This Billionaire Lost $600 Million After Fashion Retailers Tumble
This Billionaire Lost $600 Million After Fashion Retailers Tumble
(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s retail apocalypse is hurting plenty of investors, but Anders Holch Povlsen’s losses from Monday’s slump are doubled-barreled.
The Dane is the biggest shareholder in Asos Plc, which fell the most in 4 1/2 years, cutting $525 million from his stake as of 2 p.m. in London. He also owns one-tenth of Zalando SE, whose stock is down 9 percent, chopping another $71 million from his fortune to leave with him with $4.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The declines follow Asos’s warning Monday that Christmas shopping got off to a disastrous start, dragging down online retailers such as Berlin-based Zalando and U.K. rival Boohoo Group Plc, as well as store operators such as Zara’s Inditex SA.
The drop adds to the pain for the 38 retail billionaires on Bloomberg’s index, who’ve lost a combined $57 billion this year. Inditex founder Amancio Ortega’s fortune fell $1.8 billion on Monday, while Sweden’s richest person -- Hennes & Mauritz AB Chairman Stefan Persson -- lost $1.1 billion.
Povlsen, 46, owns Danish retailer Bestseller, the business behind the Jack & Jones clothing label, which his parents co-founded in 1975. He is Denmark’s second-richest person, according to the index, mostly due to his stake in the family business. Outside of retail, his investments include online loan provider Funding Circle Holdings Plc and land in Scotland.
--With assistance from Tom Metcalf.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Stupples in London at bstupples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.