⬅ # 249 Jonathan Gray|# 251 Pei Zhenhua ➡

# 250 Ludwig Merckle 

$10.2B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 11/18/2024
-$5.3M (-0.05%)

# 250 Ludwig Merckle 

$10.2B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 11/18/2024
-$5.3M (-0.05%)
OccupationCEO, Merckle Service
Source of WealthPharmaceuticals
Age59
ResidenceUlm, Germany
Marital StatusMarried
Children2
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$10.9B
Ludwig Merckle
Ludwig Merckle
Germany
Net worth: $10.2B

Self-Made Score 

Rado Captain Cook Automatic Diving Watch with Stainless Steel Strap

Wealth History

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Biography

Overview

Ludwig Kurt Merckle was born in 1965 in Germany.
He earned a degree in business information technology from the University of Mannheim.
Merckle started his career as a strategic consultant at Roland Berger in 1993.
In 1995, he joined his family's business and became an assistant manager.
By 1997, he rose to the position of CEO of Merckle GmbH, the parent company of Ratiopharm GmbH.
Following his father's suicide in 2009, he took over as CEO of Merckle Service GmbH, steering the family's businesses through a period of crisis and debt.

Career Highlights

Merckle impressively turned around the family's fortune after the 2008 financial crisis.
He sold Ratiopharm, the family's drugmaking arm, to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in 2010 for €3.6 billion.
Merckle nearly had to sell Phoenix Pharma to finance the family's rescue efforts.
He owns significant stakes in HeidelbergCement, holding 27% of the company, and Phoenix Pharma SE.
Merckle is also involved in other ventures, such as owning Kaessbohrer, a snowcat maker, and co-owning Zollern, a company producing bearings, gears, winches, and motors.

Wealth and Holdings

He owns a 27% stake in HeidelbergCement, which is a major contributor to his wealth.
Merckle's other significant holdings include Phoenix Pharma SE, Kaessbohrer, and Zollern.

HeidelbergCement Involvement

HeidelbergCement, formerly known as HeidelbergCement AG, is a German multinational building materials company headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany.
Adolf Merckle, Ludwig's father, was a big investor in HeidelbergCement.
Merckle's involvement in HeidelbergCement significantly contributes to his wealth.
The company operates in around 60 countries with over 57,000 employees and has an extensive production capacity in cement, ready-mixed concrete, and aggregates.
HeidelbergCement's acquisition of Italcementi in 2016 made it the top producer of aggregates globally.

Ludwig Merckle's Wealth is Equivalent to:

7,852,194 Herman Miller Aeron Chairs

Herman Miller Aeron Chair

1,929,991 Gold Bars (50 gram)

24K Solid 50g Gold Ingot

104,247 Tiny Homes

Tiny House, Two Bedroom Solar Prefab Home

How long would it take you to become as rich as Ludwig Merckle?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 43.43% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Ludwig Merckle's net worth of $10.2B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 58.67% compared to 23.91% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Ludwig Merckle is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Ludwig Merckle, Pharmaceuticals is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We only recommend products or services we believe will add value to our readers.

Edited by: Lee Bailey