Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2011 as news about Glencore’s IPO; Daniel Maté’s age, his 6.9% stake, the 3.7 billion valuation of his shares and his ranking as Spain’s fourth-largest fortune are figures from that time.
Imagine waking up one morning to find that your net worth has grown by 3.7 billion, without holding a winning lottery ticket. That’s exactly what has happened to Daniel Maté, the man of the moment in media around the world. Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times… they’re all talking today about a man who until now was an unknown Spanish executive and who, thanks to his company’s stock market debut, now owns the fourth-largest fortune in Spain.
Daniel Maté is 47 and holds degrees in law and economics. He comes from a town of about 20,000 people and began his career at the multinational Glencore, where he specialized in metals and gradually acquired shares in the company until he held 6.9% of Glencore.
After the IPO, which put the company’s market value at between 48 and 58 billion, Daniel Maté found that his shares were worth 3.7 billion, making him a billionaire and putting him ahead of many of Spain’s “big fish.”
The only catch with his fortune is that Glencore has a clause banning the sale of shares for at least five years, although Maté has said he has no plans to sell his shares or to stop working.
Further reading
- The only real secrets to getting rich
- Niklas Zennström, the tireless entrepreneur
- The man who had to start a business to save his children’s lives
Featured image: Paradise Chronicle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
