Fernando De Leon is breaking boundaries as an immigrant billionaire—though he feels “prickly” about demographic labels: “The ethos that aligns with me the most is ‘Texan.’”
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicahunter-hart/2024/12/29/how-daily-fernando-de-leon-border-crossings-helped-turn-this-mexican-american-into-a-billionaire/
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicahunter-hart/2024/12/29/how-daily-fernando-de-leon-border-crossings-helped-turn-this-mexican-american-into-a-billionaire/
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Today on Forbes, how daily border crossings helped turn this Mexican-American into a billionaire.
00:09Decades before his holding company, Leon Capital Group, became a nearly $3 billion in estimated
00:14value conglomerate, Fernando de Leon was a kid living in poverty in Mexico and crossing
00:20the border daily to go to school in Texas.
00:24The only one in his family born in a U.S. hospital, which guaranteed him citizenship
00:28and access to American schools, he'd finish classes in Brownsville, then commute back
00:33to his hometown of Matamoros, where he yet again went to school at night with farmer's
00:38kids.
00:39His Mexican teachers sometimes covered the same material, but earlier in the year, helping
00:43him stay ahead of his U.S. peers.
00:46De Leon, now 46 years old, says that when he was later accepted to Harvard, the first
00:52person to whom he showed his letter was the U.S. border agent, quote, who had seen me
00:56growing up since I was five years old, every single day.
01:01That daily trek led him beyond the Ivy League to a brief stint on Wall Street, but ultimately
01:06steered him back to Texas, where he struck out on his own.
01:09He says, quote, it's company ownership that creates wealth.
01:13That's one of the most hidden secrets in American capitalism.
01:17The other, for him, has been leaning into what he knows, starting with developing working
01:22and middle-class home lots and apartment buildings, then building other businesses that provide
01:26consumer essentials, such as health care.
01:29Today, his Leon capital has 12 operating companies, over a third of which are worth nine figures,
01:36that span 11 industries.
01:39You won't find him developing casinos or ultra-high-end mansions.
01:43Instead, he makes lower-risk bets on the services that people always need, meaning their markets
01:48are less cyclical and have more predictable growth.
01:52Roughly a quarter of his estimated $2.8 billion fortune is now in residential and industrial
01:57real estate, mostly in swelling, sunbelt cities.
02:01Over a third is in health care, cardiology, dental, and ophthalmology centers.
02:07The rest is a diverse mix that spans everything from hair salons to insurance to therapy centers,
02:13nearly all of which expanded out of his original investments in real estate.
02:17De Leon distinguishes himself from private equity because his investments have longer
02:22horizons and he builds companies either from scratch or out of just a handful of locations.
02:28He targets fast-growing areas like Dallas and Phoenix, where the Latino population has
02:32increased especially quickly.
02:35He aims to provide the series of basic services their new residents require.
02:39He says, quote,
02:40I would venture to say our model for investing understands those consumption patterns more
02:45intimately than your ivory tower hedge fund guys.
02:49He adds that he tries to, as a friend once advised him, quote,
02:53focus more on your Matamoros than on your Harvard.
02:57De Leon founded Leon Capital in 2006.
03:00Today, Leon Capital Group has more than 4,000 employees and brings in over $800 million
03:06in annual revenue, with annual returns on its exits at roughly 35% since its inception,
03:12according to the firm.
03:14De Leon is the youngest of six siblings who were all born in Mexico, but De Leon's mother
03:18crossed the border to give birth to him in a U.S. hospital.
03:22He says, quote,
03:23I'm what Donald Trump calls an anchor baby, but a high-tax-paying anchor baby.
03:29While De Leon is one of the richest Mexican-Americans in the nation, his siblings still live humbler
03:34lives.
03:35One's a mechanic, another's a bus driver.
03:38De Leon says, quote,
03:40I got lucky.
03:41I'm an American citizen.
03:42They were not.
03:43That changes the whole game.
03:45Speaking English at a young age, the things I saw, did, you have to start with that one
03:50seminal moment, a pregnant mother driving over the border.
03:55For full coverage, check out Monica Hunter Hart's piece on Forbes.com.
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