German logistics mogul becomes biggest Lufthansa shareholder

Germany’s richest man is now the largest shareholder in Deutsche Lufthansa AG after reinvesting a chunk of a fortune he made in logistics into Europe’s biggest airline.

Klaus-Michael Kuehne raised his stake in Lufthansa to 15.01% from 10.01%, according to a filing late on Wednesday, overtaking the German government as the carrier’s biggest shareholder. The state has been selling down its interest after the airline repaid a bailout to help it survive Covid-19.

Lufthansa shares gained as much as 3.3% in Frankfurt, trading up 2.1% at 5.63 euros as of 9:33 a.m. in Frankfurt. The company’s stock has fallen about 9% since the start of the year. Kuehne couldn’t immediately be reached for comment by Bloomberg.

While the logistics magnate hasn’t commented publicly on the rationale for building his Lufthansa stake, several major shipping companies are branching out into commercial aviation, especially firms with cargo operations like Lufthansa. And logistics companies have enjoyed soaring profits over recent years amid a freight boom, leading several to reinvest profits into airlines.

Kuehne, who also expressed interested in taking a board seat at Lufthansa, is worth $35.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is honorary chairman and majority owner of Kuehne + Nagel, the world’s largest sea-freight forwarder.

His holding company also owns a 30% stake in German shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd AG, a company that until now hasn’t made an attempt to acquire aviation operations. Lufthansa’s cargo division operates a fleet of 12 large cargo aircraft and also makes use of the belly space in the passenger division’s jets.

“It’s not clear what the endgame is,” Alexander Irving, an analyst at Bernstein Autonomous LLP in London, said by e-mail. “The commercial logic of vertically integrating a forwarder with an air cargo operator is complex as it makes the incentives less straightforward,” he said, noting that there has been no integration between Kuehne + Nagel and Hapag-Lloyd.

Any synergies from a cooperation between Lufthansa and Hapag-Lloyd would be “very limited,” he said.

French logistics giant CMA CGM SA in May agreed to acquire a stake in Air France-KLM, while container giant MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA has made a joint bid with Lufthansa to acquire Italia Trasporto Aereo, known as ITA, the successor to failed carrier Alitalia.