Description
Europe’s richest families and their single family offices
We are Europe’s leading information provider for and about single and multi family offices. Our main product is our list of the largest European single family offices. Through our family office news, we provide weekly updates about international family office investments and topics. In this report, we want to deliver as much as possible information about the single family offices of Europe’s wealthiest families. How did they earn their fortune? How and where is the fortune invested? Is there a known family office and how can it be reached?
#1: Arnault Family, France, $230B. Net Worth
The Arnault family made its fortune through acquisitions and mergers in the luxury industry. In 1989, Bernard Arnault was appointed Chairman of LVMH – Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and through acquisitions created the world’s largest luxury holding company with over 80 brands. Their family office is heavily invested in technology, particularly AI, and private equity with a focus on consumer goods. The Arnault family office is called Group Arnault.
#2: Ortega Family, Spain, $103B. Net Worth
The Ortega family made its fortune in the fashion industry, most notably with the Zara brand. The holding company Inditex now has an annual turnover of 26 billion euros, comprising eight different fashion and home brands. His family office, Pontegadea, owns one of the world’s largest property portfolios held by a single family office.
#3: Bettencourt Family, France, $99.5B. Net Worth
The Bettencourt family, led by Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, are the richest women in the world. They own 33% of the world’s largest beauty company, L’Oreal, a company with a market value of 144 billion euros. Their single family office, Téthys Invest, has a strong focus on health and receives the dividends from L’Oreal’s stake each year, giving it significant assets to manage.
#4: Wertheimer Brothers, France, $70B. Net Worth
Brothers Gerard and Alain Wertheimer each own half of Chanel, one of the most iconic brands in luxury and haute couture. As a private company, they published their financial results last year, showing a highly sustainable, healthy business with revenues of nearly $20 billion and profits of nearly $4.7 billion. Its investment strategy is global, risk-averse and innovative. Mousse Partners the Wertheimer family office manages the family’s wealth.
#5: Dumas Family, France, $64B. Net Worth
The Dumas family, owners of the iconic fashion brand Hèrmes, started out in 1837 as a saddlery for the carriages of the royal family in the 19th century but has come a long way since then to become one of the most admired fashion brands in 2019, with a market capitalization of over 66 billion euros. The secrecy, mystery, and exclusivity surrounding the products, which are handcrafted in France by Hermes’ artisans, is part of the reason why investment managers recommend investing in Birkin handbags instead of gold.
#6: Boehringer, von Baumbach Family, Germany, $50B. Net Worth
The Boehringer von Baumbach family owns one of the largest and most research-intensive pharmaceutical companies. They still own 100% of the company, which is not listed on the stock exchange. In 2023, it made an operating income of 4.8 billion euros and reported sales of almost 25.6 billion euros.
#7: Quandt, Klatten Family, Germany, $44B. Net Worth
The Quandt’s/Klattens are one of Germany’s most-known industrial families. They built up their massive wealth in the 20th century, mainly through the restructuring and financing of the “Bayerische Motorenwerke” (BMW), one of Germany’s top car manufacturers. Today, the family is investing in different vehicles. Some family members even manage their wealth and investments through dedicated single family offices. Stefan Quandt invests through the single family office AQTON SE and Susanne Klatten through Skion GmbH.
#8: Ferrero Family, Italy, $43B. Net Worth
Giovanni Ferrero, heir to the Italian Ferrero empire, has led the family business since 2011. Although he stepped down as CEO in 2017. Founded in 1946 in Alba, Italy, Ferrero reported over €18 billion in annual revenue in 2023. The company produces a variety of popular confectionery products, including the iconic Nutella. Its acquisition of Nestlé’s entire U.S. confectionery business for €2.8 billion further strengthened Ferrero’s global presence. The family invests through Brussels-based CTH Invests and Luxembourg-based Teseo Capital.
#9: Van Damme, De Spoelberch, De Mevius Family, Belgium, $40B. Net Worth
The Van Damme, De Spoelberch and De Mevius families made their fortunes by merging their family-owned Belgian breweries. The merger created Interbrew (now Anheuser-Busch InBev). InBev now has a turnover of $59 billion. The family members invest through various investment companies such as Cogepa and Verlinvest.
#10 Schwarz Family, Germany, $38B. Net Worth
German billionaire Dieter Schwarz is the founder of global retail giant Lidl. His journey began when he inherited the company from his father, Josef Schwarz, who in 1930 became a partner in the fruit wholesaler Suedfruechte Grosshandel Lidl & Co. In 1973, Dieter opened the first Lidl discount store in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine. The company later expanded with the launch of another supermarket chain, Kaufland, in 1968. Today, Lidl operates over 12,300 stores in more than 30 countries and generates annual sales of €167.2 billion, making it one of the world’s largest retail chains. In 2024, Dieter Schwarz’s wealth was estimated at around €38 billion, largely from his stake in Lidl. A part of his wealth is managed through the Zukunftsfonds Heilbronn (ZFHN) which describes itself as a privately funded family office.
Information included in our list
- Country of main location
- Company name
- Contact data (URL, address, e-mail, telephone number, executives)*
- Family information (Name, Estimated family assets in M€, Holding structure)*
- Real Estate Focus (Yes/No) / Real Estate Focus Details / Example Real Estate Investments
- Venture Capital Focus (Yes/No) / Details on Venture Capital Focus / Examples of Venture Capital Investments
- Private Equity Focus (Yes/No) / Details on Private Equity Focus / Examples of Private Equity Investments
- Financial assets focus (Yes/No)
- Renewable Energies Focus (Yes/No)
- Other focus (art, forest and agricultural areas, etc.)
- Creation and final review of Excel entries
*Values may be missing if some data points are not publicly available. The “largest single family offices” are defined by the wealthiest European families who actively invest through companies and for whom reliable information is available. With regular, free updates and extensions, we constantly improve the quality of the information.
Picture Source: Aron von de Pol
Last Updated on January 14, 2025
Aron –
Bought this list to find investors for our client, a mid-sized industrial company. The list of familyofficehub helped us to find dozens of suitable family investors within minutes. We sorted the list by private equity investment (yes/no). Results were either PE focused family offices or family holdings which build up their portfolio.
Two things could be improved:
– could be more sfos from Nordics, spain – also a middle east list would be nice
– there are really lots of information, which is not bad, but there could be also are more condensed version. we appreciated the depth, but it took us some minutes to understand all the columns
An –
Great list with extraordinary data quality, many of the major sfos are listed (I can say that with confidence as an industry insider).Nevertheless I’ll only give four stars since a few SFOs are missing.
FORGET –
Very useful database in a segment which lacks transparency.
Good to have an estimate of the size of the FOs.
Our local salespeople were very happy to find names they didn’t know.
Commitment to enlarge the list.
Caroline (verified owner) –
After using familyofficehub’s European database for a few months now, I can say with confidence that it is of strong quality (especially compared to competing US products) and that the team is constantly trying to expand it with relevant additional investors. I believe this is probably the best source of European family office data on the market today, which is a real achievement considering familyofficehub only launched at the beginning of the year. Do keep it up!
Benjamin E Catling (verified owner) –
Decent information on family offices is incredibly hard to find and this is the best source I’ve come across. just having the list is useful but the detailed information on VC investements was a great help to me looking for investors four a startup I’m working with. The information is not all there as would be expected for such a conciously secretive world but as I understand it they are constantly updating the database.
Jan was extremely helpfull with my questions before buying and when I made some mistakes ordering the wrong items Jan helped me sort things out in a flash. Super impressed with the customer service. Very refreshing!
Max F. (verified owner) –
Very good database. 4* because a few e-mails are missing and some e-mails are “info@” and not specific contacts but these instances are quite marginal.
Haven’t found any other such database elsewhere.
+ The team (founders) is very responsive and helpful.
Keep it up
Matteo Marzagalli (verified owner) –
I bought the list and I immediately found it very useful: easy to analyse and fast to check every record.
After two weeks of my purchase, I automatically received the updated version, that it is absolutely a must in this kind of service. I would definitely recommend it!
Constantin Pellissier (verified owner) –
As a French-Belgian M&A adviser, this list has been super useful for a significant fundraising which I needed to launch on a European scale and not strictly on my home base. In short, super valuable data and also great update service! Thank you FamilyOfficeHub!
Federico Ippoliti (verified owner) –
This list is absolutely incredible and an essential resource for prospect research in Europe. Probably the best return of investment on a single resource I have ever made!