When Ikea’s Ingvar Kamprad died Saturday at age 91, he was ranked No. 8 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index thanks to his control of a global retail fortune valued at $58.7 billion
Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s Swedish Billionaire Founder, Dies at 91 His wealth will now be dissipated because of a unique structure put in place by Kamprad to secure the long-term independence and survival of the Ikea concept. Kamprad disputed his status as one of the richest men on the planet, having decades earlier placed control of the world’s largest furniture seller into a network of foundations and holding companies.
Kamprad’s heirs now won’t have direct control of the firm. They will have a more meager fortune derived from family-owned Ikano Group, a collection of finance, real estate, manufacturing and retail businesses which had total assets of about $10 billion in 2016. Most Ikea stores are owned by the Stichting Ingka Foundation, a Dutch entity with the stated purpose of donating to charity and “supporting innovation” in design, according to its founding statute.
Innovation Support
The company’s trademarks, brand and concept were placed under the ultimate control of Vaduz, Liechtenstein-based Interogo Foundation whose subsidiary, Inter Ikea, is the global Ikea franchisor.
“Interogo Foundation is managed by a Foundation Council (Stiftungsrat) consisting of at least two members and a Supervisory Council (Beirat), as a principle consisting of seven members,” Anders Bylund, Interogo’s head of communications wrote in a Jan. 29 email. “The Kamprad family members in the Supervisory Councils have been and shall always be in minority.”
