Swiss businessman Jose Maria Aristrain is the former owner of steelmaker Arcelor and has an estimated net worth of $1 billion as of March 2013. According to Forbes, he is the 17th richest person in Spain and 1342nd in the list of World Billionaires.

Jose Maria Aristrain de la Cruz has earned his estimated net worth of $1 billion when he inherited Arcelor from his father who founded the company in 1955. He took over the firm in 1986 when his father died in a helicopter accident.

In 2006, Mr. Aristrain has backed Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal during his successful bid to merge the steel groups Arcelor and Mittal Steel. After the venture, he got a sizeable stake in Arcelor Mittal which is the largest steel company in the world. The company’s shares were down in 2011 and have not yet recovered. In fact, these have fallen further still.

A media-shy person, Jose Maria reportedly has never travelled in public without a bodyguard because he has feared kidnapping and assassination attempts by the Basque separatists. He owns Ganaderias Aquadulce, a cattle ranch in the south of Spain where he raises bulls used for bullfighting.