Perspectives from ISB

Recently, the Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, compiled a list of the 500 largest family-run businesses. The list provides impressive evidence of the economic power and relevance of family firms across the world.

The index is compiled by the Center for Family Business at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, in cooperation with EY’s Global Family Business Center of Excellence. In this study a family business is defined as one where the family controls more than 50% of the voting rights in privately held firm and at least 32% of the voting rights in publicly listed firms. Around 25 Indian businesses found place in the list. Below we take a glimpse at the top 30 family businesses across the world as per this list.

Rank

Name

Host country

Owned by

Annual revenue (Bn $)

Estd

Employees

1

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

USA

Walton family

476.3

1962

2200000

2

Volkswagen AG

Germany

Porsche family

261.6

1937

572800

3

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

USA

Buffet family

182.2

1955

330745

4

Exor S.p.A.

Italy

Agnelli family

151.1

1927

301441

5

Ford Motor Co.

USA

Ford family

146.9

1903

181000

6

Cargill Inc.

USA

Cargill/MacMillan family

136.7

1865

143000

7

Koch Industries Inc.

USA

Koch family

115.0

1940

100000

8

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

Germany

Quandt family

101.0

1916

110351

9

Schwarz Group

Germany

Schwarz family

89.4

1930

335000

10

Groupe Auchan

France

Mulliez family

85.5

1961

302500

11

Arcelor Mittal

Luxembourg

Mittal family

79.4

1989

232000

12

Louis Dreyfus Holding B.V.

Netherlands

Louis Dreyfus family

74.3

1851

36306

13

Reliance Industries Ltd.

India

Ambani family

72.0

1966

23853

14

Peugeot SA

France

Peugeot family

71.8

1810

207287

15

Comcast Corp

USA

Roberts family

64.7

1963

136000

16

Casino Guichard-Perrachon

France

Naouri family

64.6

1898

329355

17

America Movil SA de CV

Mexico

Carlos Slim and family

61.6

2000

163524

18

Itau Unibanco Banco Multiplo SA

Brazil

Moreira Salles family

57.0

2008

95696

19

Long & Foster Cos. Inc.

USA

Long and Foster family

56.0

1968

11500

20

Roche Holding AG

Switzerland

Hoffman-Roche family

50.5

1896

85080

21

Enterprise Products Partners LP

USA

Duncan family

47.7

1968

6600

22

AP Moeller/Maersk Group

Denmark

Moller family

47.4

1904

88909

23

Continental AG

Germany

Schaeffler family

44.3

1871

177762

24

JBS SA

Brazil

Batista family

43.2

1953

142000

25

Christian Dior SA

France

Arnault family

42.0

1946

117806

26

Odebrecht S.A.

Brazil

Odebrecht & Gradin families

41.3

1944

105000

27

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA

France

Arnault family

38.7

1987

114635

28

Tata Motors Ltd.

India

Tata family

38.2

1945

66593

29

Bechtel Group Inc.

USA

Bechtel family

37.9

1898

52700

30

ALDI Group

Germany

Albrecht family

37.2

1913

100000

 

Source: http://familybusinessindex.com/#map