Otto is the chief executive officer of ECE, a closely held manager of about 200 shopping centers. He owns the Hamburg-based business, and two North American property management companies, with his mother and sister. ECE operates across Europe and its shopping centers house about 19,500 shops.
Alexander Otto's net worth of $7.82B can buy ...
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Otto's biggest asset is ECE Projektmanagement, a Hamburg-based real estate company. He controls this and Toronto-based Park Property Management through his 60% stake in Hamburg-based holding company Kommanditgesellschaft Cura Vermoegensverwaltung. ECE manages 200 shopping centers, according to the company's website.
ECE is valued using an analysis of the historic price-to-assets under management multiple of peer company Patrizia. ECE has 33 billion euros ($37.5 billion) in assets under management, according to its website in August 2020.
The value of Park Property is calculated based on average occupancy rates, revenue, and cap rates according to research service Colliers and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The billionaire also owns 20.9% of closely held retail, financial services and logistics conglomerate Otto Group. It had revenue of 14.3 billion euros in the year ended Feb. 29, 2020, according to its annual report.
The value of his cash investments reflect the equity once held in properties the Ottos sold to Paramount, as well as the family's holdings, which were provided by the person familiar with their fortune. The billionaire's share of these holdings is calculated using his stake in the family holding company.
Other holdings include a 6% stake in U.S. real estate company Paramount Group, according to its 2020 proxy statement, and a 19.5% stake of Deutsche EuroShop, according to its 2019 annual report.
Christian Stamerjohanns, a spokesman for ECE, said the billionaire declined to comment on Bloomberg's net worth calculation.
Alexander Otto was born in Hamburg to Maren and Werner Otto, the founder of the Otto Group, one of the world's largest mail-order companies. After finishing high school in Oxford, he received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Otto started working at the family's closely held real estate business, ECE Projektmanagement in 1994, which today operates in 12 countries and attracts 4.3 million customers to its 199 shopping centers every day, according to its website. He was appointed the company's CEO in 2000, and also serves on the board of the Otto Group.