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| Homeless Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen |
"I have always spent a lot of time in hotels, so it started to seem easier to do this," Berggruen was quoted as saying. "I feel happier."
He added: "I am not that attached to material things. And the good thing is I can make choices. I have very few possessions. Luckily, as a man you don’t need much... a few papers, a couple of books, and a few shirts, jackets, sweaters. It fits in a little thing, in a paper bag, so it’s very easy."
Using his $250,000 trust fund, Berggruen began building his fortune by buying real estate before moving on to stocks, bonds and a portfolio of private equity and venture funds as well as hedge funds.
In 1984, he founded Berggruen Holdings, Inc. to act as investment adviser to a Berggruen family trust that has made over 50 investments in businesses since its inception. In 1988, he and Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Jr. co-founded Alpha Investment Management, a hedge fund that was reportedly sold to Safra Bank in 2004. Today, the investments Berggruen oversees through Berggruen Holdings are highly diversified, including the Karstadt department store chain in Germany, the Keys Hotels in India, the IEC College chain of vocational schools in California, and assorted energy companies, manufacturing, distribution media and real estate. Forbes magazine estimated Berggruen's net worth at $2.3 billion
Berggruen is not married and has no children. He plans to leave his fortune to charity by setting up a special foundation.
It is worthy of note that Berggruen tries to avoid communication with reporters. He also does his best not to let his name appear in newspapers and magazines. When a Dutch magazine published an article about him, the billionaire simply bought all the copies of the magazine and destroyed them.
Photo courtesy of Berggruen.org
The "Homeless Billionaire" title is a joke. It's trying to imply that he lives like the homeless people that come to mind when you first heard the title. He's not living on the street. He's living in 8 out of 5 star hotels with maids sitting on his bed.
ReplyDeleteHere's some memes I made about him:
http://cmemes.com/homeless-billionaire-memes/