apple founder Steve Jobs)




(Masayoshi Son once said Steve Jobs is "the next Leonardo DaVinci")





3. He's a bold visionary, this purchase is said to be the biggest ever overseas investment foray of a Japanese entrepreneur




4. He's now the second wealthiest tycoon in Japan, next only to the Uniqlo boss (whose exclusive interview I did and featured in another post in this Will Soon Flourish blog)



5. He's ethnic Korean, part of an ethnic minority which has been traditionally discriminated against by Japanese society

6. He's young and already so eminently successful on a global scale

7. He's thriving and winning, despite the stagnant and declining Japanese economy mismanaged by its lackluster politicians

8. He's Asian!






Below is a news report by Agence France Presse (AFP), which I'm sharing to all. Amazing this tycoon!

Masayoshi Son: From pigswill to telecoms tycoon

By Hiroshi Hiyama | AFP News – 7 hours ago

(Reuters) - Japanese mobile operator Softbank Corp said it will buy about 70 percent of Sprint Nextel Corp for $20.1 billion, giving Softbank the American toehold it has long desired and Sprint the capital to expand its network and potentially buy peers. The deal for the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier represents the most a Japanese firm has spent on an overseas acquisition.

Announced by Softbank's billionaire founder and chief Masayoshi Son and Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse at a packed news Shares in Japanese mobile carrier Softbank soared in Tokyo on Tuesday as investors piled back into a stock that had been pounded since news of its $20 billion takeover of Sprint Nextel emerged last week. Softbank, the bold brainchild of Masayoshi Son, on Monday announced it was buying a controlling stake in one of the world's biggest mobile phone operators.

Not bad for a man who grew up scrounging food from his neighbours to feed to livestock.

In a deal worth more than $20 billion, Softbank will take control of US-based Sprint Nextel, the third-biggest US mobile firm, in one of Japan Inc's biggest ever overseas adventures.

The acquisition is the latest in a run of buy-ins and buy-outs that have marked the career of one of Japan's most colourful entrepreneurs, a man who has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch.

It is all a far cry from where it began.
Son was born in 1957 in Saga prefecture on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu to ethnic Korean parents.

His family made their living raising poultry and hogs in a country where Koreans have long faced discrimination stemming from the Japanese occupation of the peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

"I sat in a cart when I was small. It was so slimy that I felt sick. My grandmother, who is dead now, was pulling the cart," Son recalled in a 1996 speech when accepting a business award.

"We collected leftover food from neighbours and fed it to cattle. It was slimy. We worked hard," he said. "And I've worked hard."

That hard work has paid dividends -- Son is now Japan's second richest man, worth an estimated $7.2 billion, according to Forbes, behind Tadashi Yanai, president of Fast Retailing, the operator of the popular Uniqlo clothing chain.

Son went to the United States as a 16-year-old and later studied at the University of California at Berkeley where he began his business activities.

His first big success came when he invented a computer system to translate English into Japanese. He later sold it to Sharp for one million dollars.

In 1981, a year after returning from the United States, he founded Softbank as a software wholesaler and publisher of computer magazines.

Since going public in 1994, Softbank has consistently made headlines with its aggressive strategy of taking over Japanese and foreign businesses, a jolt to the staid world of corporate Japan.

The company was once the top shareholder in Yahoo and still very profitably operates Yahoo Japan despite woes facing the global portal site. It has been credited with pushing broadband Internet access in Japan.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Softbank bought and sold Ziff-Davis Communications, the US publisher of computer magazines including PC Magazine, as well as chipmaker Kingston Technologies, and conference organisers Interface and Comdex.

It also owns the Fukuoka-based Hawks baseball team.

Monday's deal has echoes in Softbank's entry into the mobile sector with its 2006 acquisition of the struggling Japanese arm of Vodafone for about 1.75 trillion yen ($22.3 billion at today's exchange rate).

The company shook up a market long dominated by NTT DoCoMo and smaller rival KDDI, introducing a significantly cheaper fee schedule and bringing Apple's iPhone to Japan.

Although it no longer has the monopoly on the wildly successful iPhone, Softbank Mobile is Japan's third-largest carrier, and does particularly well among urbanites, at whom its savvy marketing campaigns are often aimed.

The 55-year-old Son is now evangelically expanding into the solar power sector as Japan searches for safe and clean alternatives to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima atomic crisis.

With plans for the nation's biggest solar plant -- on the northernmost island of Hokkaido -- Son earlier this year unveiled a plant in Kyoto, telling reporters it was the future.

"If we keep building solar panels and invest in solar energy, within 20 years it will not only become the safest and the cleanest source of electricity but also the cheapest."

EXCLUSIVE! Uniqlo billionaire & Japan's wealthiest tycoon Tadashi Yanai gives exclusive interview on Success Secrets & global brand building (Uniqlo visionary Tadashi Yanai, photograph by Garry Weaser of The Guardian) (Photos below show Fast Retailing's Uniqlo boss Tadashi Yanai in Paris, France signing up international tennis star Novak Djokovic to a five-year endorsement contract in his bid to popularize Uniqlo's brand appeal among European and U.S. shoppers) Japan's richest tycoon on success secrets and brand building From my column in the Philippine Star newspaper June 18, 2012 Bull Market, Bull Sheet column by Wilson Lee Flores

SM Investment Corp. vice chairman Teresita “Tessie” Sy-Coson welcomes Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing Co., Limited chairman, president and CEO, at the first Uniqlo casual wear store opening in SM Mall of Asia on June 15.

Anything worth doing is worth 100 percent. — Konosuke Matsushita 

Commit to your job and your work, whatever it is. Believe in it more than anything else. If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do the best you can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you — like a fever. — Sam Walton

In partnership with Henry Sy family’s SM Group through SM Retail, Inc., Japan’s wealthiest tycoon Fast Retailing Co., Limited chairman, president and CEO Tadashi Yanai opened the first Uniqlo casual wear store in SM Mall of Asia on June 15.

SM Investment Corp. vice chairman Teresita “Tessie” Sy-Coson personally welcomed Yanai, who graduated from Waseda University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics. Yanai is also director of Japan’s telecommunications giant Softbank Corporation.

Philippine STAR had an exclusive interview with Japan’s “fashion king” Tadashi Yanai, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at US$10 billion and whose company has 30,000 employees worldwide. Several young male and female assistants in dark suits stood around us during the interview.

Yanai could understand my questions in English, but he answered me in the Japanese language and had a pretty interpreter translate every reply meticulously. Excerpts from the interview:


Who are the entrepreneurs you admire the most as ideal role models and why?

TADASHI YANAI:  Sam Walton of Wal-Mart and Konosuke Matsushita of Panasonic. First of all, Walton started his business in Arkansas, which is a rural state in America and he developed his company to become the world’s No. 1. Wal-Mart is an amazing success story. What I particularly admire very much about the late Sam Walton was his policy of valuing his employees. Giving value to employees is very rare in the retail industry. I also admire the strategies Walton used to build up his discount store concept.

(Photo below of the late Wal-Mart retail chain founder and once the world's wealthiest billionaire Sam Walton)




What about the “rags-to-riches” Japanese industrialist Matsushita, why do you consider him another ideal role model for businesspeople?

Konosuke Matsushita was a visionary entrepreneur. He started working very young as a teenager and he eventually created Panasonic to become a truly global company. He not only represented himself and Japan positively to the world, he also supported good political leaders who helped make the country better. Matsushita is wise and a visionary pioneer in investing manufacturing operations in China, which many Japanese companies now do.

(Photo below of the late legendary "rags-to-riches" Japanese industrialist Konosuke Matsushita)



Are you envisioning your Uniqlo to become like Wal-Mart and Panasonic as global leaders?

We’re not in the same industry with either Wal-Mart or Panasonic, but yes, we do aim to become No. 1 globally in our business of casual wear.

(Photo below is Tadashi Yanai with framed calligraphy of four Chinese characters at his back meaning "Number One in the World")




You studied in Japan’s prestigious Waseda University, the same school that South Korea’s late Samsung founder Lee Byung Chull studied in but dropped out of. What are the global Asian brands you admire most?

Yes, the founder of Samsung went to our school. The Asian brand, which I admire for having become a global success, is Samsung. In comparison, we’re just starting, but I believe that we at Uniqlo will be the next Asian brand to do well globally. I believe in the next few years we shall witness the rise of more world-class Asian brands becoming famous globally.

(Picture of Waseda University at night, Tokyo City, Japan)



(Photo below shows the late Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull writing "gyeomheo" or "humbleness" in Chinese calligraphy at his office in Seoul City, South Korea in 1987. Source: Korea Times newspaper)

How did you become a successful international brand? What can others in Asia learn from your experiences?

Our international success started out first because we became the No. 1 casual wear brand in our home market of Japan. Then, we set up stores in the world’s major fashion centers of New York, Paris and London. It is also important that Uniqlo became successful in the booming Asian markets of China and South Korea, and now we’re expanding throughout the rest of Asia.

Also, a lot of companies limit the type of market they service or sell to, like targeting only the youth, the old, sportswear only, etc., but with us at Uniqlo, we make good products for every age and background of people.

How did you make Uniqlo into the No. 1 brand in Japan, since that is a market with so many competitors?

I feel the reasons for the success of Uniqlo are: we provide and sell products which the customers are happy to buy and which are beneficial to them. For a company, there’s a need for a brand to clearly know where its position is.

I heard you have a bold vision of opening a store in every major US city, and up to 200 stores throughout America, with sales per year of $10 billion in North America alone by 2020. How many stores do you expect to open in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia?



Here in the Philippines, I hope we can open 50 Uniqlo stores in three years, and for other countries in Southeast Asia, we also want the same speed in growth of our retail networks.

The problematic US and Euro-zone economies seem to be relapsing into crises. What is your assessment of the state and future of the world economy? 

Europe, the United States and Japan — these First World economies are not doing well, but the developing countries have better economic growth prospects. There will be short-term changes in the world, but in the long-term, I foresee that the most dynamic economic development and growth will shift from the US and Europe towards rising Asia.

What are the secrets to your personal success?

Luck (laughs). I’ve been lucky … my father was the owner of a clothing business, which provided suits, but I converted it into the casual wear business with the Uniqlo brand in 1984.



Which global fashion brands are your direct competitors?

Zara, Gap, Forever 21 and a brand which is not yet here in the Philippines, H&M.

How big are your total sales per year now?

Maybe we shall reach US$12 billion.



What was your original ambition when you were young?

As a youth, I originally thought I wasn’t suited for business as a career. You know, I just wanted to think of a way to survive without working at all (laughs).

Not a few COOs or child of owners in your situation either become spoiled brats, disobedient, too entitled or unmotivated. How did you enter the family business and excel?

I thought I wasn’t suited for business, but because there were no companies where I could get into, I tried working in our business. I came to realize that I could do business, that I was good at it and enjoy it. Oftentimes, young people, they declare so early in their lives that they are not suited or cut out for certain fields, that they are not good at something, but don’t think this way. I encourage young people to try out first before saying that work, profession or business is not for you. That is my advice.

(Photo below of Tadashi Yanai with Philippine celebrity endorsers basketball star Chris Tiu and actress Iza Calzado in the opening of the Uniqlo store in SM Mall of Asia, Metro Manila in 2012)



Where does your drive to excel come from, your vision to be the world’s No. 1?

Probably it’s because I like competition and I see it as a race. I don’t want to lose to Zara or to any other brands.

That’s also exactly what Rafael Nadal said after he won his record seventh French Open championship: “I have always been afraid to lose...”

(Laughs) Next time the French Open champion will be Novak Djokovic! He’s our international tennis brand ambassador, and he will wear not only our Uniqlo sports wear but our other products, too.

What is your hobby, are you a tennis enthusiast?

I play golf every week.



What is your advice on how our leaders can make the Philippine economy better?

My advice for the Philippines is to open your country more to foreign investors and tourists. Let people come here to invest and to spend more. I also encourage Filipinos to continue developing and utilizing your talents to go abroad and contribute to world progress.

(Photo of Tadashi Yanai with Nobel Prize winner and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus in July 2010 in Tokyo, Japan. Japan's casual clothing brand Uniqlo and Yunus said they would jointly create a textiles company in Bangladesh to help poor women gain financial independence, with Tadashi Yanai's firm Fast Retailing investing US$100,000 to establish Grameen Uniqlo Ltd.)







(August 2012 photo of Uniqlo big boss by Eric Chung of The Wall Street Journal)

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