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José Berardo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
José Berardo
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José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo, GCIH, most commonly known as Joe Berardo, (born July 4, 1944, in Madeira, Portugal), is a Portuguese businessman and stock investor. As of 2007, he is among the top 10 wealthiest Portuguese, with financial assets of over 570 million euros. His estimated total wealth, including stock in large Portuguese banking and telecommunications companies, is over 1,900 million euros.
Contents [hide]
1 Life
2 Stock market
2.1 Long-term stockholding
2.2 S.L. Benfica - Futebol, SAD
3 References
[edit] Life
He was born in Madeira Island, Portugal in 1944, as the seventh child of a modest family. Berardo left school when he was 13 years old and got a low-ranked job in the winery sector of Madeira Wine. At the age of 18, he emigrated to South Africa where he worked in horticulture distribution and eventually set up large commercial ventures, becoming at the end of the 20th century one of the most renowned and wealthiest Portuguese entrepreneurs. In South Africa, he created Egoli Consolidated Mines Ltd, a gold extraction company. Initially, the gold extraction was performed using low-value waste lands that were apparentlly being ignored. Later, the mining company started to deal with diamond mining too. Berardo retuned to Portugal in 1986. He has multiple businesses, including participation in many companies listed on the Euronext Lisbon. His businesses include hotels, tobacco, animal food, telecomunications, banking, and wines. He has a special interest for modern art, being one of the most successful contemporary art collectors in Portugal. By agreement with the Portuguese Government, a foundation - Fundação de Arte Moderna e Contemporânea - Colecção Berardo - was created to support the housing of his art collection at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon.[1] The Berardo Art Collection is estimated at over 315 million euros by Christie's. Berardo is father of two (Cláudia and Renato), born from his marriage with Carolina Conceição. He frequently wears black clothes.[2]
[edit] Stock market
As a very wealthy and active stock trader, Joe Berardo is a central personality on the Portuguese stock exchange Euronext Lisbon, where he trades large amounts of stock throughout the year, oftenly having immediate capital gain as his only perceived goal. He legally uses his foundation - Fundação Berardo as a tool for indirect trading in order to get fiscal benefits.
[edit] Long-term stockholding
He also has long-term investments in large companies, like Millennium BCP bank and Portugal Telecom (PT) telecommunications operator, which are both listed on the Euronext Lisbon. In 2006, he took a prominent part in the struggle against Sonae's very publicized takeover bid over Portugal Telecom. Sonae's takeover bid failed.
[edit] S.L. Benfica - Futebol, SAD
In June 2007, he made a bid in order to buy 60% of S.L. Benfica - Futebol, S.A.D. shares at a stock price of 3.5€/share. Meanwhile Benfica's president Luís Filipe Vieira refused the offer saying "Benfica will always have the majority of the stock".[1] However, Berardo doesn't exclude a major stake in the Futebol, S.A.D. which can be achieved within the 33% free float of publicly traded stock that was issued in the stock market in May 2007. Berardo, who is a registered member of S.L. Benfica and a declared supporter of the club, may become the largest individual stockholder in the S.L. Benfica - Futebol, SAD.