Life and business of Klaus-Michael Kühne, Lufthansa’s new first partner
Who is the billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne, who has become Lufthansa's main shareholder this week. Pierluigi Mennitti's article from Berlin
If the legendary punctuality in German transport has gotten a little tarnished in recent times, then Klaus-Michael Kühne could unexpectedly be the right person for Lufthansa. Born in Hamburg, German by nationality, Swiss by adoption, the new strongman of the German airline just freed from the presence of the state likes to be represented in this way by the trade press: "Getting things from A to B in the fastest way, economic and safe as possible: nobody does it better than Klaus-Michael Kühne, the king of logistics ”.
The quote, which smacks of a commercial rather than a journalistic biography, comes from the economic monthly of the Spiegel group, Manager Magazine , which, having its headquarters in Hamburg, Kühne knows it quite well. In fact, he calls it Kühne III, who in times of new ascent to the throne of the former eternal Prince of Wales in the United Kingdom (precisely Charles III) cloaks the entrepreneur in royal haloes. And King Kühne is in some ways, albeit more modestly than the logistics.
The third ordinal number is due to the fact that Klaus-Michael represents the third generation of the Kühne within the family business , Kühne + Nagel. It was co-founded by grandfather August in 1890 in Bremen and then discreetly managed by his father Alfred. It was he, Klaus-Michael, who transformed it into a global giant.
Today he is 85 years old, the date of birth on his passport is June 2, 1937. Since this week he has become even more the main shareholder of Lufthansa , having bought a part of the last block of shares in the hands of the German government, which had acquired in June 2020 (Angela Merkel Chancellor) 20% through a public stabilization fund: a rescue measure in the dark months of the pandemic. Gradually the state withdrew from the shareholding structure, keeping to the promise to commit taxpayers' money only the time necessary to keep a strategic company firm for the country (and making us a decent nest egg with a capital gain of 760 million euros). And Kühne III strengthened his position in the company, going from 15.01%, with which he had already become the largest shareholder behind the German state in July, to 17.5%. In April it held 10.01%. Shares acquired through Kühne Holding AG, which is its sole property, which also holds the 55.75% stake in Kühne + Nagel.
He joined Kühne + Nagel in 1958 as soon as he reached the age of majority (which was then at 21), at 26 he became a partner and at 29 – we are in 1966 – he was appointed CEO after the transformation into a joint stock company. Three years later, in conjunction with the birth of the first Social Democratic-led government (that of Willy Brandt), the company moved to Switzerland, to Schindellegi, in the German-speaking canton of Schwyz. It is there that today he pays taxes on a heritage that is among the richest in Germany and, according to a recent Forbes ranking, the thirty-third in the world: something that creates constant controversy in Hamburg, where most of his life took place. working. The Swiss residence grants him tax advantages but Kühne is convinced that he has returned to his hometown much more than he took from him with taxes.
Since 2008, it has held 30% of the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, through its Kühne Maritime division, taken over in a difficult time of the company and which this year earned it a dividend of 1.8 billion euros. And still in the Hanseatic city he founded and financed the Kühne Logistics University and sponsored with 5 million euros the construction of the Elbefilarmonie, the sumptuous Hamburg philharmonic that without his contribution perhaps would never have seen the light. He passes to be a thrifty and sparing type, which in Hanseatic society is considered a great virtue.
In 2016, his Kühne Holding AG acquired 20% of VTG, a rail logistics company, which it resold two years later to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure. His activities also include the construction of the luxury hotel The Fontenay, in which – according to legends – Kühne also took care of selecting the dishes himself.
But logistics is the keystone of the commitment of this 85-year-old childless entrepreneur (it is said by choice of life and upon his death the assets will be managed by a charitable foundation) and he is not mistaken in stating that his growing interest in Lufthansa group, in particular for the cargo division, both to be part of the integration strategy between maritime transport, logistics and the air transport sector. Perspective on which the German company plays its future cards.
And this is where Kühne's moves are awaited with interest. The key figure in his strategy is Karl Gernandt, his confidant, who will take his place on the Supervisory Board by next year's Annual General Meeting at the latest. Nobody really knows what the new major shareholder has in mind. He promised not to interfere operationally: "The group as a whole is well managed," he recently told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in one of his rare interviews, but for someone who was meticulously checking the dishes at The Fontenay it is not very credible. For Carsten Spohr., Lufthansa's chief executive who had always stated that he wanted a key shareholder, an unprecedented season opens: with Kühne he gets one that, however, also requires a lot of attention.
To understand something you always have to turn to Gernandt. "As a long-term investor, Kühne Holding is alongside Deutsche Lufthansa as a partner and is confident in the strength of the company, which is well balanced with its three divisions, Lufthansa Technik, Cargo and Passenger Airlines," said the future member of the Supervisory board a few weeks ago at the Handelsblatt. Indicating, perhaps not so involuntarily, a first point of potential friction. Because Lufthansa is preparing the sale of a minority stake in its technical division entrusted to the Executive Committee assisted by the current Chairman of the Supervisory Board, karl-Ludwig Kley. The management wants to make Lufthansa more interesting for the capital market, but Kühne and Gernandt – tell company rumors – still need clarification on the sales plans. These are the same rumors, naturally reported by Handelsblatt , which speak of the absence of chemistry between Gernandt and Kley, whose term expires next year.
The two will meet in Hamburg, right at the Lufthansa Technik headquarters, to try to unravel the first knot. But they are the two figures to frame (and follow) to understand Kühne's moves for the airline.
Politically conservative (he went to Switzerland to escape the SPD) he has recently softened, to the point of being among the entrepreneurs who for some years have been watching with interest the growth of the current Minister of Economy, the green Robert Habeck. In recent times, words of praise for Angela Merkel had leaked, but also the consideration that the time for a turning point was now ripe. Today the SPD (which speaks of a politically grown chancellor in Hamburg) no longer scares him.
But if there is one area where the German billionaire can't put down his magic wand, it's football. His care (and 15% of the shares) are obviously committed to the Hamburg SV, the team that at the beginning of the Eighties blew a Champions Cup at Juventus, but which today is sailing in the second category. She ended up there four years ago, for the first time in her history, and since then she has failed the promotion every time, even though she showed up at the starting line with the stigmata of the favorite. But the disappointments for Kühne do not come only from the field. Just a week ago, the Hamburg SV management rejected one of the 85-year-old entrepreneur's few gestures of generosity: an injection of 120 million euros in exchange for an increase in the shareholding to 39.9%. But the share exceeded the maximum that an external investor can have. In short, the return to the Bundesliga can wait.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/vita-e-affari-di-klaus-michael-kuhne-nuovo-primo-socio-di-lufthansa/ on Sat, 17 Sep 2022 05:18:58 +0000.