Revenue: $125 billion Public: noEmployees: 120,000Family: KochFamily interest: 84 percentHeadquarters: Wichita, Kansas, USAFounded: 1940
Founded in 1940, the mixed company is active in the petroleum, natural gas, chemical, energy, asphalt, fertilizer, food, glass and plastics sectors. For a long time, the two brothers David and Charles Koch (87), who ran the company in the second generation, were behind the conglomerate with companies such as Molex, Invista or Walldorf Automation and Computer Technology. It is led by Charles, who serves as both Chairman of the Board and CEO. David died in 2019, his widow Julia Koch (61) lists “Forbes” as the third richest woman in the world with $ 56.2 billion.
The family still owns 84 percent of the shares in the conglomerate. In the Bloomberg ranking of the wealthiest families, the Kochs rank third with a combined fortune of $128.8 billion.
Charles Koch also pushed the real estate business during the pandemic. So the billionaire bought an unfinished multi-billion dollar hotel and casino in Las Vegas and invested in real estate funds Ladder Capital and Amherst Holdings. He was also involved when the US media company Meredith Corporation bought The Times for $2.8 billion in 2017. At that time, the fund Koch Equity Development supported the transaction.