The King of rare earth metals

Italian financier Raffaello Follieri is the owner of Follieri Energy SA, and has worked successfully for the past seven years building and managing 162 petrol stations and three storage facilities in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. The company has a market capitalisation of 150 million Euros.

The focus of the company is the transition from fossil fuels to green energy, in particular EV chargers and hydrogen.

In April 2022, Follieri sold his minority shares holdings of BLS LTD, a shipping company owing 25 aframax tankers, to a major Middle Eastern fund for 1.5 billion Euros.

A pioneer of rare metal trading, Follieri has reportedly under his control eight percent of the global market and products with added value of roughly 30 billion Euros.

He is an early investor in mining operations around the globe who has been able to secure hard-to-source commodities such as rare earths.

Following the Ukrainian war and embargo imposed on major Russian traders, Follieri has had success extending control over this specific market, earning him the moniker 'king of rare earths'.

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