Hearing aid demand is creating billionaires
Longer lifespans are music to the ears of the folks at Amplifon SpA.
Shares of the hearing-aid maker more than doubled since the start of 2017, fueled by demand from an aging population, helping to make its biggest shareholder a billionaire. Chairman Susan Carol Holland owns 44.9 percent of the Milanbased firm through her family’s holding company, accounting for most of her $2.3 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The hearing-aid market is forecast to expand almost 6 percent a year through 2022, according to research firm Technavio.
“Once you’re past the age of 35, everyone’s hearing begins to deteriorate,” said Fiona Watts, an audiologist and hearing therapist in Bristol, England. “It’s extremely unusual to see an 80-year-old person who isn’t wearing a hearing aid.”
Holland’s fortune is built on the work of her father Charles.
He started Amplifon in the wake of World War II and the company benefited from the invention of the transistor, which helped hearing aids become smaller. Today, it’s the world’s largest hearing-aid retailer.
Susan Holland joined Amplifon in 1983 and has been chairman since 2011, when she took over from her mother, Anna Maria.
Holland isn’t the only billionaire to recently emerge from the industry.
William Austin, 76, founder of Starkey Hearing Technologies Inc., became a billionaire in 2014. The company counts five presidents, two popes and Dolly Parton among its clients.
Hans-Ueli Rihs, meanwhile, owns 5.7 percent of Sonova Holding AG, the largest provider of hearingcare products by revenue. Shares climbed to a record last month and account for more than half of his $1.1 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg index.