MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Head of Lucsik group and Chile's richest man dies

Andronico Lucsik, Chile's richest businessman with an estimated fortune of 3,4 billion US dollars, (Forbes magazine), died this week in Santiago at the age of 78.

Son of Croatian immigrants he retired last year from the Luksic Group which controls among other businesses Banco de Chile; Hotel Carrera, Lucchetti Foods; Telefonica del Sur, San Pedro Winery and Quiñenco Antofagasta Minerals.

Born in the northern city of Antofagasta, close to Bolivia he became involved in business by acquiring in 1952, 25% of a copper mine, which he later sold to Japanese investors for "half a million", which he believed were Chilean pesos. But the Japanese actually paid half a million US dollars and it was the take off for his empire.

In the sixties he began diversifying into industry, agriculture and transport. In the eighties the conglomerate really took off and in the nineties became one of the largest and most profitable in South American subcontinent.

The conglomerate is organized in two main groups; Quiñenco which includes financial and industrial businesses and Antofagasta Minerals, mining Aguas Antofagasta (water supply) and the train linking Antofagasta with La Paz, Bolivia.

Last year he retired after having handed over the different areas of the conglomerate to his three sons, Andronico, Guillermo and Jean Paul.

According to the Chilean press, representatives from all political parties praised Mr. Luksic for his responsible business conduct during his whole life.