Despite the global pandemic that has impacted the lives of so many this year, Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz will likely look back on 2020 as a banner year, at least in terms of his personal finances, thanks to a €343m windfall.
The Austrian billionaire and co-founder of the energy drink company is among the happy few who have received a special €550m dividend paid out by Red Bull.
According to filings published on Monday by Austria's market regulator, Red Bull GmbH distributed a €211.4m dividend to the family of Chaleo Yoovidhya, the former Thai duck farmer who invented the company's energy drink and who died in 2012.
But the bulk of the one-off payment was made to Mateschitz, the man who discovered and skillfully marketed through extreme sports - and Formula 1 in particular - the famous beverage, called Krating Daeng in Thai, that gives one's wings.
According to reports, Red Bull sold an estimated 7.5bn cans around the world in 2019.
Mateschitz - a former globetrotting marketer who used to sell toothpaste - discovered the energy drink and its benefits on jet-lag in 1984 on a business trip to Thailand, and subsequently acquired an interest in the founding company in 1987.
Thirty-three years, many billions of cans and 65 wins in Formula 1 later, the 76-year-old billionaire, worth an estimated $27.5bn, still holds a 49% stake in Red Bull, while another 49% is owned by 11 family members of the late Chaleo Yoovidhya. The remaining 2% is in the hands of Chaleo's eldest son, Chalerm.
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says he was surprised by Lewis Hamilton’s decision to join…
Aston Martin has officially requested a ‘right of review’ from the FIA regarding the 10-second…
Mercedes Formula 1 junior driver, Frederik Vesti, is set to experience the electric world of…
Adrian Newey's departure from Red Bull is reportedly imminent, with an official announcement potentially coming…
For many motorsport fans around the world, it's hard to seize the end of April…
After his maiden test at the wheel of an F1 car at the Red Bull…