Stefan Persson

Stefan Persson
Born	4 October 1947 (Forbes)
Nationality	Swedish
Residence	Stockholm, Sweden (Forbes)
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Controlling shareholder of H&M; Ramsbury Property
Parents	Erling Persson (Forbes)
Children	3, including Karl-Johan Persson (Forbes)
Sibling(s)	Lottie Tham (Forbes)
Education	Stockholm University (Forbes)

Swedish businessman; former chairman and controlling shareholder of the fashion retailer H&M

Stefan Persson (born 1947) is a Swedish businessman and the controlling shareholder of the fashion retailer H & M Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), which his father Erling Persson founded in 1947.^[1] He chaired H&M for 22 years before stepping down in May 2020; his son Karl-Johan Persson succeeded him.^[1] At 30 November 2025 H&M reported that Stefan Persson and his family, privately and through Ramsbury Invest AB, held 83.7% of the votes and 65.7% of the shares.^[2] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Stefan Persson 122nd in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$21.29 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as H&M.^[1]^[3] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Stefan Persson 107th, at US$24.2 billion.^[4] Through his wholly owned company Ramsbury Property he also holds commercial property in Europe and the United States.^[5]

Early life and family

Forbes gives his date of birth as 4 October 1947 and lists him as having studied at Stockholm University.^[1] His father Erling Persson founded H&M in 1947. Forbes says his two other children, Charlotte Söderström and Tom Persson, and his sister Lottie Tham are also billionaires.^[1]

H&M

Forbes says Persson stepped down as chairman in May 2020 after 22 years, and his son Karl-Johan took over.^[1] H&M's 2025 corporate governance report records that Karl-Johan Persson was re-elected chair at the 2025 annual meeting.^[2] In its 2025 financial year, ending 30 November 2025, H&M reported net sales of SEK 228,285 million, 4,101 stores and an average of 94,744 employees in full-time equivalents. It also said it had wound down its business in Russia during the 2022 financial year.^[6]

Shareholding

According to the 2025 corporate governance report, Ramsbury Invest AB holds all of H&M's class A shares as well as class B shares. The family also holds class B shares privately. Together these gave Stefan Persson and family 83.7% of the votes (excluding treasury shares) and 65.7% of all shares at 30 November 2025, up from 81.9% and 61.8% a year earlier. Ramsbury Invest is owned by the family, mainly by Stefan Persson, and Karl-Johan Persson is also a shareholder.^[2] Forbes says he owns almost 50% of H&M; it gave 36% in 2024.^[1]

Property

Affärsvärlden describes Ramsbury Property as Persson's wholly owned property company. It focuses on commercial buildings with shop and office tenants, in cities including Rome, Munich, New York and Washington DC, as well as on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and Regent Street in London. The paper reports that Ramsbury bought a building on Regent Street in spring 2010.^[5] In September 2021 Fastighetsvärlden reported Ramsbury's sixth London purchase, a building on St James's Square that had housed Libya's embassy until 1999, for a reported price of just over SEK 900 million.^[7] Affärsvärlden reported that Ramsbury wrote down its properties by SEK 839 million in 2023 and SEK 1,058 million in 2022, cutting their book value from SEK 37 billion to SEK 35 billion.^[5]

Wealth

Forbes lists H&M as his source of wealth and describes his fortune as inherited and growing.^[1] Affärsvärlden described him in 2024 as Sweden's richest person.^[5]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 26 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2001. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[4]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2001	64	5.3
2002	48	5.6
2003	40	6.7
2004	37	8.6
2005	29	11.2
2006	32	12.3
2007	17	18.4
2008	35	17.7
2009	18	14.5
2010	13	22.4
2011	13	24.5
2012	8	26.0
2013	12	28.0
2014	12	34.4
2015	28	24.5
2016	32	20.8
2017	43	19.6
2018	73	16.8
2019	71	15.6
2020	81	13.5
2021	84	21.3
2022	94	17.6
2023	104	16.2
2024	110	16.6
2025	108	18.6
2026	107	24.2

Philanthropy

In February 2008 SVT reported that Persson, as founder and chairman of the Familjen Erling-Perssons Stiftelse foundation, was giving SEK 350 million to the Karolinska Institutet for an auditorium seating 1,000 people. It was the largest donation in the institute's history.^[8] In April 2013 H&M announced that the Stefan Persson family was giving SEK 500 million to the H&M Conscious Foundation, the company's charitable foundation set up in 2007.^[9] Expressen reported that the Erling-Persson and Wallenberg foundations had together committed SEK 800 million to the planned Nobel Center in Stockholm. Expressen reported in October 2018 that the Moderate and Centre parties' announcement on the project was a heavy blow to it.^[10]

Political activity

No donations to political parties or political roles were found in his name in the sources checked. The only political dispute found was over the Nobel Center, which his family foundation co-funded; in October 2018 the Moderate and Centre parties announced a position on it that Expressen described as a heavy blow.^[10]

Controversies and legal issues

No legal proceedings against him personally were found in the sources checked.

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."