Re said the company declined to comment on the Perfetti family’s net worth.
Italy’s largest candy fortune belongs to Michele Ferrero, the 87-year-old billionaire who controls Ferrero SpA, the maker of Nutella, Tic Tac and Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
Ferrero International SA, the family’s Luxembourg-based holding company, reported fiscal year 2011 revenue of 7.2 billion euros. Ferrero has a net worth of $24.7 billion, making him the 22nd-richest person in the world, according to the index.
Perfetti Van Melle is valued at $6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, applying its 2011 financial results to the average enterprise value-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and price-to-earnings multiples of four publicly traded peers: Hershey, Pennsylvania- based Hershey Co., Kilchberg, Switzerlands’s Lindt & Spruengli AG, Seoul’s Lotte Confectionery Co. and Mondelez International Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois. Enterprise value is defined as market capitalization plus total debt minus cash.
The brothers, who moved to Switzerland in the early 1980s, shun publicity. No Perfetti family members serve on Perfetti Van Melle’s board, and the company is run by outside managers.
Their uncle, Egidio, was kidnapped by a gang in 1975, and was released several days later. In 1979, a second kidnapping attempt targeting Egidio was foiled. The family decamped to Switzerland shortly afterwards.
Dali Design
In 1980, Perfetti started joint distribution with Van Melle in Eastern and southern Europe, and two years later, opened its first foreign factory, in Greece. In 1986, they acquired Davide Caremoli SpA, a Milan-based company that makes Golia licorice.
Control of the company passed to Augusto and Giorgio in 1989 after their father’s death. Their uncle, Egidio, died two years later without any heirs.
Under the second generation’s ownership, the company expanded its product line and geographical presence beyond Europe, into markets such as Asia and South America. They added production sites in India, China, Vietnam and Brazil. In 2006, Perfetti Van Melle bought Chupa Chups SA, the Spanish lollipop maker whose logo was designed by Salvador Dali, for an undisclosed price.