Stefan Quandt
German businessman; largest shareholder and deputy supervisory board chairman of BMW; owner of the investment company AQTON
| Stefan Quandt
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 9 May 1966 (Forbes) |
| Nationality | German |
| Residence | Frankfurt, Germany (Forbes) |
| Occupation | Businessman, investor |
| Known for | Largest shareholder of BMW; AQTON SE; DELTON |
| Children | 1 (Forbes) |
| Sibling(s) | Susanne Klatten |
| Education | University of Karlsruhe (Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur) (KIT) |
Stefan Quandt (born 1966) is a German businessman and the largest shareholder of the carmaker BMW. According to BMW, as of July 2026 his direct and indirect holdings amounted to 25.3% of its voting capital.[1] He is deputy chairman of BMW's supervisory board and sole owner of the investment company AQTON SE. Through AQTON and two DELTON holding companies he also owns or holds stakes in Entrust, the homeopathic medicine maker Heel and the logistics group Logwin.[2][3][4] He is the brother of Susanne Klatten.[5] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Stefan Quandt 115th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$22.99 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as BMW.[5][6] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Stefan Quandt 75th, at US$30.1 billion.[7] He has been a regular large donor to the CDU, and in February 2025, just before the federal election, gave €200,000 to the CDU and €75,000 to the FDP.[8]
Early life and family
Forbes gives his date of birth as 9 May 1966.[5] According to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), he studied industrial engineering and management at the University of Karlsruhe from 1987 to 1993, graduating as a Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur.[2] Forbes says he then worked for Boston Consulting and as a Hong Kong-based marketing manager for Entrust.[5] His late mother, Johanna, was the third wife of Herbert Quandt, and his grandfather Günther Quandt was a Nazi-era industrialist.[5]
In 2011 the historian Joachim Scholtyseck published Der Aufstieg der Quandts, a study of the family under National Socialism commissioned by the children and grandchildren of Günther and Herbert Quandt. He told Deutschlandfunk that the family had given him access to its private archive and no right to intervene. He described Günther Quandt's direct responsibility for wrongs involving about 50,000 forced labourers, and his acquisitions through Nazi-era "Aryanisation".[9]
Business interests
BMW gave Quandt's direct and indirect holding as 25.3% of voting capital as of 31 July 2026.[1] Forbes puts his stake at 23.6%.[5] He is deputy chairman of BMW's supervisory board and a member of its presiding committee.[2][5]
KIT's biographical note describes him as sole shareholder of AQTON SE, which holds his stakes in BMW, the solar company Solarwatt, the digital-security company Entrust, Kiwigrid, Heliatek, the drone-defence company Dedrone and the credit-rating agency Scope.[2] Through DELTON Health AG he owns the homeopathic medicine maker Biologische Heilmittel Heel, whose products are sold in 50 countries.[2][4] DELTON Logistics, a Luxembourg company of which he is sole shareholder, is the majority shareholder of Logwin AG.[3]
Wealth
Forbes gives BMW as his source of wealth and classes the fortune as inherited. It reported that he received more than US$700 million in BMW dividends, before tax, in 2018.[5] On 20 October 2026 Forbes put his net worth at US$22.99 billion, slightly below John Doerr's. The real-time list therefore ranked him 115th and Doerr 114th, although both figures round to US$22.99 billion.[6]
Wealth history
Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 24 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2003. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.[7][5]
| Year | World's Billionaires rank | Net worth (US$ bn) |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 68 | 4.3 |
| 2004 | 59 | 6.5 |
| 2005 | 66 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 82 | 6.6 |
| 2007 | 96 | 7.6 |
| 2008 | 137 | 6.8 |
| 2009 | 108 | 4.6 |
| 2010 | 132 | 5.7 |
| 2011 | 72 | 10.7 |
| 2012 | 76 | 11.2 |
| 2013 | 81 | 11.9 |
| 2014 | 66 | 14.9 |
| 2015 | 59 | 15.6 |
| 2016 | 48 | 15.6 |
| 2017 | 47 | 18.3 |
| 2018 | 42 | 22.0 |
| 2019 | 60 | 17.5 |
| 2020 | 98 | 12.3 |
| 2021 | 81 | 21.6 |
| 2022 | 77 | 20.7 |
| 2023 | 59 | 24.6 |
| 2024 | 68 | 27.3 |
| 2025 | 84 | 23.8 |
| 2026 | 75 | 30.1 |
Philanthropy
According to KIT, Quandt chairs the boards of trustees of the Johanna Quandt Foundation and the Stiftung Blickachsen, is deputy chairman of the foundation council of the Stiftung Charité, and sits on the board of trustees of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. He also chairs the friends' association of Frankfurt's Museum für Moderne Kunst, and has sat on KIT's supervisory board since June 2013.[2]
Political activity
Quandt's large donations, published by the Bundestag under the party-funding rules, have gone mainly to the CDU. On 9 October 2013 he, his mother Johanna and his sister Susanne Klatten each gave €230,000 to the CDU and €70,000 to the FDP.[10][11] Der Spiegel noted that the CDU payments coincided with Germany's successful push to reopen an EU deal on car CO2 limits, and LobbyControl criticised them.[11][12] From 2017 he gave between €50,001 and €75,000 a year, mostly to the CDU.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] In February 2025, ahead of the federal election, he gave €200,000 to the CDU and €75,000 to the FDP.[8]
| Year | Party | Amount (€) | Date received (as published) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | CDU | 230,000 | 9 October |
| 2013 | FDP | 70,000 | 9 October |
| 2017 | FDP | 50,001 | 23 June |
| 2017 | CDU | 50,001 | 26 June |
| 2018 | CDU | 50,001 | 2 July |
| 2018 | CDU | 75,000 | 25 July |
| 2019 | CDU | 50,001 | 1 July |
| 2020 | CDU | 50,001 | 9 July |
| 2021 | CDU | 50,001 | 1 July (date of publication) |
| 2022 | CDU | 50,001 | 29 July |
| 2023 | CDU | 50,001 | 30 June |
| 2023 | CDU | 75,000 | 21 September |
| 2024 | CDU | 50,001 | 20 August |
| 2025 | CDU | 200,000 | 14 February |
| 2025 | FDP | 75,000 | 18 February |
Controversies and legal issues
See the 2013 CDU donation under Political activity and the Scholtyseck study under Early life and family.[11][9]
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."
Israel (investments, operations, donations, contracts, statements)
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Zionist or pro-Israel organisations and lobbying groups
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Jewish communal charities
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Gulf states
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
China
Company level: BMW, of which he is the largest shareholder and deputy supervisory board chairman, raised its stake in its Chinese joint venture BMW Brilliance Automotive to 75% in February 2022 and extended the joint-venture contract to 2040.[21][2] Forbes says he once worked in Hong Kong for Entrust.[5]
Russia
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
India
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Palestinian or Arab causes
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Home government
Germany: regular large donations to the CDU and, in 2013, 2017 and 2025, the FDP, as published by the Bundestag. The October 2013 family donation coincided with the German government's intervention on EU car-emission limits.[10][8][12]
Other international links
Luxembourg: his logistics holding company DELTON Logistics is based in Grevenmacher.[3]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BMW Group, BMW shares: shareholder structure BMW Group Investor Relations, as of 31 July 2026; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Stefan Quandt – Mitglied des Aufsichtsrats des KIT (Stefan Quandt – member of the KIT supervisory board) (biographical note) Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), undated; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Logwin AG, Shareholders' Structure Logwin AG (official website), undated; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Heel, Facts Heel (official website), undated; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 Forbes, Forbes profile record for Stefan Quandt (Forbes data feed behind forbes.com/profile/stefan-quandt/) Forbes, live record, read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Forbes, Forbes Real-Time Billionaires data feed Forbes, live; downloaded 20 October 2026 11:51 UTC, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Forbes, Forbes World's Billionaires list data feed, annual editions 2001–2026 (one file per year at this path with the year substituted; all 26 files downloaded and read) Forbes, annual lists; downloaded 20 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 35.000 € – Jahr 2025 (Party donations over €35,000 – 2025) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2025; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Christoph Heinemann (interview with Joachim Scholtyseck), Profiteure von "Arisierung" und Zwangsarbeit (Profiteers of "Aryanisation" and forced labour) Deutschlandfunk, 23 September 2011, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2013 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2013) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2013; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Der Spiegel, CDU erhält Riesenspende von BMW-Großaktionären (CDU receives huge donation from BMW major shareholders) Der Spiegel, 15 October 2013, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Der Spiegel (international edition), Donation from BMW Owners Raises Eyebrows Spiegel International, 15 October 2013, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2017 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2017) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2017; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2018 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2018) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2018; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2019 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2019) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2019; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2020 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2020) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2020; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2021 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2021) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2021; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2022 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2022) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2022; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 50.000 € – Jahr 2023 (Party donations over €50,000 – 2023) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2023; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Deutscher Bundestag, Parteispenden über 35.000 € – Jahr 2024 (Party donations over €35,000 – 2024) Deutscher Bundestag (published under section 25(3) of the Political Parties Act), list for 2024; read 21 October 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ BMW Group, BMW Group strengthens partnership in China: Extension of Joint Venture Contract until 2040 enters into force BMW Group PressClub, 11 February 2022, accessed 21 October 2026.