German billionaire, Karl-Erivan Haub, has gone missing in the Swiss Alps. Haub is the chief of Germany’s sprawling Tengelmann retail group.

The 58-year-old failed to return on Saturday from a ski excursion on the Klein Matterhorn, a glacier-shrouded peak that is the highest in Europe reachable by cable car.

“My brother is a very experienced ski mountaineer, so despite the time that has passed since (his disappearance) we aren’t giving up hope of finding him soon,” Christian Haub, who jointly manages the Tengelmann group with Karl-Erivan, wrote in a letter to employees seen by German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

“Please cross your fingers for us to find my brother quickly,” he asked.

“The family has made unlimited resources available to the search teams,” mountain rescue leader for the Aosta valley Adriano Favre told Swiss newspaper Blick, “but in these conditions they’re useless,” pointing to bad weather on the Italian side of the mountains.

Privately held Tengelmann Group is among the world’s largest retail supermarket and distribution groups, ranking number four behind Wal-Mart of the United States and Germany’s Rewe and Metro AG. In the United States and Canada, Tengelmann has majority control of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, better known to North America’s shoppers as A&P, but also including the Kohls, Waldbaums, Super Fresh, and Food Emporium banners in the United States, and the Dominion and Miracle Food Mart names in Canada.

The success of the Tengelmann group has lifted the family into one of the richest families in the world.

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