Michael & Reiner Schmidt-Ruthenbeck

$1.8B

as of 03/10/20

About Michael & Reiner Schmidt-Ruthenbeck

Secretive brothers Michael Schmidt-Ruthenbeck and Reiner Schmidt are heirs to a piece of the Metro retail fortune.

Their grandfather Karl Schmidt expanded into the wholesale trade in the 1920s, supplying food retailers around Duisburg, Germany.

Karl Schmidt's sons Ernst and Wilhelm (father of Michael and Reiner) opened the first Metro hypermarket in Essen in 1963.

The following year, they formed a partnership with the Haniel family and the late billionaire Otto Beisheim to propagate Metro Cash & Carry.

Metro went public in 1996. In 2017, it split into Metro AG and Ceconomy AG (former consumer electronics business of Metro).

Personal stats

Citizenship

Germany

Source of wealth

retail

Residence

Duisburg, Germany

Birth date

12/09/42 (age 81)

Self-made

inherited