Wall Street titan Lionel Pincus, whose private equity firm invested nearly $30 billion in businesses around the world, has died after a long illness, his family said yesterday.
The Warburg Pincus founder and chairman was 78. He died at his Park Avenue home Saturday night.
A private funeral is being planned for family only, with a public memorial later.
Whether investing in such companies as Mattel and 20th Century Fox or donating to Columbia University and the New York Public Library, Pincus was at the forefront of business growth.
“He was an extraordinarily successful investment banker,” said William Zabel, a lawyer who represents Pincus’ two surviving sons. “He had a spotless reputation for integrity in both his professional and personal life.”
But Pincus’ own finances became the object of a messy fight. As his health deteriorated, he was declared incompetent in 2006, a war broke out between his sons and his longtime lover, a Jordanian princess.
His sons, Matthew and Henry Pincus, declared in court papers last year that Princess Firyal exploited their father’s health to grab his millions.
The sons had been trying to sell his $50 million apartment in The Pierre hotel and donate the proceeds to a charitable trust.
But a settlement had been reached in the days before Pincus died, said sources close to the family.
Additional reporting by Dareh Gregorian