Confirmations are awaited, but the news is an important one. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea legendary for his frugality despite an estimated fortune of 37,5 billion dollars, he would have left the reins of the furniture giant, thus passing the baton to his three children: Peter, 48, former head of the company (Ikano) who manages the family assets, Jonas (46), director of Ingka Holding and responsible for product design, and Mathias (43), who looks after Ikea holding.
After keeping a low profile over the years, it was the eighty-six-year-old Kamprad's three sons who broke the news of their father's retirement, in an interview published in the group's internal newsletter, news that he found confirmation in the statements, released to the Expressen, by Goran Grosskopf, president of Ingka Holding: “Ingvar will no longer be there to give his point of view, his advice, his support”.
Grosskopf, however, shortly after, however, he denied the news, stating that Ingvar Kamprad remains within the company, as Senior Advisor on the Supervisory Board. A company spokeswoman also reported that "there is no news". Therefore, the composition of the group's organization chart still remains mysterious, and what role will be assigned to Kamprad's children, given the nature of Ikea as a non-listed company with a complex ownership structure.
Pending confirmations or further denials, Ingvar Kamprad would thus retire, at the age of 86, as the richest man in Europe. His company, founded in 1943 in his native Almhult, a municipality with 15.000 inhabitants in southern Sweden, today it has over 120.000 collaborators, and 258 points of sale spread across 37 countries.
