Vicky Safra and her family control the Safra banking empire, which has over $300 billion in assets under management in 26 countries and more than 34,000 employees. Their Sao Paulo-based flagship company Banco Safra had about $45 billion in assets as of December 2020. Real estate assets include London's Gherkin office tower.
Vicky Safra's net worth of $16.2B can buy ...
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The majority of Vicky Safra and her children's fortune is derived from their ownership of a banking empire passed down from Joseph Safra, who died in 2020. The Sao Paulo-based flagship, Banco Safra, reported equity of 13.7 billion reais ($2.6 billion) in 2020. It's valued using the average price-to-book and price-to-earnings multiples of three Brazil banks, Itau, Bradesco and Santander Brasil, and Mexican lender Banorte.
Joseph Safra spent 2 billion francs ($2.1 billion) in 2012 to acquire Bank Sarasin, a wealth-management company based in Basel, Switzerland. He merged it into the parent company for his wealth units in Europe and the Caribbean, creating J. Safra Sarasin. The entity reported 2020 equity of 5.4 billion francs ($5.1 billion). It's valued with the average price-to-book multiples of two Swiss peer companies: Julius Baer Group and EFG International.
Safra National Bank of New York, which reported 2019 equity of $1.1 billion, is valued using the average price-to-book-value multiple of three US peers: Signature Bank, First Republic Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Joseph Safra bought his late brother Moise's 50% stake in the family's banking empire in 2006, and had received more than 6.4 billion reais in dividends since and another 1.4 billion reais from his 2009 sale of a stake in pulp producer Aracruz. The value of the family's cash investments is based on an analysis of dividends, asset sales, taxes and market performance.
The Safras real estate is valued using the 2020 net book value of 1.2 billion euros reported by JS IMMO Luxembourg.
Vicky Safra was born in Greece in 1952, to a Jewish family that would relocate to Brazil in the 1950s. She married at 17 to Joseph Safra, heir to a banking empire, which traces its roots to mid-19th century Aleppo, Syria. They had 4 children and 14 grandchildren.
After Joseph's death in 2020, Vicky and the children took control of the family’s most prized assets, including Switzerland’s J. Safra Sarasin and Brazil’s Banco Safra. She lives in Switzerland.
The Safra family set up Safra Freres & Cie in Aleppo in the 1840s to finance camel trade caravans during the Ottoman Empire. Jacob Safra who moved the family to Brazil following World War II to continue the family tradition, where he established a company to trade in metals, machinery and cattle, and later created a bank. Joseph, his youngest son, joined him in Sao Paulo years later, after studying in England and working at banks in the US and Argentina.