Obituary: Abilio Diniz, Brazilian retail billionaire of Pao do Acucar and Carrefour

Diniz died at a hospital in Sao Paulo, the place he was being handled for respiratory failure attributable to pneumonia, a spokesperson for his household and funding agency stated on Sunday.

Considered a enterprise guru by many in his dwelling nation, Diniz, the son of a Portuguese immigrant, helped his father convert a household bakery into Brazil’s greatest retailer, Cia. Brasileira de Distribuicao. Referred to as Pao de Acucar — “Sugar Loaf,” the title of a well-known mountain in Rio de Janeiro — the chain of shops revolutionized purchasing in Brazil with the huge choices of its mixed supermarkets and malls. Amongst different improvements, it launched its personal sports activities model, PA Membership, in 2001, and its personal well being meals label, Taeq, in 2006. It began taking orders by fax, phone or private computer systems in 1995.

Having misplaced management of Pao de Acucar in 2012 after a high-profile company showdown with French grocery store operator On line casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, Diniz constructed a stake in France’s Carrefour SA by his household workplace and joined its board in 2016. In his later years he devoted himself to health, household, investments and internet hosting a program on CNN Brasil the place he interviewed fellow enterprise executives about their careers. He ended that present by telling his viewers he was optimistic in regards to the prospects of a greater Brazil.

“Brazil has lost one of its most brilliant and inspirational personalities,” Rubens Menin, a businessman and chairman of CNN Brasil stated in a LinkedIn post. “Abilio Diniz created opportunities and transformed realities.”

Diniz, who had a internet value of $1.2 billion in response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, drew inspiration from retail companies he visited throughout his travels to Europe and the US and made adjustments to his enterprise at dwelling based mostly on what he realized. He pioneered the supercenter idea in Brazil, snapping up rivals and increasing nationwide, whereas additionally putting places at main intersections and alongside bus and practice strains. 

At one level, he opened models in Spain, Portugal and Angola. He additionally sat on the federal government’s nationwide financial council for a decade. 

Largest Stake

His father, Valentim, started distributing shares to his kids based mostly on their efficiency within the household enterprise, which had grown right into a behemoth. Abilio obtained the most important stake of about 16%, every of his two brothers obtained 8% whereas his sisters got 2% a chunk, in response to Cristiane Correa, who wrote a e-book about Abilio revealed in 2015. 

This set the stage for a collection of household squabbles that pitted him towards his siblings and mom and culminated in 1994 when Abilio bought most of their shares and have become the bulk proprietor.

Whereas he portrayed himself as an inspirational chief, and repeated in his two best-selling autobiographies that “if he could do it, anyone could,” Diniz’s administration fashion was usually seen as authoritarian and led to conflicts that obtained in depth press protection and helped flip him into one thing of a star. In addition to the dispute along with his siblings, he later waged his greatest combat with On line casino’s Jean-Charles Naouri.

In 1989, he turned one of the high-profile kidnapping victims within the nation. Diniz was saved in a three-cubic meters underground cell with no lavatory for every week till the criminals have been caught. The pictures of a dazed, unshaved Diniz strolling out of captivity have been on the entrance pages of all of the nation’s newspapers and the case helped form an anti-kidnapping legislation.

He later stated the kidnapping led him to remedy and to acknowledge and tame a few of his shortcomings, corresponding to his mood.

Abilio dos Santos Diniz was born on Dec. 28, 1936, in Sao Paulo. He recalled being chubby at age 12, which led him to start out boxing to defend himself from bullies. He turned a extremely aggressive sportsman and a well being fanatic. He additionally was a training Catholic. 

In his 80s, he would nonetheless field, play paddle sports activities, elevate weights and run backwards on a treadmill to take care of his steadiness. 

He studied enterprise administration and graduated from the esteemed Getulio Vargas Basis in 1959. That 12 months, he and his father opened the primary Pao de Acucar grocery store. He began as a gross sales supervisor and labored his approach as much as chairman of the chain’s board of administrators. 

Within the Nineties, Pao de Acucar was struggling from a big debt load and payroll. After elevating money by an preliminary public providing in 1995, Diniz offered a 24% stake to On line casino Guichard-Perrachon in 1999 for about $1 billion. Six years later, On line casino snapped up extra shares, changing into co-controllers, and gained an choice to take full management some years later. 

Because the deadline for On line casino to train its possibility neared, Diniz tried desperately to fend off Naouri, together with a proposed merger with Carrefour’s native belongings, however by 2013 he had misplaced management. A 12 months later he had offered the final of his shares.

‘Reinvented Himself’

He rebounded by changing into chairman of BRF SA, one of many world’s largest poultry producers and amassing a stake within the agency, solely to be forced out in 2018 after his makes an attempt to restructure operations towards a extra consumer-led enterprise from an industrial-based one, led BRF to put up its largest-ever annual loss that 12 months.

“Abilio has reinvented himself through time, and that’s what I admire the most in him,” Flavia Almeida, who runs Diniz’s household workplace Peninsula Participacoes and is a Carrefour board member, stated in a 2019 interview on the agency’s places of work in Sao Paulo.

Peninsula is the second-biggest shareholder in Carrefour with a stake of 8.4% and 13.7% of precise voting rights, in response to the 2022 annual report. The French retailer, which reviews earnings on Tuesday, gained 0.6%.

Along with its Carrefour stake, the household workplace has invested in startups, launched its personal hedge funds and supported social initiatives together with sports activities and training by a basis. 

“An outstanding entrepreneur,” Diniz “devoted his entire professional life to retail,” Carrefour stated in an announcement. “His exception human qualities, insatiable energy and in-depth knowledge of the retail business made a unique contribution” to the board of administrators.

He’s survived by his second spouse, Geyze, and 5 of his six kids: Ana Maria, Pedro Paulo, Adriana, Rafaela and Miguel. His son Joao Paulo died in 2022.