The entrepreneur has taken over four percent of Lufthansa.
(Photo: picture alliance / Axel Heimken/)
Frankfurt Lufthansa surprisingly gets a new major shareholder. Logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne has acquired 4.04 percent of Europe’s largest airline group. This emerges from a voting rights announcement by the company that was published on Tuesday evening. The company initially did not comment on the news.
The 84-year-old Kühne is the second successful German entrepreneur to set his eyes on Lufthansa. Shortly before the start of the pandemic, Heinz-Hermann Thiele, whose family owns the supplier Knorr-Bremse, joined “Hansa”. After Thiele’s death at the beginning of last year, the family has since separated from their Lufthansa papers.
With Kühne, Lufthansa once again has a self-confident entrepreneur and billionaire at its side. Nothing is known about Kühne’s motives. However, aviation is not new territory for him: Kuehne holds a majority stake in the Swiss logistics group Kuehne + Nagel via Kuehne Holding.
The group employs more than 76,000 people at 1,400 locations and offers its services on land, at sea and also in the air. Just a few days ago, it was announced that Kuehne + Nagel will lease two Boeing 747-8Fs from the US charter and cargo airline Atlas Air Worldwide. The four-engine jet is the largest cargo aircraft on the market. Kuehne + Nagel wants to use the large-capacity freighters to strengthen the supply chains that have been fragile for months, especially on the transpacific connections.
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The logistics group benefits from the booming freight business and rising prices. A few days ago, the company was able to present brilliant figures. Net sales in 2021 rose by 61 percent to 32.8 billion Swiss francs (equivalent to 32.2 billion euros), while operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) even rose by 175 percent to 2.9 billion Swiss francs (2.8 billion euros) to.
Kuehne + Nagel and Lufthansa are likely to intensify their cooperation
When presenting the figures, CEO Detlef Trefzger announced that he wanted to continue buying. One looks for specialists in certain markets in sea and air freight, he had said. It is true that the company has not entered Lufthansa directly. The shares were bought by KA Logistik Beteiligungs GmbH – the shares are attributed directly to Klaus-Michael Kühne.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that the share purchase will underpin the cooperation between Lufthansa and Kuehne + Nagel. With Lufthansa Cargo, the airline group has one of the world’s leading freight companies. This has also been benefiting from the strong demand for air freight for months. LH Cargo and Kuehne + Nagel know each other well. Both work closely together and, among other things, want to contribute to establishing synthetic kerosene in the industry.
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