19-year-old Brazilian heiress becomes youngest billionaire

Livia Voigt, a Brazilian heiress born in July 2004, became the world’s youngest billionaire of the year, according to Forbes on Tuesday (local time). She inherited wealth from her grandfather, Werner Hickardu Poikt, a co-founder of WEG, South America's largest industrial electrical equipment company.

The heiress, who studies psychology in college, has 3.1 percent of WEG’s shares, which are worth 1.1 billion dollars. CNN Brazil explained that this is equivalent to her earning 760,000 real every day since she was born. WEG recorded six billion dollars in sales in 2022 and owns plants in 10 countries.

Voigt’s older sister, 26-year-old Dora Voigt de Assis, also has the same amount of wealth as her younger sister. The two were included in the list of 25 billionaires under 33 in the world.

Forbes added that the share of self-made billionaires is shrinking as wealth is intergenerationally transferred across the world. Only seven out of the 25 young billionaires were self-made.


김윤진 기자 kyj@donga.com