Carl Stefan Erling Persson (Swedish: [ˈstěːfan ˈpæ̌ːʂɔn]; born 4 October 1947) is a Swedish billionaire businessman. In March 2013, Forbes reported Persson’s net worth as $28 billion making him the richest of Sweden’s 12 billionaires and the 17th richest person in the world; he has since dropped to number 50. Persson was the chairman of fashion company H&M until May 2020, when he was succeeded by his son. He remains the company’s largest shareholder, owning a 36% stake. The company was founded by his father Erling Persson in 1947.
Persson took over H&M from his father in 1982 and served as its manager until 1998. He also owns a substantial stake in the Swedish technology company Hexagon AB. Through his privately held real estate company Ramsbury Invest, Persson owns a large number of properties in London, Paris and Stockholm.
He is the sole director of Ramsbury Estates Limited, which farms 19,000 acres (7,700 ha) in the English counties of Wiltshire, Berkshire and Hampshire, centred on the village of Ramsbury in Wiltshire. Since Persson acquired the business in 1997, it has bought the land of several neighbouring estates including Littlecote and Hungerford Park.
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Persson had a net worth of US$21.2 billion in January 2022, making him the 89th richest person in the world at the time.
The majority of Persson’s fortune derives from his 56.5% stake in Hennes & Mauritz. The shares are held by the Persson family and related companies, according to H&M’s corporate website. The billionaire is credited with all of the fortune because he controls the company’s operational and strategic decisions. H&M is the world’s second-largest retailer of private-label apparel, according to the Fast Retailing website.
Most of his shares are held through Ramsbury Invest, a Stockholm-based family investment vehicle, and include all of H&M’s class A shares, which have 10 times the voting rights of the class B shares.
He’s also the owner of Ramsbury Property, which controls and manages office property in Stockholm, Paris and London. The real estate company is valued using its reported 2021 financials, according to company database, Allabolag.se, and the average price-to-book-value ratio of two publicly traded companies, FastPartner and Platzer Fastigheter Holding.
Persson’s Ramsbury Estates has more than 19,000 acres of rural property in England, according to its website. It’s valued using an implied price of 11,400 pounds per acre based on local sales in the area.
Persson’s family foundation didn’t respond to requests for comment about his wealth
Biography
Early life
Education: Stockholm University, Lund University
Persson was born in Stockholm in 1947, the same year his father, Erling, founded clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz. After graduating from Stockholm University and Lund University, Stefan joined the family business in 1976, starting as head of the company’s UK operations. He became chief executive officer in 1982 and chairman in 1998.
Over the past three decades, the company has expanded throughout Europe and the US, where Erling embraced the idea of selling affordable, trendy clothing, sometimes referred to as “disposable chic.” Now Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer, according to research group Retail-Index, H&M since 2007 has opened in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Mexico City, Melbourne and Moscow. The company has about 4,700 stores worldwide.
Persson also owns Ramsbury Property, which has buildings on London’s Oxford Street and Regent Street and on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Personal life
Persson is a founder of the Mentor Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to combat substance abuse among young people. He is a supporter of Djurgårdens IF and is co-funding a foundation for the club. Persson enjoys downhill skiing, tennis and golf. He owns properties in London, Paris and Stockholm and, in 2009, acquired the 21-cottage village of Linkenholt in Hampshire, England.
Persson has three children from his first marriage, to Pamela Collett. In 2009, his son, Karl-Johan Persson, took over as president and chief executive of H&M. His other two children, Tom Persson and Charlotte Söderström are also billionaires.
Persson lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his second wife, Denise Persson, née Florman.
Milestones
- 1947 Born in Stockholm to H&M founder Erling Persson.
- 1974 H&M is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
- 1976 Becomes UK country manager for H&M.
- 1982 Takes over from his father as CEO of H&M.
- 1998 Becomes chairman of H&M after 16 years as CEO.
- 2000 Opens first H&M store on Fifth Avenue in New York.
- 2004 Forms first H&M celebrity designer partnership with Karl Lagerfeld.
- 2012 Underwear designed by David Beckham goes on sale at H&M.
- 2013 Recruits Czech player Tomas Berdych for new tennis collection.
