How Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis earned £2.5billion and bought £45m of super yachts

owner Evangelos Marinakis boasts a staggering personal fortune and is certainly not afraid to make expensive purchases. The 57-year-old is a popular figure in his native Greece as well as with the fans at the City Ground and even in Portugal.

Marinakis is the main shareholder of a number of companies operating in the shipping, media and football sectors. He has earned a huge fortune of around £2.5billion through his ship management business Capital Maritime Trading Corp.

He founded the company in 2005 and built it into a multi-billion-pound enterprise by investing smartly to grow the brand. In 2017, they managed a fleet of 70 vessels including tankers, dry bulk carriers and container ships.

The following year, the company bought 10 ships capable of transporting liquified natural gas at the cost of a whopping £1.5bn. In 2019, they merged their fleet with DSS Holdings in a deal worth £1.3bn, creating one of the biggest tanker companies in the world.

Marinakis still invests plenty of his cash in the lucrative business, having recently pumped £82million into the company to fund the acquisition of seven platform supply vessels.

Like many billionaires, he has also spent his money on some expensive toys including two lavish superyachts worth a combined £45m. His prized possession is the Amore Mio, which is worth around £20m and has an annual running cost of £1m.

The vessel spans 148 feet and is capable of hosting up to 10 guests as well as seven cabin crew members. Marinakis took delivery of the yacht, which was built by Heesen at their Oss shipyard in the Netherlands, in 2016.

He also owns the Amore Mio II, which is slightly bigger at 170 feet and is thought to be worth around £25m. It has been designed to accommodate up to 10 guests in five luxury suites, while it also has room for 24 cabin crew members.

Marinakis bought Forest in the summer of 2017 and stated his aim for the club to qualify for Europe within five years. While they failed to achieve this goal, they did earn promotion to the Premier League and have successfully established themselves as a top-flight side.

It remains to be seen if the Reds will return to Europe next season, with Nuno Espirito Santo's men currently third in the Premier League table after making an impressive start to the campaign.

Marinakis is also the majority shareholder at Olympiacos, who won the Greek league in each of his first seven seasons at the helm. Additionally, he owns Portuguese club Rio Ave and recently invested around £20m to clear debts and improve facilities.