Ex-Banker Builds $19 Billion Fortune From Shipping Boom
- Aponte’s MSC has bought more than 150 vessels since early 2021
- Value for some of its Panamax boats has increased almost 400%
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Gianluigi Aponte left a job in finance to focus on shipping. Now, decades later, he has one of the world’s biggest maritime fortunes.
While the Covid-19 pandemic hurt sales and temporarily halted operations for the cruise-line business of his MSC Group, the company moved rapidly to forge the world’s biggest container lines as oceanic-freight rates surged to records. Along the way, Aponte’s net worth more than doubled to $19 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the 77th-richest person in the world.