At an age when most women revel at the sight of their newly-born grandchildren, Russian-born Swiss billionaire Margarita Louis-Dreyfus became the mother of twin girls. The business magnate already has three sons, including twin 18-year-old boys.
A spokesperson for Louis-Dreyfus Commodities told Bloomberg that the company's chief executive delivered the babies safely. The 53-year-old mother-of-five will resume work shortly after her postpartum recovery.
According to the Swiss media via The Guardian, the father of the twin girls is Philipp Hildebrand, a former manager of the Swiss central bank. The 52-year-old banker is now the vice president of US-based asset management company BlackRock.
As for Margarita, Forbes and Fortune ranked her the 171st richest person in the world. She is also 21st on the list of most powerful women in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
She married French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus in 1992. Robert was once the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Adidas-Salomon and was a shareholder of French football club Olympique de Marseille. He was also cousins with Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, the father of "Seinfeld" and "Veep" actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Margarita inherited the French commodities corporation following her late husband's death in 2009. The longstanding family firm thrived under her leadership as she made key appointments which revitalized the 165-year-old company. In addition to that, she persuaded board members to afford capital for third-party investors, as per Reuters.
Margarita's acquisition of shares from minority shareholders has greatly increased her company's majority stakes in the past few years. Louis-Dreyfus Commodities now has a presence in over 90 countries. Some of its products include marine transport, coffee, cotton, oils, fertilizers and metal.
Louis-Dreyfus Commodities is considered to be the biggest rice and cotton trader in the world. It's also the world number two in sugar trading. The firm is part of a powerful triumvirate of companies which controls most of the world's agricultural trading.
