After the death of Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz last fall, the inheritance is now legally regulated. The court of Salzburg transferred the inheritance to his son Mark by decision of March 27, 2023. On April 12, Mark was subsequently registered in the commercial register as the sole shareholder of “Distribution & Marketing GmbH” (D&M) – Mateschitz’s private company.
In a recent report, the magazine “Dossier” described this company as the “piggy bank” of the Red Bull boss. Not only the 49 percent interest in Red Bull GmbH is held there, but also assets worth billions. At the beginning of 2020, some 860 million euros in the form of securities and 356 million euros in cash had already been deposited into the D&M account.
According to D&M’s 2021 Consolidated Financial Statements dated June 15, 2022, assets in stocks, bonds, funds and other securities amount to EUR 1.4 billion, plus EUR 539 million in cash. In 2022, a few months before his death, Mateschitz had another 866 million euros paid out.
Profits immediately reinvested
Since 2012, Red Bull has paid out a total of 6.1 billion euros in dividends – until then the profits were directly reinvested – and 3.36 billion euros went to D&M. Of this, Mateschitz recently took 25 and 65 million euros privately in 2020 and 2021. In any case, D&M developed into a wealthy group of companies that owns many properties, forests and water resources and employs more than 500 people.
Your company according to the consolidated annual accounts: “Motorsport and gastronomy, production and sale of beverages, practicing the profession of master builder and management of agricultural and forestry activities.” According to the magazine, the equity of the private company Mateschitz should now be around 5 billion euros.
Market value not included
The market value of the 49 percent in Red Bull is not included. Dossier compared this to other major energy drink companies: According to the financial analysis firm Morningstar, the listed US competitor “Monster Beverages” is valued at nine times its average annual sales. According to this calculation, Red Bull (turnover in 2022: 9.68 billion euros) would be worth around 88 billion euros and D&M’s share around 43 billion euros.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
