Billionaires Around The World Without Heirs
David Geffen: $7.9 billion (£6bn) College dropout David Geffen made his money through Geffen Records, which signed top artists from Elton John to Nirvana. He co-founded film studio DreamWorks SKG and has also reportedly made hundreds of millions selling artworks. The 75-year-old, who came out in the 1990s, has donated to many causes linked to gay rights and AIDS. His property empire has been valued at $450 million (£344m), and he owns a 453-foot yacht.
Ma Jianrong: $7.9 billion (£6bn) The Shenzhou International Group is not widely known outside Asia, but its products are worn by people all over the world. Ma Jianrong is chair of the sportswear and casual clothing manufacturer, a major supplier for Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo and others. The 55-year-old started out on the factory floor, but took over from his father as chair at 33, before they bought the company. The business is now publicly traded and employs more than 70,000 workers. While he is married, Ma has no children.
Giorgio Armani: $8.6 billion (£6.6bn) Fashion legend Giorgio Armani has said his nephews and nieces will probably inherit his company, though he has no plans to retire himself. The 84-year-old started out as a window dresser in a Milan department store, before launching his own line in the 1970s. His big break came when he designed Richard Gere’s outfits for the 1980 film American Gigolo, and his clothing ranges are now sold in 46 countries worldwide.
Carl Cook: $8.6 billion (£6.6bn) Carl Cook’s parents started a small medical supplies business in their apartment in Bloomington, Indiana in 1963. Today the Cook Group is a manufacturing colossus, producing around 16,000 different devices that are sold worldwide, from catheters to dilators. Carl, 56, became chief executive after his father’s death in 2011 and owns the company, but does not have children himself to bequeath the family fortune.
Pang Kang: $9.5 billion (£7.3bn) Pang Kang, 63, has no son or daughter to inherit his stake in China’s largest soy sauce manufacturer. He joined Foshan Haitian Flavouring & Food as a graduate, working his way up to chairman. Thousands of employees and now smart robots produce more than 200 different condiments at its factories, from oyster sauce to oil.
Eduardo Saverin: $9.5 billion (£7.3bn) Eduardo Saverin is one of the founders of Facebook, though he had to fight a legal battle to be officially credited on its website. The Brazil-born 36-year-old has gained huge wealth through his 2% stake in the social media giant. But he actually left the company in 2004 amid disagreements about the early Facebook’s direction. He is now a venture capitalist in the tech sector, lives in Singapore, and so far has no children.
Jan Koum: $9.6 billion (£7.3bn) Former Yahoo employee Jan Koum is one of the leading brains behind WhatsApp, which he co-founded in 2009. He was born in a Ukrainian village, but moved as a teenager with his late mother to California, where he still lives. Facebook bought WhatsApp for cash and stock worth $22 billion (£16.8bn) in 2014. Koum, 42, is now on Facebook’s board but has donated $555 million (£424.6m) of his shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Mikhail Prokhorov: $9.8 billion (£7.5bn) Mikhail Prokhorov is probably best known for standing unsuccessfully against Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency in 2012. He made his fortune first as chair of Onexim Bank in 1990s, and then as chief executive of a metals firm his bank helped to privatise. Prokhorov, 53, sold his share of Norilsk Nickel in 2008, and has since held stakes in the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and various Russian companies. Some have called him Russia's most eligible bachelor.
Karl Albrecht Jr: $9.96 billion (£7.6bn) Karl Albrecht Sr (pictured) founded supermarket Aldi with his brother in Germany in 1946. They split the business and his half, ALDI SÜD, passed into the hands of his children Karl Jr and Beate Keister. Son Karl Jr, 70, has spent much of his career working at the firm he owns half of, while his sister has not. Yet while she has children, Karl Jr does not and the future of his stake is more up in the air.