Corona heiress is on edge about her $12.5 billion beer fortune

Sydney Morning Herald

16 hours ago

In February, Pablo and Tresalia CEO Perez joined Santiago on the board of the Spanish branch of fitness company Barry's Bootcamp, as it raised extra capital without disclosing the financing source. Pablo, the elder of the two, is also a managing director at Tresalia and helps to oversee its private equity division, according to his LinkedIn profile.
'This is not a small family office – it's a small investment management firm,' said Christina Wing, co-founder of Wingspan Legacy Partners, which advises ultra-wealthy families. 'If the people she hired match her strategy, it's a perfect set-up.'
Aramburuzabala declined to comment for this story, as did her son Pablo. Santiago didn't respond to a request for comment.
Aramburuzabala was thrust into the spotlight when her father, Pablo, died of cancer in 1995 at age 63. With no son as his heir-apparent, his death left a leadership vacuum in a business culture traditionally dominated by men.
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'The world caved in on us,' she told The New York Times in a 2002 interview. 'Friends, enemies, boyfriends – everyone wanted control. Less than a month after my father died, we had people coming to tell us that he had left them in charge, and that they were going to manage things for us.'
At issue was the family's stake in Grupo Modelo, the Mexico City-based brewer that Aramburuzabala's grandfather co-founded in 1925. It grew quickly, acquiring Mexican competitors while rolling out new brands. In 1979, it introduced Corona to the US market for the first time, where it eventually became the top-selling imported beer.
Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch began to buy shares of Grupo Modelo in the early 1990s, eventually acquiring about half of the Mexican brewer. Quickly proving herself an adept negotiator, Aramburuzabala helped lead talks to sell the noncontrolling stake. She became vice chair of Grupo Modelo in 1996, the same year she founded Tresalia.
After Belgian brewing giant InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch, the combined behemoth bought the remaining 50 per cent of Grupo Modelo in 2013, paying some $US20 billion. Aramburuzabala helped convince other shareholders to approve the deal after Anheuser-Busch InBev upped its offer price.
While the exact stake the Aramburuzabala family held at the time isn't clear, it was among three major groups of shareholders to profit from the windfall. Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala used part of the proceeds to buy AB InBev shares and joined the company's board along with Valentin Diez Morodo, another descendant of a Grupo Modelo co-founder.
'I don't want to be that typical leader that did everything and then at some point there's a hole and it goes sideways.'
Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala
Overall, the Aramburuzabala family pocketed at least $US3 billion through Grupo Modelo stake sales, according to Bloomberg's wealth index.
Three allies
Aramburuzabala, who has an accounting degree from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, is among a growing population of ultra-wealthy women who've established their own family offices, though few set them up as long ago as the beer heiress.
Tresalia – a portmanteau of Tres Aliadas, or Three Allies, for Aramburuzabala's sister, mother and herself – has over the years invested in and exited businesses like Mexican media company Grupo Televisa, fashion brand Tory Burch and data centre operator Kio Networks.
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It has also stayed close to the fortune's origins in the consumer space, allocating to consumer-goods giant Kraft Heinz and riding the multibillion-dollar coffee bet of JAB Holding alongside other billionaire shareholders of AB InBev such as Alejandro Santo Domingo, the head of Colombia's richest family.
Aramburuzabala stepped down as a director of AB InBev in 2023 after serving a decade on the company's board. She also resigned as a director of beauty company Coty earlier this year, leaving her without any board roles at listed companies.
She's now spending more time on her hobbies such as travel and animal photography. Her passions also include deep-sea diving, an interest she has passed on to her sons, who both describe themselves as ocean explorers.