German Billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne Dies at 89

German billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne, the controlling shareholder of Swiss logistics group Kuehne + Nagel, has died at the age of 89, the company announced on Monday.

Kühne was the grandson of August Kühne, one of the company’s founders. He transformed the family freight-forwarding business into one of the world’s largest logistics groups and became one of Germany’s wealthiest investors. According to Forbes, his holdings were worth more than $44.2bn.

Kühne became CEO of Kuehne + Nagel in 1975 and served as chairman of its board of directors from 1992 to 2011.

He also held significant stakes in German airline group Lufthansa, shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, chemical distributor Brenntag and bus and train operator Flix.

In 2008, Kühne joined a group of investors that agreed to acquire Hamburg-based container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd from TUI, preventing it from being taken over by a global competitor. He later acquired 20% of the voting rights in Lufthansa.

(Reuters, Lud)