The annual Dutch rich list, Quote 500, is out again. The list (nl) of most wealthy people contains the usual suspects. Predicted earlier a jump of the largest shareholders of Optiver and IMC. The estimates for some people have been lowered, and didn’t make it to the list. Rene Schelvis may have spent too much on great cars. And a divorce is expensive.

Anyway. Here’s the list of the seven most wealthy traders of the country. Although most fortunes have been earned with holding shares in trading firms. Only Wiet Pot wasn’t involved in the start of a great trading firm.

7. Ruud Vlek €320 million

Co-founder of Optiver. Takes the 56 spot. Not much is known about Ruud. Has been on the supervisory board of Optiver at least until a few years ago.

6. Chris Oomen €340 million

Another co-founder of Optiver, but these days famous for his health insurance company DSW. Not a regular boring insurance firm, but a rebel which isn’t part of the Dutch cartel. €340 million, 52th spot. Going to switch my health insurance to his firm.

5. Jan van Kuijk €370 million

Founder of Flow Traders together with Roger Hodenius. As the shares of Flow Traders are listed on Euronext Amsterdam – the wealth is easy to calculate. €370 million, 47th spot.

4. Roger HodEnius €370 million

Roger has got the looks, the fancy name and fancy girlfriend. But his net worth is the same as his mate Jan van Kuijk. Ranked on the 46th spot.

3. Johann Kaemingk €570 million

Co-founder and first director of Optiver. This is where the Quote research team is too cautious. I estimate his ownership share of Optiver between 25% – 35%.  Some of the shares may have been distributed to his seven children. He cashed dividends of Optiver’s profits since 1986. Smaller figures in the beginning, but consistent for nearly 30 years. And it’s not a big spender. With Optiver being twice as valuable as IMC, I estimate Johann will be good for a billion. The difference with Rob Defares may be very small, some insiders would place Johann just a bit above Rob.

2. Wiet Pot €725 million

The 23th spot. Quote calls him a co-founder of IMC. That’s not true. He earned his inital fortune as a partner of Goldman Sachs, when the firm went public in 1999. After a brief spell at Kempen & Co (sacked on compliance issues), he bought the a 30% stake in IMC from Rene Schelvis in 2007. Wiet’s picture is from Martijn Steiner Lovisa.

1. Rob Defares €1,1 billion

Modest estimate, but IMC Financial Markets isn’t a public company.  A cut in the valuation makes sense. He has a stake of 62,348% in IMC. The annual dividends alone will be good for a spot on the Quote 500 list. Combined with his IMC shares I expected him to rank higher than just the 15th spot.

With €25.000 he also gave the biggest donation to political party D’66. This political fundraising isn’t a big thing in the low countries. I wouldn’t exactly call Defares the most generous guy I’ve ever met. But that’s another story.

Other news

  • Tullet buys voice brokerage part of ICAP. Also buys the name ICAP. Confusing.
  • Flow Traders is out with the quarterly figures today. Expect them to be good.
  • Some financial websites have created a kind of Oscars for their advertisers the retail financial sector, Gouden Stier awards. The winner on financial innovation was Bux. Great app, good professional team and fair guys behind it. Wrote about them two years ago.
  • DeGiro won in the category best broker. Ah, well.
  • Remember Tim Remie, the winner of the rogue trading award at Nidera? He struck before (WSJ, paywall). Anyway, this is a good email to get in the morning:what what?
Jack