Bruno Bolfo, founder and major shareholder of Duferco, handed over control of the group (steel, energy, shipping) with a 27 billion turnover at the age of 83. In fact, an era is coming to an end for one of the most important Italian-led multinationals, active in 22 countries with 2,600 employees. It is a soft sale, a passage in the family and perhaps also a way to avoid possible hereditary risks: 50.04% was in fact purchased, according to the documents consulted by the Courier, by his nephew Antonio Gozzi who, on the telephone, confirmed the operation. The financial details of the agreement are not known. The president of Federacciai and his two sons, Vittoria and Augusto, who have already been at the top of the group for some time and have guided its growth, thus rise from 49.96 to 100%.
Bolfo, originally from Lavagna (GE) and resident in Lugano for many years, as a young man he was a Finsider employee, then he set up his own business, becoming a legend in the world of steel trading. He left the capital at the beginning of April, with the same discretion that accompanied him throughout his life. The operation took place between Liechtenstein and Luxembourg where the family holdings are domiciled. The Sesta Trust of Vaduz, Bolfo’s safe, transferred its controlling share of the group to Ultima Holding, the Gozzi family’s Luxembourg company. Among other things, in the 2023 budget just filed, the last one signed by Bolfo, the consolidated net profit as of 30 September grew to 429 million dollars (the current euro/dollar exchange rate is 1.07) from the previous 372 compared of a turnover which, although sharply decreasing due to the reduction in energy prices, was 27 billion (from 45), approximately halfway between Ferrero (17 billion) and Exor (44).
«It is a sale with a payment deferred over time – explains Gozzi when asked about the operation documents but without wanting to go into the economic details – We reunify the ownership and guarantee succession, therefore business continuity. I have just turned 70, Bolfo is 83: his children are in the USA and have not followed the company’s activities: we had to think about the new generations.”
It all began half a century ago when Bolfo, having left the US office of Siderexport (trading company branded Iri-Finsider) moved to Brazil and with 4 Genoese employees created Duferco (merging Dufer and Ferco, two “free” names in the Chamber of Commerce ), then selling the trading operations to a Chinese company many years later.
But we could also go back to 1898 when his maternal grandfather Bartolomeo Pinasco emigrated from Lavagna to Argentina and made his fortune twice. The first by becoming a millionaire with a winning lottery ticket bought on the ship that took him to Buenos Aires and the second by managing that wealth well, making his daughters (including Bolfo’s mother Sara) study, born “Argentine” and sent to Italy where they they are married. And in Italy, Duferco of San Zeno Naviglio (BS), one of the many companies in the group, with the new rolling mill in which 250 million were invested, is the leading producer of construction beams and sells in 60 countries around the world.
