With no heirs, Kühne’s Swiss foundation gets $49 billion fortune

Kühne ran his logistics firm with an iron will Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Klaus-Michael Kühne’s death signals the end of a swashbuckling dealmaking era for the German tycoon’s empire while transferring his $49 billion fortune to a low-key Swiss foundation.

As part of a longstanding succession plan, Kühne’s portfolio spanning shipping, aviation, chemicals and real estate will ultimately be owned by the Kühne Foundation, making it one of Europe’s largest.

It’s overseen by a board of trustees that includes some of Kühne’s closest advisers and wife. At its heart is majority-owned Kühne+Nagel, the freight-forwarding giant co-founded by his grandfather.

The billionaire, who had no children, died this week at 89. He’d stepped away from day-to-day operations some time ago but his grip on business strategy remained formidable until recently, raising questions about the firm’s future direction.

Kuehne’s interests spanned a broad base of freight transport heavyweights which together underpin global supply chains, a sector reshaped in recent years by the Covid pandemic, unrest in the Middle East and a recent bout of M&A.

“Klaus-Michael Kühne was a very dominant personality. He acted independently, took full responsibility and was very successful,” said Georg von Schnurbein, professor of foundation management and a philanthropy specialist at the University of Basel. “A board can never act in the same way. There’ll be more discussions and the level of risk-taking won’t be the same.”

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Kühne had taken proceeds from the freight forwarder to diversify his industry reach in recent decades, building up stakes of 30% in shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, 20% in chemicals specialist Brenntag and a significant share in bus company Flix.

He also owned property and luxury hotel assets such as The Fontenay hotel in his native town of Hamburg in northern Germany. Earlier this year, his eponymous investment vehicle, Kühne Holding, also raised its stake in German airline group Deutsche Lufthansa to 20%.

Net worth quadrupled

Overall, Kühne’s net worth has more than quadrupled over the past decade to $49 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The fortune is rooted in a 60% stake in Kühne+Nagel.

Now the focus turns to what mandate he’s given to the foundation about how the various assets are to be managed over the longer term as deal activity engulfs the sector. EasyJet recently agreed to a takeover offer from a US investment firm, French shipping and logistics giant CMA CGM reached a broad accord with FedEx, and MSC has moved into the oil tanker industry.

Some observers say Kühne+Nagel, and even Hapag-Lloyd, will likely be considered as legacy assets that could get special protection, while other holdings might be subject to fewer strategic obligations. This could mean the foundation’s managers could decide at some point to offload minority stakes within some of the big names in the portfolio or acquire others.

A spokesperson declined to comment.

“Foundations can be structured to preserve particular assets or pursue a founder’s long-term intentions,” said Serden Ozcan, a professor at Germany’s WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management. “But one should not infer from the foundation structure alone that every investment Kühne currently owns must be held indefinitely.”

Swiss address for tax reasons

Kühne, a German national, lived in Switzerland for decades for tax reasons and married relatively late. The foundation created some 50 years ago with his parents is focused on logistics, medicine, culture and climate and already has strong ties to Kühne Holding. They’re based, along with Kühne+Nagel, in the hillside village of Schindellegi, which overlooks Lake Zurich.

With a reputation as a gruff, no-nonsense businessman who ruled with an iron grip, Kühne gave up the CEO role around 1992 and chairmanship in 2011. He remained honorary chairman, relying on a small group of close advisers he had placed on the boards of the foundation, his holding company and principle assets.

That powerful inner circle includes Karl Gernandt and Jörg Wolle as well as father-and-son lawyers Thomas Staehelin and Tobias Staehelin. The men are all German or Swiss nationals and some are directors at both Kühne+Nagel and the foundation.

Gernandt chairs both the holding company and Hapag-Lloyd, and sits on the Lufthansa supervisory board while Wolle has been chairman of the logistics giant for a decade. The group also includes Kühne+Nagel CEO Stefan Paul and the first ever CEO of the tycoon’s holding company, Dominik de Daniel.

Under the succession plan, the senior Staehelin will move to the helm of the foundation, which already has some 800 employees and a budget of CHF135 million ($168 million). The non-profit is already sizeable but will become one of the largest of its kind in Europe, according to von Schnurbein.

Regional Foundations

Other large charitable foundations in the region include the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Danish non-profit that is the controlling shareholder in the weightloss drugmaker, and the Wellcome Trust in Britain. Foundations also back brewer Carlsberg, German automotive supplier Robert Bosch, and Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut.

Reflecting Kühne’s penchant for controlling how his money was spent, his foundation has tended to build and fund its own institutions like the Hamburg-based university for the study of logistics and a rehabilitation center in Davos. Its website also shows a clear focus on his entrepreneurial legacy.

Speculation has swirled in the past about Kühne’s plan for Lufthansa as he emerged as the airline’s biggest investor. He began building his stake after a government bailout in 2022, a similar move to rival European shipping mogul Rodolphe Saade who swooped on Air France-KLM.

“The transfer of the block of shares to the Kühne Foundation ensures continuity for the time being, even though it is unclear what goals the foundation is pursuing with this stake,” said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at Deka Investment, a Lufthansa shareholder.

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