Three Belgians are on the list of the world’s billionaires published on Tuesday by Forbes. Erick Wittouck is in 191st place with a personal fortune of 7.6 billion dollars, Patokh Chodiev (2.1 billion) is in 1116th place, while Luc Tack (1.4 billion) is ranked 1605th.
The Wittouck family made its fortune with the Raffinerie Tirlemontoise. Erick Wittouck (72) owes his place in the Forbes ranking to Indus, a New York-based capital-investment firm that manages his money, Forbes noted. Indus generated high yields for Wittouck thanks to investments in Weight Watchers and Blue Buffalo animal products
The second Belgian, 66-year-old Patokh Chodiev, moved up from 1157th place last year to 1116th this year. The Belgian-Uzbek businessman is best known in Belgium for the “Kazakhgate” affair, the circumstances surrounding the 2011 vote on an amendment to the Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure from which he benefitted in a world famous money-laundering court case.
The remaining Belgian on the billionaire list, Luc Tack, is the Director General of the Picanol Group, which manufactures sewing machines and technology for the textile industry. He joined the group in 2009 and now owns close to 90% of its shares. He is also the CEO and executive director of the Tessenderlo Group, which had a turnover of 1.9 billion dollars in 2017, according to Forbes.
The Belgian rankings had previously been led by Baron Albert Frère, Honorary President of the Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL). He died on 3 December 2018 at the age of 92.
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The Brussels Times
