The oldest companies in the world. Business as a family value. Key performance indicators

A company is considered a long-lived if it has existed for more than 10 years, and you can’t even talk about such terms as hundreds of years. Domestic businessmen need to learn how to extend the life of their company from foreign companies, because some of them have been functioning for centuries.

Interesting fact number 1:   For example, a construction company in Kongō Gumi Co., Ltdin Japan it was founded in 578, and ended its existence in 2006, that is, after 15 centuries. At first she flourished, building castles for kings, then, during the Second World War, she had to sell coffins. Whether it had to produce corrugated PVC pipes is unknown. But by the end of the 20th century, the company had accumulated a lot of debts and in 2006 it was absorbed by a competing company.

Interesting fact number 2:   Another Japanese worked almost as long hōshi companyspecializing in hotel business. The first inn of this brand was opened for guests in 718. The company was continuously managed by 46 generations of one family.

Interesting fact number 3:   In the capital Of AustriaVienna has a restaurant   Stiftskeller St. Peterfounded in 803 year. During his work, crowned persons also visited here, and even himself Christopher Columbus.

Interesting fact number 4:   One of the first breweries in Bavaria Weihenstephan brewery of bavaria   Beer brewing since 1040, it was then that she received permission to produce this popular drink. Beer can be tasted in this institution today.

Interesting fact number 5:   Another brewery Affligem abbey brewery of belgium, already in Belgium was founded by monks in 1074, and since then the beer recipe has not changed.

Interesting fact number 6:   In Wieliczka the upper levels of salt mines are open for tourists The wieliczka salt saltthat were founded in 1044. At the lower levels of the mines are a restaurant and a church. At one time, the mines were visited by Goethe, Copernicus, Bill Clinton.

Interesting fact number 7: Mint Kremnica in Slovakia   has been issuing coins since 1328. World War II inflicted heavy damage on equipment, but it was gradually restored.


History knows hundreds of examples of how a small family business grew to the size of large companies with millionth turnover. True, today many well-known brands have changed owners, who have owned for 100 years or more. So, once family businesses were Tissot, Chopard and Adidas.

In our today's Top 5 collected the most successful family-owned companieswhose owners manage to maintain control over the business.

5. Est? E Lauder Companies Inc

This American company is the most famous cosmetics manufacturer in the world and the owner of such brands as Estee Lauder, Clinique, M A C, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, American Beauty. Este Lauder founded the company in 1946, which stood at the helm of her business for almost 50 years.

Today, the Lauder family owns more than 83% of the company. Est? E Lauder Companies Inc. He is an employer for 32 thousand people, and the company's annual profit exceeds $ 210 million.

4. Siemens AG

The transnational concern is one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronics, transport, energy equipment, lighting. The company's shares are included in the base for calculating such important stock indices as DAX, S&P, Dow Jones.

The founder of the company in 1847 was a German engineer Werner Siemens, financially supported by a cousin Johann Georg Siemens. The heirs of Werner Siemens turned the company of his grandfather into a powerful corporation, represented in 190 countries. Today, Siemens employs 405 thousand people.

3. Ford Motor Co

The American automobile company is included in the ratings of Fortune 500 and Global 500. The founder of the company in 1903 was Henry Ford, who became famous for being the first to use the conveyor in the process of assembling a car.

For over 100 years, Ford Motor Co has been owned by the Ford family. Ford employs 350 thousand people, and annual profit is more than $ 160 billion.

2. Walmart Stores

The American retail company operates the world's largest retail chain under the Walmart brand. The company is owned by the Walton family, and the son of the company's founder, Robson Walton, is the chairman of the board of directors.

The Walmart network includes more than 10 thousand stores in 27 countries. The company's annual profit is more than $ 200 billion. The total number of employees is more than 2 million people.

1. Samsung Group

One of the world's largest concerns dates back to the rice flour workshop opened in the 1930s by Korean Lee Ben Chol. There is a legend that Lee Ben found money to start a business on the ruins of a burnt house.

Samsung in translation means "three stars." It is believed that the company was named after the three sons of Lee Ben Chol, the youngest of whom, Lee Kun Hee, has long been the head of the family business. Despite his resignation, Lee Kun Hee is the owner of a large stake in the company, as well as the richest person in South Korea.

Today, the annual turnover of the Samsung group of companies is more than $ 200 billion.

We continue the story about the world's oldest brands and companies, begun in the previous article, and offer to get acquainted with a dozen more “long-livers” in the business sphere.

This time we will get acquainted with the best mint of the European continent, ancient breweries, the oldest bar in Europe, the oldest hotel and the oldest construction company, which today fully operate in Japan, as well as other companies with a long history.

The title of "oldest" among the organizations involved in transportation and transportation belongs to the company "Shore Porters" from Scottish Aberdeen, which has been continuously working for over 500 years, starting in 1498, specializing in, among other things, transporting valuable goods from auctions, using This has its own fleet of 30 trucks and minibuses.

2. “Kremnica Mint”

The mint in Slovak Kremnica has almost seven centuries of history, dating back to 1328, when, by decree of the Hungarian King Karl Robert of Anjou. He commanded to mint ducats and florins for circulation in Europe. Since the 14th century, coins issued by Kremnica Mint have been classified as the most solid and high-quality.

Many distilleries in the production of brandy rely on third-party grape suppliers, but Frapin boasts its own magnificent vineyards, which allows it to carefully control the entire process of making alcohol. Thanks to this policy, the company has been successfully operating for as long as 745 years, having started producing cognac back in 1270! Owns a brand of the Frapen dynasty from the French region of Grand Champagne, being a family business.

For hundreds of years, the Effligam Abbey Brewery used a special recipe for making beer, which was borrowed by the Belgian brewers who founded the Affligem Abbey Brewery in 1074, which for 932 remained an independent company before becoming part of the Heineken concern in 2006, but also after of this, the company continued to produce its famous beer at the same factory.

5. "Wieliczka Salt Mine"

Since 1044, salt was mined in salt mines in Wieliczka, near Polish Krakow, and delivered to many countries.

Although the mine has not been working for its intended purpose for a long time, it has been perfectly preserved and is now a popular tourist attraction, which was once visited by the Pope and Bill Clinton.

The oldest hotel in the world, located in the Japanese city of Yamanashi, has been working without interruption since 705, and this achievement is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

Throughout its history, the hotel belongs to one family, and by now 52 generations of its owners have changed, and even positions in business management are inherited.

Such longevity is an additional confirmation that the real estate sector has always been a profitable business. Today, the rental and sale of housing, commercial and industrial premises is also a very profitable business, as evidenced by the huge number of companies in this market and the incredible financial flows involved there. By the way, in Russia, many real estate agencies have switched to online work with clients and acquired their own online representations, such as http://www.prisly.ru, which works in all directions, while covering the whole region.

Another old brewery called Weihenstephan is located in the German city of Freising. It has been working since 1040, producing beer for almost 1000 years under one of the most respected world brands.

One of the oldest pubs in the world is located in the Irish Athlone, laid on an important stretch of the Shannon River, since ancient times offering the safest way through huge swamps. The birthday of Sean’s Bar is considered to be 900, so the establishment has recently turned 1115 years old!

One of the best restaurants in the world has been operating in Salzburg, Austria since 803, originating from the small refectory “St. Peter's Cellar”, the name of which passed to the modern institution by inheritance.

In the 21st century, Stiftskeller St. Peter ”is considered a very prestigious and expensive restaurant, and its clients have been visited by many famous personalities and celebrities in world history.

10. "Kongō Gumi"

Another Japanese long-lived company works in the construction industry. In 578, Kong фирма Gumi was founded in Osaka, specializing in the construction of temples and other buildings for over 14 centuries.

True, in 2006 it was absorbed by Takamatsu Corporation, but at the same time completely retained its identity, becoming just a subsidiary.

According to a study by Italian economists, the richest families in today's Florence are descendants of the richest Florentine families who lived in the city on the Arno River almost 600 years ago.

Many Florentine taxpayers for the 1427th and 2011 years coincide not only surnames and incomes, but also professions. Family business is the most solid and durable. There are several hundred family-owned companies over 200 on the planet. Japan is striking in its long-livers: the age of several Japanese enterprises is approaching one and a half thousand years.

Wine of seven hundred years of aging

Lamberto Frescobaldi lives near Florence, in a medieval castle that belonged to his ancestors for many centuries, and runs a family business. The ancestors of Signor Frescobaldi were winemakers - they delivered red wine to the court of Pope Leo X and Michelangelo.

“A person should feel his legacy in the language,” quotes the 53-year-old Florentine winemaker Bloomberg.

Many generations of the Frescobaldi clan have been involved in maintaining and enhancing their marital status for more than 700 years. For Lamberto, the family heritage is one word - "wine." His acquaintance with red wine took place at the age of six, when Lamberto took part in the summer festival with winegrowers.

“Of course, they could not give me water,” he protects the workers. “After all, I was the son of a master!”

Lamberto Frescobaldi graduated from the University of California at Davis with a degree in Viticulture and now heads the Marchesi Frescobaldi Group. It bottles 11 million bottles of wine per year and is one of the largest in Italy. Lamberto even named his dog Brunello in honor of the Brunello di Montalcino, which is produced by his company.

Before starting wine production in 1308, Frescobaldi was a wool trader and banker. They financed, for example, the wars of King Edward I in Wales and France. The Frescobaldi family left a noticeable mark on the history of Florence. They built the first bridge in the city - the Holy Trinity Bridge. Among the members of this family stand out Giloramo Frescobaldi, one of the most famous composers of the early Baroque, and the poet Dino Frescobaldi. Dino collected and stored the first seven songs of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy when he was sent into exile. This helped Dante complete the brilliant creation.

The Frescobaldi dynasty is not unique to Florence, the main city of Tuscany. Economic analysts at Bank of Italy Guglielmo Barone and Sauro Mochetti decided to track intergenerational mobility in the city of Arno. They compared the data on payments of Florentine taxpayers for the 1427th and 2011 years and found a very significant constancy of socioeconomic status, which has been preserved not for years but for centuries.

Mobility is usually measured by intergenerational elasticity, or the correlation between paternal status and that of an adult son. The elasticity of intergenerational income, i.e. the ease with which individuals can change their income and level of socioeconomic status from generation to generation, is measured from 0 to 1. Zero means complete intergenerational mobility, and 1 means complete inability to change income or status. The higher the elasticity, the lower the mobility. In the case of income by country, for example, elasticity varies widely - from less than 0.2 in the Scandinavian countries to almost 0.5 in Italy, the UK and the USA.

Conference Board of Canada research organization estimates income elasticity in the UK at 0.48, and in Italy at 0.5. These estimates, the London Independent emphasizes, are relatively high compared to countries such as Denmark and Norway, where elasticities are 0.15 and 0.18, respectively.

Florentine phenomenon

Giloramo Frescobaldi was not involved in winemaking, he glorified his family as one of the most famous composers of the early Baroque

Most scientists have explored intergenerational mobility empirically and have paid attention to the correlation of socioeconomic status between two neighboring generations - parents and their children. They share the theory that the economic advantages and disadvantages of previous generations are quickly erased after several decades. American sociologists Gary Becker and Nigel Thomas, for example, argue in Human Capital, The Rise and the Fall of Families (1986) that almost all of the advantages or disadvantages of ancestral incomes disappear over the course of three generations.

Barone and Mochetti hold the opposite point of view.

"The dramatic political, demographic and economic upheavals that occurred in the city (Florence) over six centuries have failed to cut the Gordian knot of socioeconomic heritage," they write in an article on the study and published on the economic portal VoxEU.

Italian economists chose the year 1427 for a reason: Florence, waging a grueling war with Milan, was on the verge of a financial and political collapse. And in order to increase tax collection, Florentine priors copied 10 thousand taxpayers (not only the names and surnames of the heads of families were indicated, but also their profession, income and wealth).

Guglielmo Barone and Sauro Mochetti compared this data with the 2011 Florentine tax returns. It turned out that a good nine hundred surnames exist today. Moreover, many holders of ancient noble names continue to pay high taxes, that is, they are still rich. Of course, due to the peculiarities of Italian surnames (often given at the place of birth) simple coincidences are also possible, but most representatives of the same surnames are nevertheless blood relatives.

Powerful and wealthy guilds dominated the socioeconomic ladder of the city six centuries ago. Among the wealthiest Florentine taxpayers of that time were representatives of the shoe makers' guild, silk, and the wool guild. Representatives of the guild of judges and notaries were quite a bit inferior to them in income.

Lamberto Frescobaldi heads the company Marchesi Frescobaldi, one of the largest in Italy, and his ancestors supplied red wine to the court of Pope Leo X

For example, a number of the wealthiest families in Florence today are the descendants of the most successful shoe makers of the 15th century. In the shoe guild, the coincidence of the names of wealthy taxpayers in 1427 and 2011 is 97%, and in the silk guild and the guild of judges and notaries - 93%. Every third Florentine rich man of the 15th century remains wealthy even today.

Analyzing 2011 tax reports, Italian economists found that the five richest surnames on the list of Florentine taxpayers five years ago, which they do not name for ethical reasons, are generally the same as those who paid the highest taxes 600 years ago. The richest Florentine families in 2011 earned from € 64,228 to € 146,489.

The five poorest taxpayers in Florence in the 15th and 21st centuries also showed great coincidences. The annual income of low-paid Florentines in 2011 ranged from € 5,945 to € 9,702.

A number of professions, such as shoe makers, lawyers, bankers and jewelers, show high temporary stability. A similar positive correlation, although to a lesser extent, has been found in doctors and pharmacists.

"The ancestors of the richest taxpayers of our time occupied the very top of the socioeconomic ladder six centuries ago," Italian scientists say. "This stability can be traced, despite the enormous economic, political and demographic changes and shocks that occurred between the two dates."

A study by Italian economists suggests constancy of status. Moreover, it is the most stable among the richest

A study by Italian economists shows that changes in the size of wealth and socioeconomic status over 25 generations were minimal, and the possibilities for advancing along the socioeconomic ladder in Florence for 600 years are limited.

Guglielmo Barone and Sauro Mocchetti believe that low social and economic mobility is not only unfair by its social nature, it can cause serious harm to society: "Societies characterized by a high transfer of socioeconomic status are often unfair. Low mobility can reduce the effectiveness of such a society, therefore that it is uselessly wasting the talents and experience of its members of low origin. "

According to Barone and Mochetti, the rich are more likely to maintain a high status for centuries - thanks to the so-called "glass floor, which protects the descendants of wealthy people from falling from the economic ladder."

Someone may have associations between the studies of Italian scientists and the French economist Thomas Piketty, the author of the theory about the growth of income inequality, especially in 1% of the richest population. The Italians themselves deny any connection with the works of Piketty, emphasizing that the goal of their study is economic mobility. The point is that the rich remain rich, but it is not implied that they will certainly become richer. Italian economists argue: their study shows the constancy of status, and it is the most stable among the richest.

And the range of studies of Barone and Mochetti is much wider: the focus of their attention is not 1% of the rich, but the whole population of Florence.

By countries and continents

Photo: Science Museum London / DIOMEDIA

In Japan, the percentage of family-owned enterprises among registered firms approaches one hundred (96.5%)

Of course, the condition can be inherited. Parents play an important role in determining social status. Other studies confirm this theory. Sociologists, for example, came to the conclusion that now, 140 years after the abolition of the Japanese samurai estate, their descendants are members of the social elite of the Land of the Rising Sun, despite the fact that samurai and other representatives of the Japanese aristocracy have long lost their privileges, and all Japanese, according to the current constitution, are equal. Gregory Clark, a professor at the University of California, University of California, writes about the preservation of wealth and status for centuries. And it does not hide surprise at how much the well-being and condition of contemporaries depends on what their ancestors did and how successfully they did it several centuries ago.

Logic would seem to suggest that, when it comes to Japan, dramatic social upheavals such as the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ended the feudal system of Japan, or defeats in World War II should give impetus to low social mobility. However, Clark's work refutes this logic.

A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that in many European countries not only wealth and income are “sticky”, but also professions that also pass from generation to generation.

More than a third of the richest Italians inherited their money. In the United States, such 29%, and in China, according to a study conducted in 2014 by the Peterson Institute of International Economics, only 2%.

The highest level of successor billionaires among developed economies is in Germany, 65%. In general, the heirs and heirs make up about half of the Western European billionaires.

“It is hardly possible to find another country where the social origin of income is higher than in Germany,” says Marcel Frattscher, director of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), in a recent book.

The high proportion of family rich people in Germany is partly due to the tax system, which literally until 2016 allowed family companies, including a lot of medium-sized companies, the backbone of the economy, to transfer financial assets by inheritance, while paying a very low special tax.

The descendant of perhaps the richest 16th-century European family, Count Alexander Fugger-Babenhausen, considers maintaining family conditions a great responsibility. The 34-year-old aristocrat recently returned to his homeland after several years of work at a London investment bank. Now he manages family assets and does charity work.

Residents of the Augsburg Fuggerei, cozy two-story houses with terraces, annually pay one Rhine florin bequeathed by Jacob Fugger, which corresponds to the current ... € 0.88. In exchange for a purely symbolic rent, they must say prayers three times a day to save the soul of the founder of the social shelter and his family.

By the way, 140 Fugger apartments also proved their strength by surviving an astronomical number of wars and partial destruction during the Second World War. They were restored according to old plans. The unique decoration of the Renaissance times is also preserved, including, for example, lever mechanisms for opening doors that allowed residents to let guests in without leaving the only heated room in the house.

Family business is the strongest

There are about 200 family-owned companies in the world with an annual turnover exceeding $ 2 billion. Suffice it to say that the largest retail chain of the planet Wal-Mart Stores is family-owned.

Family business plays a very important role in the economies of many countries. His strongest positions are in trade and services. Almost half of the planet’s labor force is occupied by family enterprises; they produce more than half of world GDP.

“Family business came about before the advent of multinational corporations,” Professor William O Hara, director of the Institute for Family Business (IFE) at Bryant University, writes in The Centuries of Success. “He appeared before the industrial revolution. Family business existed before Greece and the Roman Empire. Most of the old family-owned companies, with all their individuality and dissimilarity, are united by the fact that they work in the basic areas of human activity and are engaged in the production of alcoholic beverages and food products, weapons, transportation of goods, construction, etc. "

In Japan, the percentage of family enterprises among registered firms is approaching one hundred (96.5%). Quite a bit inferior to the Japanese Indians and Mexicans. In these countries, the share of family business is 95%

If we talk about geography, the family business got the most development in three countries. In Japan, the percentage of family enterprises among registered firms is approaching one hundred (96.5%). Quite a bit inferior to the Japanese Indians and Mexicans. In these countries, the share of family business is 95%.

According to American economists Melissa Shanker and Joseph Astrahan, there are 24 million family-owned businesses in the United States. 62% of all American workers work for them, and their contribution to the country's GDP is 64%. BusinessWeek magazine estimated that in 2006, more than a third of Fortune 500 members (35%) were family-owned.

The view that family-owned businesses are short-lived is hardly true: Family Business magazine has counted several hundred family-owned companies that are more than two centuries old.

Some ten years ago, the oldest construction company on the planet was considered the Japanese construction company Kongo Gumi. She continues to work now, but, alas, she has left the category of family ones.

The family business was founded by carpenter Shigemitsu Congo, who arrived in Osaka at the end of the 6th century with his family and numerous relatives from the Korean kingdom of Baekje. He built the Shitenoji Temple in the ancient capital of Japan, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the country. Construction, which began in 578, lasted for a decade and a half.

Congo took root in Osaka and founded a company whose age today exceeds 14 centuries! Kongo Gumi specialized in the construction of religious buildings, and the Congovians have preserved this specialization to this day. In 2004, for example, temples brought almost 80% of revenues, amounting to $ 67.6 million.

The Congo family is first mentioned in one of Japan's oldest written monuments, Nihon Seki, dating from 720. For 1428 years the company was led by 40 presidents. They all bore the name Congo, although not all were born Congo. When the sons were transferred to the family, the company was headed by sons-in-law. Prerequisite: they should have taken the name of the founder of the business. Unlike most family-owned companies that automatically transfer to their eldest son, Kongo has always become president, regardless of seniority, the most capable son or son-in-law.

Kongo carefully preserves history and traditions. The company's latest president, Masakazu Congo, claims that 90% of the carpentry technology used by Shigemitsu is still in use today.

In the three-meter scroll with a list of company executives, there is only one female name: Yoshi Congo led the family business after the suicide of the 37th president.

After the Meiji Restoration, authorities stopped financing the construction of temples. The financial position of the company began to deteriorate. In the 20th century, Kongo also had to build schools, nursing homes and other buildings and structures, and even make coffins during the war.

In 2004, Kongo's profit decreased by more than a third - by 35% compared with 1998. Layoffs of workers and austerity on everything, including office supplies, did not help. Debts reached $ 343 million. By the beginning of 2006, the company could no longer service them. Ten years ago, Masakazu declared a company with 100 employees bankrupt. The company was bought by the construction giant Takamatsu. Kongo retained the name, but became one of the units of Takamatsu.

After the “death” of Kongo, the title of the oldest family company passed to another Japanese company - now the oldest is Hoshi Ryokan, which has been engaged in the hotel business for nearly 1300 years.

Hoshi owns a hotel in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture. Her date of birth is 718. According to legend, the god of the sacred mountain Hakusan told the Buddhist priest Taiko in a dream to find an underground source of hot water with healing properties. The source was found at the indicated location. Taiko ordered the carpenter Gario Hoshi to build an inn near him, which later became the Hoshi hotel.

Photo: Sergey Vishnevsky, Kommersant

Ten years ago, the oldest company on the planet was considered the Japanese construction company Kongo Gumi, founded by Shigemitsu Congo, who came to Osaka at the end of the VI century and built the Shitenoji Temple in the ancient capital of Japan

One hundred and smaller Hoshi rooms can accommodate about 450 guests. The owners of the hotel for 1298 years were 46 generations of descendants of Gario. Now it belongs to Zengoro Hoshi.

Of course, there are representatives of the Old World on the list of family companies with a long history. The oldest of them, until recently, was the French company Chateau de Goulaine, whose main area of \u200b\u200bactivity is still winemaking. The Gulen family owns a medieval castle located near Nantes, built around 1000, and extensive vineyards. The castle has a museum with a large collection of rare butterflies, weddings and other celebrations are often held.

This spring, the Gulen put up a castle with vineyards for sale. Therefore, the title of the oldest family company in Europe may soon pass to the Italian Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli, specializing in the molding of church bells. For a thousand years, the foundry has been located in the very center of the peninsula, in the town of Agnone. Like in Kongo, Marinelli casters still use waxing techniques invented by the founder of the company.

The company's bells ring in the churches of New York, Beijing, Seoul, Jerusalem, European and South American cities. Marinelli leads Pascale Marinelli. The company employs 20 people, a quarter of them are named Marinelli.

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Why are family-friendly companies attractive?

Family-owned companies are ahead of their non-family competitors in terms of profitability, return on investment, revenue dynamics and EBITDA, according to a report by The CS Family 1000. Credit Suisse experts explain this by the peculiarities in their approach to financial management. Representatives of the “dynastic” business pay more attention to balance stability and try not to resort to borrowing from external sources once again, financing the business at their own expense, as a result, the ratio of net debt to EBITDA (profit before interest, taxes and depreciation expenses) in such companies are below average by 20%. As a result, they are less likely than non-family companies to depend on fluctuations in interest rates and are more likely to experience periods of market instability.

Photo: Michele Limina / Bloomberg

The decisions in such companies are made by the board of directors more quickly, especially if there is a representative of the founder or owner’s family among the board members. “Thanks to this, coordination between all shareholders is faster. And the faster, the often more effective, ”says Bogdan Zvarich, senior analyst at Freedom Finance. In the case of a large dispersion of shares among minority shareholders, the approval process on important issues may be delayed, and due to uncertainty, the value of the company's securities may decrease, the expert explains. However, this type of management also has disadvantages - it may be deprived of objectivity when making decisions, warns investment analyst of Veles Capital investment company Alexey Adonin. In his opinion, the more independent directors are on the board, the better it will be for managing the company.

The human factor also remains important. “A family company is effective when the owner attaches great importance to family traditions or continues them when it comes to the second and next generations,” says partner Anton Eronst & Young and the head of the private customer service group in the CIS, who explores family business in Russia. The owner of a family-owned company does not regard business as a means of receiving immediate money, but as a mission and business of his life and future generations, the expert notes.

And what about Russia?

Domestic portfolio managers believe that the conclusions of Swiss analysts on the global market should not be rushed to apply to Russian practice. “Family-owned companies have been formed in the West for centuries, and our companies have existed in the market not so long ago so that we can work out and evaluate the impact of continuity and family traditions on the financial results of a business. And the market economy itself is a little over 20 years old, ”says Bogdan Zvarich.

According to Credit Suisse, the average age of family-owned companies in developed countries in Europe is 80 years old, in the US - 61 years, in Latin America - 44 years, in Asia - 37 years, and in countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa - 30 years.

Nevertheless, in Russia there are family companies. Ernst & Young analysts, together with the Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), have identified 12 enterprises in Russia, the controlling share of which or the decisive vote on the board of directors belongs to one couple and nine of them can be bought on the stock exchange. These 12 Russian companies were included in the study of 500 companies from all over the world, where the family had a share of ownership or the number of votes on the board of directors more than 32% for public companies and 50% for non-public ones. From public family companies, Rusal, Sistema, Magnit, Dixy Group, Severstal, Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works (NLMK), Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) were rated E&Y; Mechel, from non-public ones - T Plus, Stroygazmontazh, SUEK.

According to the authors of the rating, the share of shares belonging to one family in these companies is 40-100%. All this belongs to the families of famous billionaires - Deripaska, Yevtushenkov, Galitsky, Lisin, Melnichenko, Mordashov, Rotenbergs, Vekselberg, Zyuzin, Pumpyansky, Kesaev and Katsiev.

Most Russian family companies from the sample are represented by the metallurgical sector. From October 2007 to October 2017, the industry index of metals and mining of the Moscow Exchange grew by 68%, and it is with it that it is rational to compare the dynamics of individual securities of metallurgical companies. Over the past ten years, the market value of NLMK and MMK shares has grown by 37%, Severstal - by 53%. TMK shares during this time decreased by 77%. Securities of Mechel and Rusal entered the market later than ten years ago, but their dynamics was many times worse than the dynamics of the industry index.

Dixy and Magnet represent the consumer sector. The corresponding industry index of the Moscow Exchange for ten years rose 2.2 times. During the same period, Dixy shares lost about 7% of their value. Magnit shares rose 8.58 times during the same period.


Photo: Oleg Kharseev / Kommersant

The shares of AFK Sistema (which controls assets from various sectors of the economy) fell by 65% \u200b\u200bover ten years. The MICEX index has grown by about 20% during this time.

Thus, out of the nine securities under consideration, the market as a whole (according to the MICEX index) was able to outperform only four companies' securities, and only Magnit shares were able to beat their sector (according to industry indices of the Moscow Exchange).

To take or not to take

Russian experts believe that it is worth taking a closer look at the securities of such enterprises, but in no case make decisions about investing in them just because world statistics show attractive returns for investors. In their opinion, it is worth paying attention to the identity of the owner himself, his plans to transfer the business to relatives, as well as the willingness of the latter to accept and competently conduct it. “At the helm of all companies that could be attributed to this category are still the founders, that is, the first generation. Therefore, there is no need to talk about continuity and its consequences, ”says Bogdan Zvarich.

But the current leaders are not going to transfer the business to future generations. According to a survey of about 3 thousand owners and heads of family companies in the world, conducted in 2016 by PwC, in Russia, only 9% of the businessmen surveyed plan to transfer their children to business versus 39% in the world, but 39% versus 17% plan to sell it in our country in the world.

“We have not developed a tradition of inheriting a business. Money is more valued here and now than the fortune that children will have thanks to business, ”says Anton Ionov. “More often there is a scheme that a businessman sells his shares to a partner, and already gives the proceeds from them to his heirs,” said Viktor Markov, senior analyst at Zerich Capital Management. Therefore, global trends cannot be applied to the Russian market, which does not have so much experience.

 

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