The slide in On shares pushes Federer out of the billionaires' club

Roger Federer no longer counts as a billionaire according to the real-time estimates of the American magazine Forbes. His total wealth is now valued at 949 million dollars, around 770 million francs.

The drop below the threshold comes down to a single stock. Shares in On, the Zurich sportswear company in which the former tennis player is a shareholder and investor, lost as much as around 19 per cent in a single session on Wall Street. The sell-off was triggered by quarterly results: despite a significant rise in turnover, revenue came in below analysts' expectations.

A stake of between 2.5 and 3 per cent

According to Forbes estimates, Federer's holding in the company is worth between 2.5 and 3 per cent. The former champion joined On's shareholders in 2019 as a partner and strategic investor, and his name helped build the brand's international profile.

He had only entered the list of billionaires last year, when Forbes included him for the first time. Staying there, however, depends on the daily movement of a listed stock, which makes the ranking sensitive to a single trading session.

The 45-year-old's wealth does not rest on the On stake alone. Sponsorship deals have continued to generate income since he retired from competition in 2022 and involve brands such as Rolex, Lindt, Mercedes-Benz and Uniqlo. To these are added more than 130 million dollars in prize money earned during a career in which he won twenty Grand Slam titles.

The case illustrates how these rankings work. The wealth of people holding stakes in listed companies is recalculated as the market moves, and the billion-dollar mark becomes a line that is crossed in both directions. For On, investors are reacting to the annual guidance rather than to the quarter's accounts, as il Cantonale reported when the company presented its results.