Chilean businessman Fernando Larrain Peña, born on January 30, 1934, died this Sunday at age 91. Leader of the country's largest economic conglomerate in the 1980s alongside his brother-in-law Manuel Cruzat, his career involved controlling over 100 companies that were intervened after the 1982 crisis. His family retains control of LarrainVial, Chile's leading investment manager.
Fernando Larrain Peña was a civil engineer from the University of Chile who began his career in the 1960s alongside Javier Vial and Ricardo Claro at Banco Hipotecario de Chile. He later partnered with his brother-in-law Manuel Cruzat Infante to form Chile's largest economic group in the early 1980s, encompassing over 100 companies and representing nearly 50% of the assets of listed firms.
The conglomerate controlled key entities such as Copec, Forestal S.A., Celulosa Arauco y Constitución, Banco Santiago, Pesquera Coloso, Watt´s Alimentos, Abastible, Ladeco, Consorcio Nacional de Seguros, CCU, Viña Santa Carolina, Minera Pudahuel, AFP Provida, and Industrias Tricolor. It also included media outlets like radio Minería and magazines Ercilla and Vea. As academic Fernando Dahse noted in 1983, this group had the most diversified assets and significant political power, alongside the Vial and Edwards groups.
The 1982 economic crisis, triggered by devaluation and the end of the fixed exchange rate, led to heavy dollar-denominated debt and internal transactions between controlled companies and banks, resulting in government intervention. Afterward, Larrain Peña and Cruzat parted ways; he retained control of firms like Watt’s, Viña Santa Carolina, and Tricolor, the last sold to the Brescia group in 2011.
LarrainVial, founded in 1934 by his uncles Fernando and Leonidas Larrain Vial, saw him join in 1958, where he started financial analyses that originated the research department. Married to María Josefina Cruzat Infante, who died in 2017, he had five children. The family holds 47.16% through Chacabuco S.A., and four sons serve on the board: Fernando Larrain Cruzat as president since 1988, Aníbal since 2014, Borja since 2016, and Santiago since 2017, all commercial engineers from Pontificia Universidad Católica.
LarrainVial issued a statement: “Don Fernando Larrain Peña was a distinguished national businessman whose career left a decisive mark on the development of the country's financial and industrial sectors. As president of LarrainVial, he contributed fundamentally to the growth and consolidation of the company, which today has 91 years of history.” The firm manages over US$20 billion, with 850 employees and 50,000 clients in 35 countries. A mass in his honor will be held this Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Parroquia San Francisco de Sales in Vitacura.