Top global wealthy families uncommonly collectively reducing holdings, cashing out $7 billion amidst market turbulence.

Against the backdrop of increased concerns about market volatility, some of the world's wealthiest families have cashed in on recent gains through rare stock sales, making profits of about $7 billion. Italian billionaire Agnelli family revealed on Wednesday plans to sell about 3 billion ($3.1 billion) worth of their shares in Ferrari, partly to help expand their investments beyond the supercar manufacturer. On the same day, a fund manager from the mysterious Lehman family announced the sale of shares in Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., valued at about $2.5 billion based on the closing price. The founding family of toy giant Lego applied to sell shares in office services company ISS A/S worth 1.5 billion Danish krone ($2.09 billion) on Tuesday, while last month the South African Rupert family also took a similar action by selling all their shares in British American Tobacco, making a profit of about $1.4 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the total net worth of these four families (excluding the Rupert family, the others remain major investors in the companies after the stock sales) is $75 billion. John Elkann, CEO of the Agnelli family's investment company Exor, said in a statement on Wednesday, "This transaction will allow us to decrease concentration and increase diversification." Super wealthy families often reduce their publicly listed assets to meet liquidity demands and daily wealth planning, with the proceeds usually flowing into private equity, real estate, charities, and other areas. However, large-scale sales of this magnitude within a few days are rare. US President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on major trading partners and equal tariffs in the first few months of his government, leading to increasing anxiety in the volatile market. This uncertainty has put pressure on the US stock market, with the benchmark S&P 500 index falling more than 2% since Trump took office, driving stock markets in other regions (including those in Europe such as ISS, BAT, and Ferrari) to surge. Since Trump's inauguration on January 20 to Thursday, the Stoxx Europe 600 index has risen by over 6%, and the Sandoz family foundation behind Novartis sold about 26 billion Swiss francs ($29 billion) worth of shares in the Swiss pharmaceutical group by about 1.2%. Since Ferrari's initial public offering in New York in 2015, Exor has hardly reduced its Ferrari stake. The investment company plans to use the proceeds from this recent transaction to fund "large-scale" acquisitions and stock buybacks. Since going public, Ferrari's stock price has risen more than seven times, helping it become Exor's largest asset in early last year. Other investments of this Amsterdam-based company include car manufacturer Stellantis NV, tractor maker CNH Industrial NV, and Juventus Football Club.