The richest and most invisible man in Spain

In early 1993 died Pedro Masaveu Peterson, the man who had accumulated the greatest fortune in the history of Spain, around 350,000 million pesetas which, converted to euros and without applying the effect of inflation, would be more than 2,100 million. His name was (and still is) unknown to most, and even more so his image, because no one would have recognized him on the street (it is known that he was a voluminous man and sported a nineteenth-century beard). To give us an idea of the volume of his assets, it should be known that a few months after his death, another great financier of the time died, Emilio Botín-Sanz de Sautuola y López, president of Banco Santander between 1950 and 1986, and his heirs had to pay half of what the Masaveus had paid for inheritance tax. A tax bill of this amount could not go unnoticed by public administrations, and that is why the autonomous communities of Madrid and Asturias spent more than a decade litigating to keep the prize, in a struggle that the Asturians finally won.

When Pedro Masaveu was born, in Asturias, his family had been in business for many years. It all began when Pere Masaveu Rovira, born in Castellar del Vallès in 1828, moved to Oviedo with the intention of traveling to Cuba, the destination of many Catalans. But once in the Asturian capital, he found work in a small textile shop and ended up marrying the owner, who was a widow. The business grew so much that Masaveu called Catalan friends and relatives to join it. A success story that continues to this day had just begun.

Today's protagonist, a member of the fourth family generation, managed to maintain and grow the family empire and also continued his father's passion for the arts and music, who was a patron of the Catalan composer Frederic Mompou Dencausse (1893-1987). The second surname, of Swedish origin, was given because his father, Pedro Masaveu Masaveu (1886-1968), married the daughter of the diplomat Juj Peterson Sjonell. As we said from the beginning, not many details were ever known about Pedro Masaveu's life, but it is known that he graduated in law from the University of Oviedo, that he worked his entire life at the family holding company, and that upon his death he left a collection of paintings with more than six hundred works; in fact, of the 11,000 million pesetas that his heirs had to pay in inheritance tax, about 8,000 million were paid with works of art, which included artists such as Goya, Dalí, or Sorolla. Despite his proverbial austerity, it was known that he had a certain fondness for collecting Maseratis and Mercedes. He never granted interviews nor was he the protagonist of any news in the media; he was Catholic and traditionalist, and never set foot in a party. Masaveu's main residence was Palau d’Hevia, in Siero, a municipality very close to Oviedo.

The investment portfolio he managed was almost infinite; it included banks (he owned 1% of Banesto's capital and a significant stake in Banco Herrero), cement companies (one of the family's original businesses), maritime transport companies (since the beginning of the lineage), and wineries. He was also president of the Masaveu Foundation, a member of the executive committee of Hidroeléctrica del Cantábrico and a member of the board of directors of Banesto. He left this last position – which he had held since 1968 – a few months before his death, when the degenerative illness he suffered from forced him to retire from business activity. When the Princess of Asturias Foundation was created in 1980, he was appointed president and was also one of its main financiers.

Died without descendants

With his death, prematurely, single and without descendants, who inherited the leadership in business was his sister, Cristina Masaveu Peterson (1937-2006), who was also single and who also died without descendants.

Today the Masaveu empire continues to sail with the wind in its sails. The portfolio of participations of the holding, called Corporación Masaveu, includes cement companies, wineries, car parks – that of Vall d'Hebron Hospital is theirs –, real estate business, medical and research centers and investments worldwide in various companies. They are the second largest shareholders of EDP (Electricidade de Portugal). The conglomerate is valued at around 4.3 billion euros.