Onassis-like Greek tycoon Yannis Latsis dies

ATHENS, April 17 (Reuters) - Flamboyant shipping tycoon Yannis Latsis, one of Greece's richest men and the father of the founder of prominent Eurobank died on Thursday ending a rags-to-riches story like Aristotle Onassis.
His family said in a statement that Latsis died in his Athens home aged 93. He had been repeatedly hospitalised since suffering a stroke several years ago.

Born in a humble home in the western Peloponese in 1910, Latsis built a financial empire to become one of the richest men in the world.

After attending navy school, Latsis became a sailor and quickly rose in the ranks. He made his fortune in shipping and could until a few years ago still be found entertaining British royals like Prince Charles and ex-U.S. president George Bush aboard his lavish yacht 'Alexander'.

He later diversified by setting up a real estate company and in the 1960s expanded into the oil business with the purchase of a refinery.

In the late 1970s Latsis branched out into finance, buying out Deposit Bank in Geneva from the Onassis family and in 1989 he created the Private Bank&Trust. Euroinvestment Bank followed a year later.

A few years ago, Latsis handed over his financial empire, estimated at six billion Swiss francs, to his son Spiros Latsis.

Aside from the Petrola refinery , Greece's third-largest, a small tanker fleet still flies the Latsis colours.

But the bulk of the extended family's wealth comes from its ownership of EFG Eurobank Ergasias group, Greece's third largest by assets and with a current market capitalisation of 3.2 billion euros. Deutsche Bank also owns 10 percent of EFG Eurobank.

According to Forbes, son Spiro Latsis and his family ranked 101 on its list of the world's richest people in 2003.

(Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos