The world's top 20 petrolheads Cover Story
Cover Story The world's top 20 petrolheads
18. Fritz Kaiser, 68 – Entrepreneur, Liechtenstein
MR MOVER AND SHAKER
Fritz Kaiser was a Liechtenstein businessman and a latent petrolhead when he saw an opportunity to combine his passion for cars with his talent for business. During 40 years, he has built a diversified wealth management company worth over $200 million. Now he combines that business savvy with his obsession for classic cars. He is currently building Roarington, which he calls a classic car metaland. A project that could take many years but he is in for the long haul.
F
ritz Kaiser is a true entrepreneur, born and bred in Liechtenstein, he enjoys all the advantages of that status. From small beginnings, Kaiser carved out a mini financial empire, highly regarded for its sure touch and savvy approach to managing money and negotiating deals for its clients. Built up over 41 years, Kaiser now heads a mini conglomerate which includes wealth advisory services, asset management, and since 1999, a fully licenced private bank. He also has three subsidiaries that specialise in classic cars and collecting, sustainable energy and a digital solutions agency. Headquartered in picturesque Vaduz, Liechtenstein, he also has offices in Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Poland and the Philippines. Fritz Kaiser initially made his name in sports management. Back in 1976 he participated at the Olympics in Montreal with the Liechtenstein The FK Simulator: Fritz Kaiser with the collector edition simulator from Pininfarina.
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Judo team. He earned his spurs working under Peter Ritter, a Liechtenstein lawyer and businessman, who was also President of the Olympic Committee. Soon he became the youngest director in his firm. Three decades later, Kaiser took over the Ritter group. He caught the motor racing bug when he was introduced to a young racing driver called Gerhard Berger, whom he began to manage. Kaiser was inspired by the business methods and operating style of legendary sports agent, Mark McCormack, but with a twist. Whilst, McCormack always signed his athletes to lengthy contracts, Kaiser offered short-term contracts. He explained his philosophy back then: “Our contracts were with individuals, and they could be cancelled within a second." Kaiser managed Berger’s career throughout and made the driver one of the best paid on the grid. It was Kaiser’s involvement with Berger that introduced him to Petronas, the Malaysian national oil company, which wanted to expand internationally. Kaiser introduced Petronas into Formula One and thereby initiated what was to become one of the sport’s longest and second biggest ever sponsorships. Not content with this, he also introduced the company that would become Formula One’s biggest-ever sponsor called Red Bull. So his place in Formula One history is assured. Over time Red Bull and Petronas eclipsed even the huge amounts put into the sport by Marlboro and Shell. In fact, the Sauber team, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, would not be around today if it were not for Kaiser. His introduction of Dietrich Mateschitz of Red Bull in late 1994 saved the team from closure. Kaiser negotiated a deal whereby Red Bull boss, Dietrich Mateschitz agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in the company. Peter Sauber's stake was diluted to 24.5 percent and Kaiser took a 24.5 percent stake for
Who is Fritz Kaiser?
Fritz and Birgit Kaiser winning the 2013 Morocco Rallye Maroc Classic in their Mercedes 300 SL Roadster.
arranging the deal. Since then, 28 years later Red Bull has become Formula One’s biggest-ever sponsor and a race car constructor, spending around $5 billion and in the process establishing its brand as the number one energy drink around the world. In the past 27 years, Petronas has spent around $2 billion sponsoring first Sauber, then BMW and finally Mercedes-Benz – both are down to the introductions made by Fritz Kaiser. He says modestly: “I am the business architect and the business visioneer." Many of Kaiser's Liechtenstein staffers are McKinsey trained as he says: "If good customers are treated well, they pay the right sum of money." Kaiser’s words are always spoken cautiously and slowly and only after a great deal of thought. He is not a man for an immediate response, only a considered one, and that has always been his strength. Kaiser left Formula One at the end of the 1999 season when he sold his shares in Sauber back to Peter Sauber and later Red Bull's stake in Sauber to Credit Suisse in 2004. Over the past two decades, Fritz Kaiser began collecting iconic cars from the fifties and sixties. He won the Rallye Maroc Classic with his wife, Birgit as the co-driver. Ten years ago, he established The Classic Car Trust (TCCT), a notfor-profit initiative dedicated to promoting the heritage and preservation of classic cars. TCCT publishes The Key, a annual book that includes the ranking of the top 100 classic car collectors. It also organises forums that bring together
Fritz Kaiser was born in Liechtenstein in 1955 and is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is the owner of the Fritz Kaiser Group and has received multiple accolades, such as 'Wealth Management Innovator of the Year' in Europe by Spear’s Magazine 2011, and was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Princely Family for his contribution to the future of the financial centre. He participated
as a judoka in the 1976 Olympics. In the 1980s, he served as the marketing partner for the German Saloon Car Championship and he earned his place in Formula One history as chairman and co-owner of the Red Bull Sauber Team. As an avid car collector, Kaiser has launched several initiatives to provide a sustainable lifeline to the classic car market.
The pride of Fritz Kaiser’s collection is his Porsche 550 Spyder.
market leaders and collectors." He also created a classic car collectors annual meeting called 'The Circle' which is modelled on the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos of which Kaiser has been one of the prime movers. His third initiative is arguably the most ambitious called roarington.com which he launched in May this year. Roarington is about re-creating a classic car experience virtually in what is generally known as metaland or the metaverse. Kaiser says: “Classic cars now have their own presence in metaland for the first time. We have created a unique digital platform for the real past and present, which can now be replicated in the virtual space. Roarington’s aim is to make the great automobiles of the last century more accessible to a new generation. In doing so, the icons of automotive history will be re-
experienced and at the same time immortalised with the help of their digital twins.” In between all this activity, he is gradually creating his own collection of choice classic cars. Kaiser has his own taste and does not own a car that cannot be called beautiful. His pride is his Porsche 550 Spyder, of which only 90 were made and was known for its countless racing successes. It also became infamous for being the car that iconic actor, James Dean was driving when he was killed in 1955. Today they are worth upwards of $5 million. Kaiser is also one of the few prominent collectors to own a Lamborghini Miura. His is the orange one that appeared in the ‘Italian Job’ movie which wasn’t apparent when he paid $500,000 for the car years ago. With that provenance and a full restoration, it is worth five times as much now and has arguably become the most famous Miura in the world.
Fritz Kaiser is also one of the few prominent collectors to own a Lamborghini Miura. It is a prize winner at Pebble Beach. (Right) Fritz and Birgit Kaiser at the classic 1000 Mille Miglia in Brescia in 2014.
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