Margarita Louis-Dreyfus Net Worth 2024

What is Margarita Louis-Dreyfus’ net worth?

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus is a Russian-born businesswoman who has a net worth of $4 billion. Margarita Louis-Dreyfus inherited her fortune because of her marriage to the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Margarita and Robert met in 1988 on a airplane. They married in 1992 and have been collectively till his loss of life from leukemia in 2009. Robert Louis-Dreyfus was the chairman and CEO of Adidas from 1994 to 2004 after which took the reigns at his family enterprise, the Louis Dreyfus Group. Upon his loss of life, Margarita not solely inherited a majority stake within the Louis Dreyfus commodities big, she additionally grew to become the corporate’s chairwoman and has largely run the enterprise within the final decade+.

Unfortunately, the Louis Dreyfus Group has suffered considerably within the years since Robert’s passing. At the time of his loss of life, the stake Margarita inherited was price $10 billion.

Connection to Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Margarita and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are second cousins, as soon as eliminated, by marriage.

Margarita’s late husband Robert Louis-Dreyfus had a cousin named Gerard Louis-Dreyfus. Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Gerard’s daughter. Gerard and Julia’s mom divorced when she was a child. When Gerard died in 2016 his net worth was $4 billion.

Biography

Margarita Olegovna Bogdanova was born in Leningrad, Russia in 1962. Her dad and mom died when she was 11, so she was raised by her grandfather. She studied regulation and economics in Moscow and Leningrad.

In 1988, whereas flying from Zurich to London, Margarita met businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus. At the time she was promoting digital elements in Russia. That flight modified the course of her life. Margarita and Robert married in 1992.

The couple had three sons – Eric in 1992 and twins Maurice and Kyril in 1997.

The Louis Dreyfus Group

Robert died in 2009 after his battle with leukemia and Margarita took over as chairman of the venerable Louis Dreyfus Group. Louis Dreyfus is a worldwide service provider with pursuits in agriculture, meals processing, transport, and finance. It owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, telecommunications infrastructures, and actual property growth.

Over the course of the subsequent decade, Margarita ran the enterprise herself and, for a time, did fairly effectively. She purchased out family members’ stake within the enterprise to extend her holdings from 50% to 96%. She additionally spent some years locked in battles together with her late husband’s family over the enterprise. Those authorized battles got here at a value and in late 2020 she bought 45% of the enterprise to a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi.

When Margarita inherited her late husband’s stake in Louis Dreyfus, the corporate was making tons of of hundreds of thousands yearly in its agriculture, forestry, actual property, and U.S. power buying and selling.  After Robert died, she began setting the technique of the enterprise which induced friction with the chief Robert had left in cost, Jacques Veyrat. Veyrat needed to merge the agricultural enterprise with an up and coming firm referred to as Olam International. Olam wasn’t as giant as Louis Dreyfus but it surely was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, which might have given the Louis-Dreyfus family a straightforward and expedient technique to promote their stakes after a merger. However, Margarita killed the deal and Veyrat give up. Margarita claimed that it was about defending Robert’s kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Almost as quickly because the deal was killed, the remainder of the family put a few of their stakes up on the market. Due to a deal Robert put in place years earlier, Margarita was compelled to purchase the shares at a worth decided by the corporate’s worth and profitability. This was all in the course of the increase years for not simply the corporate, however the entire trade. Margarita paid prime greenback for the shares. She wanted money to purchase the family shares rapidly so she began promoting property. As the earnings for the agricultural enterprise began to fall, her in-laws bought increasingly more shares. Margarita and Louis Dreyfus needed to tackle debt to purchase the shares. She borrowed greater than $1 billion from Credit Suisse and pledged a few of her shares in opposition to the debt.

Margarita additionally went to courtroom when family members sued her over how a lot she ought to pay for the stakes she was obligated to by. Months of authorized battles ended up in a settlement, or, extra precisely, settlements, since every member sued her individually. While all this was taking place Louis Dreyfus’ core enterprise of buying and selling cotton, sugar, and rice was struggling. Annual internet earnings fell from greater than $1 billion in 2010 to lower than $500 million as a result of oversupply of the crops for these merchandise.

In 2019 and early 2020, Credit Suisse began searching for non-public fairness corporations, sovereign wealth funds, and different buying and selling homes a couple of deal. No one was involved in a minority stake in Louis Dreyfus. And then the coronavirus hit and governments throughout the globe needed to safe long-term meals provides for his or her residents. That helped to lift earnings for crop merchants like Louis Dreyfus and the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund got here calling.

After a decade of family battles, Margarita Louis-Dreyfus will find yourself with a 55% stake in Louis Dreyfus, the identical quantity she had in 2009 when her husband died. There is one large distinction although – the commodity buying and selling enterprise is the one asset left, she bought many of the different worthwhile enterprise items of Louis Dreyfus during the last decade.

Olympique de Marseille

In addition to a majority of the Louis Dreyfus Group, Margarita additionally inherited the French Ligue 1 soccer crew, Olympique de Marseille. Robert purchased the crew in 1997. In 2016 Margarita bought 95% of the crew to American businessman, and former LA Dodgers proprietor, Frank McCourt.