Brachetti Peretti,
the oil dynasty with a passion for wineRome – ''We have faced difficult periods, the oil crisis and the complex relations between the political and industrial worlds but while other Italian and international companies gave up, we became one of the main Groups in the country''.. Aldo Bracchetti Peretti, the patriarch of the oil company in the Marches Region, sums up the history of api- the “a” strictly small case – the company founded at the beginning of the 1930s and today one of the energy leaders in Italy and Europe. This family has a long-standing business tradition but it is not well-known to the general public.
The Brachetti Peretti family is composed of “fierce” business people who have 1/4th royal blood, they are a part of the jet set, they are related to some of the most famous names in European aristocracy but they don’t like to be famous. They rarely appear in the Italian media, both in the financial pages or celebrity gossip ones: they prefer leading a “reserved” life which has combined their “royal” lineage with complex and competitive activities such as those in the oil field and in the electrical energy sector.
The story begins in 1933 when “Cavaliere del Lavoro” Ferdinando Peretti, buys out the Anonima Petroli Italiana from a group of businessmen from the Marches Region. This company had been founded to market and distribute oil products on the local market. In a few years, the company develops and a coastal deposit and then refinery are built in Falconara.
The Group continues to grow and enters into new activities: revenue surpasses the 2.7 billion Euro mark and in 2005 net profits increase 90% to 96 million Euro. Today, the “api galaxy” includes over 30 companies in Italy and abroad and manages the entire oil cycle in a totally integrated manner: the supply of crude oil, trading, refinery, marketing of the oil and oil products, distribution and sale of non-oil consumer goods and now even the production and sale of electrical energy, the new core sector, entrusted to one of the 3rd generation dynasty members.
All throughout its history, the company having the “flying horse” logo has been firmly controlled by the family; first in the hands of Ferdinando Peretti and then in 1977 it passed to his son-in-law, Count Aldo, who had married Ferdinando’s daughter Mila, and now it includes their children. Aldo Brachetti Peretti was born in Fermo in 1932, has a degree in economics from the University of Parma and was recognized by the Italian government as “Cavaliere del Lavoro” at the age of 46. He has been in the oil business for more than a half of century; he is an old-style gentleman and as a businessman he is a first class warrior and as he stated in a recent interview: “I like to fight and win”.
His wife Mila Peretti, the beautiful heiress of the founder of api, has been at his side both in life and work. When they married Aldo Brachetti decided to take her surname and unite it to his. Mila Peretti is involved in volunteer work and in the Italian Red Cross where she is Head Inspector with the grade of general, the only woman in Italy to have this honour. She also sits on the api Board of Administration with two of her four children, her first-born Ferdinando Maria, named after his grandfather, and Ugo Maria. Both sons are in their 40s and they became vice-presidents of the Group in 1993; Ferdinando is at the helm of Api Energia and is involved in the production of electricity.
He is married to princess Mafalda d’Assia and they have two children, Cosmo and Briano. His brother Ugo is at the helm of the oil sector, distribution, marketing and finance; his wife Isabella Borromeo of the Angera royal family is the older sister of Lavinia, the wife of Fiat heir, John Elkann. Ugo and Isabella have a little girl, Angera, named after the place where the Borromeo family castle is found. There are two sisters, Chiara Brachetti – the mother of Nicole, Mila and Ilaria - and Benedetta, who has recently launched a new line of art objects, the B&G, together with Gilberto Arrivabene Gonzaga.
The family fortune has increased with “black gold” but today the patriarch Aldo is involved in other activities which bring him satisfaction. The Brachetti-Peretti family is now producing wine at the Tolentino wine enterprise next to the Renaissance villa bought by the Antici Mattei princes. The president of api is dedicating his time to this new activity successfully: his “Pollenza vintage 2001” wine has won many awards and prestigious recognitions such as the “five grape bunches” given by the Italian Sommelier Association.
This dynasty from the Marches is not only involved in oil and wine but they also love motors and hunting. The first is a love they show by sponsoring various international events, beginning with the World Motorcycle Championship Races. However, Count Aldo said good-bye to hunting some years ago after having seen a deer die because he had injured it.
The true passion of this dynasty is the family: a large clan made up of a wife, four children, sons and daughters-in-law and above all eight grandchildren, some older and some younger, who all unite when possible in the great house in Rome facing Villa Borghese. As “Grandpa” Aldo loves to say “a family which is identified with the history and tradition of api”.
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