Germany’s Richest Man to Pocket $9 Billion After Well-Timed Bets
(Bloomberg) — Klaus-Michael Kühne, Germany’s richest person, stands to reap at least $9.3 billion in dividends after a period of profitable growth at his expanding transport empire.
The windfall stems from the 87-year-old tycoon’s 53% stake in Kuehne + Nagel International AG, the world’s largest air and sea freight-forwarding business co-founded by his grandfather, a 15% holding in Deutsche Lufthansa AG and 30% stake in Hapag-Lloyd AG. He’s the biggest investor in the German airline, having built his stake after a government bailout in 2022. And he boosted his interest in the container line in 2020, just before a boom that led to record profits.
Kühne is among a clutch of European shipowners who made vast profits during the pandemic era when supply chain bottlenecks pushed up the cost of transport. Others include Gianluigi Aponte, founder of Geneva-based MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., the clan behind A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, and the Saade family, who control Marseille-headquartered CMA CGM SA. Their businesses continued to be highly profitable in 2024 after Houthi attacks in the Red Sea drove up rates.
Kühne’s fortune has more than doubled over the past five years to $39.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He told German newspaper FAZ in November that the “values that have been collected are almost frighteningly high.”
Big Gains
His total gains from Kuehne + Nagel will be near 2.7 billion Swiss francs ($3 billion) since the 2021 financial year, when profit and dividends increased more than two-fold. The company this week announced a higher-than-expected payout of 8.25 francs per share.
Lufthansa said Thursday it plans to pay a dividend for the second year in a row, bringing Kühne’s total gain to €108 million ($117 million) for 2023 and 2024. That marks a turnaround from the firm’s near-bust at the onset of the pandemic, when commercial airlines grounded their fleets.
Kühne’s biggest bonus by far during the period has been the €5.65 billion pocketed since the 2021 financial year from Hapag-Lloyd. This doesn’t take into account a payout expected to be announced later this month with full-year earnings.
Still, it’s not only been wins for Kühne, who has sustained losses related to failed real estate tycoon Rene Benko. He refocused on transport last year when his investment vehicle Kühne Holding teamed up with buyout firm EQT AB to acquire a stake in German bus and train operator Flix.
He lost about 500 million euros at Benko’s Signa Prime. “We were completely taken for a ride,” Kuhne said. Benko “had me wrapped around his little finger.”
Kühne moved to Switzerland a half-century ago, married at the age of 52 and has no children. He created a nonprofit Swiss foundation in 1976 that focuses on logistics, medicine and climate with strong ties to Kühne Holding. They’re based, along with Kuehne + Nagel, in the hillside hamlet of Schindellegi, overlooking Lake Zurich.
In the FAZ interview, Kühne said that after his death his assets will be turned over to the Kühne Foundation, which will become one of the largest in Europe.
“As far as anyone can tell, the foundation is in good hands,” he was quoted as saying, citing its 12-member board of trustees that includes former Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann.
Kuhne also raised the possibility in the interview of revising his plan for attorney Thomas Staehelin, 77, to succeed him as president of the foundation because of the lawyer’s own advancing age.
Last year, the billionaire reorganized the governance of Kühne Holding, making Dominik de Daniel CEO to replace Karl Gernandt, who remains chairman and also sits on the supervisory boards of Kuehne + Nagel, Lufthansa and Hapag-Lloyd as well as the foundation.
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