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Pietro Ferrero, Heir to Nutella Fortune, Dies While Cycling

Pietro Ferrero, chief executive officer of the Ferrero group, maker of Nutella chocolate spread and Tic Tacs, and heir to Italy’s biggest fortune, died of a suspected heart attack in South Africa. He was 47.

Ferrero died while bicycling yesterday on a coastal road near Cape Town, during a break from a company meeting in South Africa. A passerby saw him fall off his bicycle, and he was declared dead of a suspected heart attack shortly after an ambulance arrived, Western Cape Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said in a telephone interview, Bloomberg reports.

Ferrero had co-run the sweets company with his younger brother Giovanni since 1997, AFP reports.

Their father Michele, 85, who turned the firm into a global leader of the confectionery industry after taking over in 1957, is still the chair — not to mention Italy’s richest man according to the latest ranking by Forbes magazine.

Pietro is survived by his wife and three children, newspaper la Repubblica said.