Eric Wittouck moves with billions

15 July 2022
Today at
16:31

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Eric Wittouck, one of the richest Belgians, and his family have received a dividend of 2.025 billion euros through their company Artal Group. It is largely about shifting with a hefty loan.

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Eric Wittouck (75), who made his fortune by selling Tiense Suiker to the German Südzucker, has invested it over the past 30 years in numerous companies such as Weight Watchers. He is possibly the richest Belgian. The American business magazine Forbes estimates his wealth at 9 billion dollars (8.9 billion euros). With us, the website The Richest Belgians amounts to 10.8 billion euros. Wittouck informed the website in 2020 via a right of reply that that amount is ‘imaginative’ and ‘does not correspond to reality’.

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It is a fact that the American investment company Invus, co-controlled by Wittouck, states on its website that it has ‘more than 10 billion dollars’ under management. The Luxembourg Artal Group, one of the man’s many other vehicles, will pay an advance on the dividend of 2.025 billion euros for 2021, according to the recently released annual accounts. That is one of the highest amounts ever for a Belgian shareholder, if not the highest. The richest Belgians reported the dividend.

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Debt

The advance is paid in two ways: via an amount of 53 million euros and via the transfer, within the complex corporate structure of Wittouck, of a debt of 1.972 billion euros. It was originally a loan from ‘the shareholders’ – ie the Wittoucks themselves – to Westend, another Luxembourg firm and the parent company of Artal Group.

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It therefore appears to be largely a vest pocket-pocket operation, in which the debt is settled with a dividend. The loan, of initially 2 billion euros, replaced an older debt that served to move internally with shares in 2003 and which was fully repaid at the end of 2019. It is not clear why Wittouck carries out such large operations within his Luxembourg companies in particular.

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Son Amaury

Eric Wittouck once had to share control of Artal with other family members, but he bought them all out, a well-placed source confirmed to De Tijd last year. In recent years he has increasingly put forward his son Amaury (35), one of his four children, as a key figure in his empire.

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In the Netherlands, Amaury Wittouck has been registered since May as the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO or ultimate beneficial owner) of the Stichting Administratiekantoor (STAK) Westend, the holding company above the Luxembourg firms of the family. His interest is described in the declaration as ‘greater than 75 percent (and less than or equal to 100%)’. STAK Westend does not publish annual accounts.

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Wittouck has regularly been in the news in recent months with new investments. This week, Invus surfaced in a $20 million capital round with US medical technology company Vascular Dynamics. In June, Invus and Gimv were two of the investors in an injection of 96 million euros in the French biotech firm ImCheck Therapeutics.

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Eric Wittouck moves with billions

Debt

Son Amaury

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