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FASTENER HISTORY
1990 FIN – Forbes Finds One Fastener Billionaire

July 26, 1990 FIN – The latest issue of Forbes magazine ran an article listing billionaires worldwide and came up with 271 businessmen (individuals and their families) who have made or kept a billion or more. Total from the fastener field according to Forbes: one. It’s Martin Hilti, 75, a native of Lichtenstein, whose company, Hilti AG, based in Schaan, near the capitol of Vaduz, chalked up sales of $1.4 billion in worldwide revenues for 1989, according to the July 23, 1990, issue of Forbes.
This year the value of the Hilti family’s shares rose to over $1 billion. Martin Hilti (the ninth of 11 children) along with his brother Eugen, founded Maschinenbau Hilti in 1941 to make auto and truck components.
Later, taking advantage of postwar construction in neighboring countries, Hilti developed guns to shoot bolts, nails and screws into steel or concrete. Martin’s son, Michael, 43, is now the heir apparent of the company with his second son, Markus, 38, running the Western Hemisphere operations – one third of sales – from Tulsa, Oklahoma, of the company’s lines of construction fasteners and tools. As Eastern Europe rebuilds, Hilti, which already has established partnerships with local distributors in most eastern European countries, looks to be sitting pretty. ©1990/2009 Fastener Industry News.
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