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What is Susanne Klatten’s Net Worth?
Susanne Klatten is a prominent German billionaire heiress who has an estimated net worth of $27.0 billion. Klatten owns approximately 19% of BMW, a leading luxury automobile manufacturer. This stake is a major contributor to her wealth.
Apart from that, she inherited a 50.1% stake in Altana, a chemical and pharmaceutical company, from her father. She later acquired all remaining shares and took the company private.
Klatten has diversified her investments through her holding company, Skion. She owns significant stakes in SGL Carbon (29%), a carbon producer; Nordex (3%), a wind turbine developer; and Entrust Datacard (40%), a credit card and passport manufacturer.
Klatten has been an influential figure in the business world, serving on the supervisory boards of BMW and Altana. She has also been involved in various other companies and charitable organizations. Her business acumen has been instrumental in transforming Altana into a global leader in its field.
Here’s the breakdown of Susanne Klatten’s net worth:
Name: | Susanne Klatten |
Net Worth: | $27.0 Billion |
Date of Birth: | Apr 28, 1962 |
Profession: | Entrepreneur |
If you’re curious about how we estimate a celebrity’s net worth, you can check out our methodology here.
Early Life
Susanne Hanna Ursula Klatten, née Quandt, was born on April 28, 1962, in Bad Homburg, West Germany. She is the daughter of Herbert Quandt, a prominent German industrialist, and Johanna Quandt, a lawyer.
Klatten’s educational background is robust, with a degree in business finance, followed by a course in marketing and management at the University of Buckingham, and an MBA from IMD Business School in Lausanne. She gained practical business experience working for various companies, including Young & Rubicam, Dresdner Bank, McKinsey, and Bankhaus Reuschel & Co.
Business Career
BMW
Susanne Klatten’s most notable business involvement is with BMW, the luxury automobile manufacturer. She inherited a 12.5% stake in BMW from her father, which increased to 19.2% following her mother’s death in 2015. She owns a 0.2% stake directly and 20.7% through her investment entity, Susanne Klatten Beteiligungs. Klatten has been a member of BMW’s supervisory board since 1997, alongside her brother Stefan Quandt.
Altana
Klatten also inherited a 50.1% stake in Altana, a chemical and pharmaceutical company, from her father. She played a crucial role in transforming Altana into a world-class corporation. In 2006, Altana sold its pharmaceutical division to Nycomed for €4.5 billion, which was distributed to shareholders as dividends. Klatten subsequently acquired all remaining shares and took the company private between 2008 and 2010. Today, Altana remains a significant part of her investment portfolio.
Other Investments
Through her investment company, Skion, Klatten has diversified her portfolio. She owns 29% of SGL Carbon, a carbon producer, and about 3% of Nordex, a wind turbine developer. In addition, she holds a 40% stake in Entrust Datacard, a company specializing in credit card and passport manufacturing.
Blackmail
In 2007, Susanne Klatten faced a significant personal and public challenge when she became the victim of a blackmail scheme orchestrated by Helg Sgarbi, a Swiss national. Sgarbi, who had a history of similar schemes, seduced Klatten and secretly filmed their intimate encounters with the help of an accomplice, Italian hotel owner Ernano Barretta. Sgarbi then threatened to release the footage unless Klatten paid him millions of euros.
The affair began in the summer of 2007, and Sgarbi initially convinced Klatten to give him nearly $10 million by fabricating a story about needing the money to settle a car accident involving a mafia boss’s child. When Klatten ended the relationship, Sgarbi demanded an additional €49 million ($62 million) to keep the footage private. Instead of succumbing to the blackmail, Klatten reported the incident to the police, leading to Sgarbi’s arrest in January 2009.
Sgarbi was subsequently sentenced to six years in prison for fraud and attempted blackmail. His accomplice, Barretta, was also arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2012.
Personal Life & Philanthropy
Klatten met her future husband, Jan Klatten, during an internship at BMW in Regensburg. They married in 1990 and have three children. The couple lived in Munich but separated in 2018.
Klatten has been actively involved in academia and philanthropy. Since 2005, she has served on the University Council of the Technical University of Munich.
In 2007, she was awarded the Bayerischer Verdienstorden, the Bavarian Order of Merit, for her contributions to education and research. She is also a significant donor to the Christian Democratic Union, reflecting her engagement in political and social causes.
Ashley Roberts is the founder of Real-Time Billionaires List. She founded this platform because she likes to know how much celebrities are actually making. She is always curious why these people can make much more money than the ordinary person.
With a Bachelor’s degree in finance, she is skilled at financial analysis and understands numbers related to wealth. Most of the articles on this site are edited by herself before publishing.
