Fashion
Bestseller CEO’s Klarna stake drives $1.7 billion investment comeback
By
Bloomberg
Published
September 11, 2025
Anders Holch Povlsen has accumulated stakes in listed online retailers, banks, and other finance firms over the past two decades, while overseeing one of the world’s largest closely held fashion fortunes.
But it’s a lucrative bet on Klarna Group Plc that’s currently driving the 52-year-old billionaire’s wealth revamp.
Povlsen, chief executive officer of Danish clothing retailer Bestseller, is among the biggest winners from the initial public offering of the financial technology company, which began trading Wednesday in New York and closed almost 15% above its offering price of $40 per share.
He now owns a roughly $1.4 billion stake in the Swedish business, making it his largest holding in a publicly traded company, while also cashing in at least $250 million from the offering, which priced above the marketed ranges, according to Bloomberg calculations. Povlsen has overall gains of more than 600% from his investment in the provider of buy-now, pay-later financing, taking the value of his disclosed holdings in listed companies to about $2.5 billion, the calculations show.
A representative for Povlsen — who has a total net worth of $6.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Despite Klarna’s current valuation falling well below its 2021 peak of $45.6 billion, Povlsen’s investment underscores one of his most successful efforts to diversify a family fortune that began five decades ago, when his parents founded Bestseller as a women’s clothing store in a small Danish town.
Povlsen acquired a 10% stake in Klarna in mid-2017 through his family office, Heartland, just weeks before the fintech was valued at approximately $2.3 billion. He earlier used the investment firm to acquire holdings in e-commerce fashion sites Zalando SE and ASOS Plc. Heartland’s other listed assets include Funding Circle Holdings Plc, a London-based lending platform that has struggled since its initial public offering in 2018.
While also a major landowner in Scotland, most of Povlsen’s fortune remains tied up in Bestseller, where he first began working as a teenager before taking over from his parents as owner and managing director in 2001.
In a rare interview this year to mark Bestseller’s 50th anniversary, Povlsen said he originally wanted to start an e-commerce firm before deciding to work in the family business, underscoring his long-standing interest in the sector that Klarna has helped transform since its own creation in 2005.
“My parents did everything they could to dissuade me from following in their footsteps,” he told the Spin Off fashion magazine. “The more they tried, the more my interest in Bestseller grew.”
Other winners in Klarna’s IPO include the founders Victor Jacobsson, Niklas Adalberth, and Sebastian Siemiatkowski, who’s also its CEO. They cashed in at least $50 million of their combined holdings in the oversubscribed IPO, which valued the company at approximately $15 billion, according to filings.
The three now control overall stakes worth more than $2 billion in Klarna, a company that has evolved from a European clone of PayPal Holdings Inc. to one of the world’s biggest providers of short-term consumer loans as it seeks to disrupt the banking sector.
“You have to be willing to push the envelope,” Siemiatkowski said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg News.
Fashion
UK’s clothing imports mark strong rebound in August 2025
Imports of textile fabrics remained steady year on year (YoY), while fibre imports declined. In August ****, textile fabric imports totalled £*** million (~$***.** million), unchanged from August ****. Fibre imports, however, fell to £** million (~$**.** million) from £** million a year earlier, continuing a downward trend influenced by global raw material price volatility and sustainability-led sourcing shifts.
In the second quarter (Q*) of ****, the UK’s clothing imports reached £*.*** billion (~$*.*** billion), up *.** per cent from £*.*** billion in Q* ****. Although this quarterly growth was slightly weaker than in Q* ****, it indicates steady recovery amid stabilising global supply chains and resilient consumer appetite. Fabric imports during Q* **** were valued at £*.*** billion, while textile fibre imports reached £** million, compared to £*.*** billion and £*** million, respectively, in the same quarter of ****.
Fashion
US secures reciprocal trade pacts with Malaysia, Cambodia
“These landmark deals demonstrate that America can maintain tariffs to shrink the goods trade deficit, while opening new markets for American farmers, ranchers, workers and manufacturers,” said Greer in a statement released by the USTR.
President Donald Trump has secured agreements on reciprocal trade with Malaysia and Cambodia and reached frameworks for such pacts with Thailand and Vietnam, USTR Jamieson Greer recently announced.
Malaysia has committed to providing significant preferential market access for US industrial goods and agricultural exports, while Cambodia has committed to eliminate tariffs on 100 per cent of such goods.
Malaysia has committed to providing significant preferential market access for US industrial goods and agricultural exports, and addressing non-tariff barriers that affect bilateral trade in priority industrial areas.
Malaysia has committed to raising enforcement against notorious markets for counterfeiting and piracy; protecting internationally-recognised labour rights; and preventing forced labour. It has also committed to refraining from banning, or imposing quotas on, exports to the United States of critical minerals or rare earth elements, a joint statement released by the White House said.
Cambodia has committed to eliminate tariffs on 100 per cent of US industrial goods and food and agricultural products and has already implemented the commitment. The agreement includes commitments on digital trade, services, investment, intellectual property, customs and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, and distortionary behaviors of state-owned enterprises.
Thailand will eliminate tariff barriers on nearly 99 per cent of goods, covering a full range of US industrial and food and agricultural products. It will address and prevent barriers to US food and agricultural products in the Thai market, including expediting access for the United States.
Vietnam will provide preferential market access for substantially all US industrial and agricultural exports. Vietnamese firms have signed 20 memoranda of understanding with US companies to purchase agricultural commodities, with a total estimated value of over $2.9 billion.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
Fashion
UK non-food prices fall again but business rate change may drive inflation and cost jobs says BRC
Published
October 28, 2025
UK shop price inflation fell in the first week of October bringing some relief for hard-pressed consumers, the new BRC-NIQ Shop Price Monitor showed on Tuesday.
But the news came at the same time as a warning that UK retail jobs are at risk from potential tax rises.
First those inflation figures. Overall shop price inflation fell to 1% year on year this month. That’s lower than the 1.4% seen in September and the three-month average of 1.1%.
Specific non-food inflation was actually deflation as it has been for some time. And it accelerated as prices fell more than in September (-0.4% this time rather than -0.1%).
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “Overall shop price inflation slowed in October, driven by fierce competition among retailers and widespread discounting. Discounts came early to electricals and health & beauty, as retailers started promotions ahead of Black Friday month.
“The IMF recently warned that UK inflation will be the highest in the G7. With the Budget less than a month away, the Chancellor has an opportunity to relieve some of the pressures that are keeping the cost of essentials high.”
And that leads us on to the warning of potential job losses if the forthcoming Autumn Budget hammers retailers.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and UK Hospitality have raised concerns over plans to make superstores and other large businesses pay higher business rates.
They said hundreds of sites could close, potentially costing 120,000 jobs.
The changes are designed to give the government room to reduce the burden on smaller businesses and it has said they’ll mean a boost for city centres.
But owners of larger businesses have said it may do the opposite as some major ‘anchor’ sites — particularly large supermarkets and department stores — may close.
Helen Dickinson said ministers should agree to an exemption from higher business rates for retailers to “safeguard hundreds of anchor stores and the vital jobs they sustain”.
She explained that the proposed changes would also added to inflation: “Labour’s promised business rates reform must deliver a meaningful cut to retailers’ rates bills, and ensure that no store pays more. Rising employer National Insurance Contributions and a new packaging tax have directly contributed towards rising inflation, according to the Bank of England. Adding further taxes on retail businesses would inevitably keep inflation higher for longer.”
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