Pursuits
Portugal Billionaire Sells Lollipops, Champagne in Poland
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In 2003, Luis Amaral bought Eurocash SA, a Warsaw-based grocery business, for 120 million Polish zlotys ($30 million). The operation was losing money. Competitors were taking market share. Its owner, Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA, the Lisbon-based retail operation controlled by billionaire Alexandre Soares Dos Santos, wanted nothing to do with it.
Today, Eurocash is Poland’s biggest distributor of non-durable goods, with 19 percent of the market. The company’s value has surged more than 15-fold since selling shares in an initial public offering in 2005, helping Amaral, the 51-year-old chief executive officer and Portugal native, amass a $1.1 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.