[Manual - How To]: How to Get off the Richs List [Source : Danish 'Economic Weekly Letter']

[John Hjorth]

1. The family feud

 

A look back at the top-20 list of the richest people or families in Denmark ten years ago tells the instructive story about the methods. Seven of the individuals or families who appeared on the top-20 list in 2014 are no longer in the top, and several of them are even out of the top-100 altogether. Method number 1 is probably also the most entertaining for many. Here, the method involves arguing and fighting over the money both inside and outside the courtrooms, so that the money eventually slowly disappears. In short, a method that can be called the "family feud". In 2014, the Færch family was ranked number 19 among the richest individuals or families. The following year they were completely out of the top 20 and then completely disappeared from the list. Over the years, the Færch dynasty has become the epitome of scandals on the hardwood floors in Denmark. The wealth history otherwise goes all the way back to 1869 and the founding of a tobacco factory in Holstebro and then a large plastics company. But the fights over the money have been going on for many years and were most recently trumpeted in public by leaked audio recordings from a podcast about the family dynasty, brought by the medium Frihedsbrevet. Dramatic family meetings are revealed here, where an adult daughter is heard saying to her mother: "You're putting a gun to my forehead". The podcast "Huset Færch" once again brings the drama of the wealthy family to life. For the entertainment of some. To the shame of others.

 

2. Start a bank

 

Method number 2 to fall off the top can be called "Start a bank". Niels Thorborg has made his money by renting out everything to customers who didn't want or want to spend the money on buying the things. In 2014, he was so successful with the company L'easy that he was comfortably placed as number 15 among the richest people in Denmark. In fact, he was in the top 20 right up until 2021, when he dropped out. However, he is still in the top-100. But a year before, he had had the good idea that he wanted to start a bank. It became Facit Bank. And it was expensive. In 2023 alone he had to write a check three times and send more money into the bank, and again in 2024 he had to pick up his pockets. And if the concept of starting a bank is too slow, Niels Thorborg knows another and quick method to add money - buy a football club. As the owner of the club OB, he almost decides himself how quickly he wants to get rid of the money. But love cannot be bought with money. This also applies in football.

 

3. Bet on the uncertain

 

Method 3 to leave the list with less money than when you entered the list, we can call "betting on something uncertain in the long term," also called the biotech industry. In 2014, the Gunnersen Harbo family was number 20 on the list of the 20 richest people or families in Denmark. Admittedly a last place in this context, but still in the top 20. The money came through the sale of the life work Dako in 2007 to a capital fund. The sale yielded proceeds of DKK 4.2 billion, and that money went into investment companies and, among other things, invested in several new life science adventures. Viggo Gunnersen Harboe has thus bought into a small diagnostic company Biostrip, which works in the same area of biomarkers that his father made billions from. But as everyone knows, that industry is precarious. The gains can be big, but they can also take a long time to come. The family dropped out of the top 20 the following year and then completely out of the top 100.

 

4. Give the money away

 

Method 4 can be aptly called "give the money away". This is the method that Winnie Liljeborg has used. However, fully aware and with open eyes. Winnie Liljeborg made several billions together with her husband and later her son by first selling more than half of the jewelery company Pandora to the capital fund Axcel and then listing the rest of the company on the stock market. Her fortune is placed in the holding company Liljeborg-Gruppen, and it is from here that she distributes money for charitable purposes with a focus on helping children and young people who are vulnerable, or in other ways live under difficult conditions, so that they have the opportunity to to thrive better socially, healthily and educationally and get better opportunities in life. In 2014, she was ranked number 16 in the top 20. A few years later she dropped out, but is still on the list of the 100 richest people. A quick way to get out of the list of the top 20 is of course also to "leave the country", so the values may also disappear in the dark. Winnie Liljeborg's ex-husband and son have thus done so. In 2014, they were number 11 on the top-20 list, which thus counted as many as three Pandora billionaires. But a few years later they were out, for the simple reason that they have moved to Thailand, where Pandora has production and employs several thousand people. And although all three of them are out of Pandora, today they have a so-called family office investment company together with the name North-East Group ApS.

 

5. Wait on Corona or a geopolitical crisis

 

A final but also safe method is to wait for a global pandemic. Martin Møller Nielsen with the company Nordic Aviation was a fixture on the top 20 list. But with the corona pandemic, the need to lease regional aircraft, which was the company's entire business basis, disappeared. The group came under reconstruction in the USA - in a so-called chapter 11 scheme - and when the company came out of this scheme, Martin Møller Nielsen was no longer with the company he himself had founded and led to become the world's largest lessor of regional aircraft. However, he is still on the top 100 list.' The Fleggaard family also used the same method. The family has been called Denmark's champions in cross-border sales to the Danes from their distinctive businesses just over the border. However, they were hit hard by Corona and the family fell out of the top 20. However, they are still in the top-100 and seem to be on their way up again. The Danes don't want to miss out on a good offer.

 

6. The day fly

 

A glance over the past ten years at the top-20 list also reveals a few individual day flies. Denmark has never really been a big IT country. We had Navision. And then we have Unity Technologies, a 3D platform for developing games that gained global success in an instant. In 2021, one of the three Danish founders, Joachim Ante, went directly to number 10, but already the following year he was completely out of the top 20 again, as the shares in the company had fallen dramatically in value. However, all three are still on the top 100 list. Also a daily fly in this context is Morten Hummelmose, who as a successful partner in the capital fund EQT achieved a place as number 19 in 2021, only to be out again the following year. This year he has proclaimed that, like Winnie Lijleborg, he will now spend more of his time and fortune on charity. He and his wife shoot at least half a billion. DKK in a new fund for that purpose. Finally, it can be stated, for those who might have ambitions to be considered for the list of the top 20 richest people or families in Denmark, that the entrance ticket has become more expensive. In 2014, it required only 3.8 billion. DKK in wealth to squeeze into place number 20. In 2023 it required a fortune of 12 billion DKK.

 

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The majority of wealthy Danes lay low and are shy of the lime light.

 

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Source : Economic Weekly Letter [Danish : 'Økonomisk Ugebrev'] : Denmarks 100 Richest [p. 33 - 35]. [Unfortunately could Google Translate not handle the file, for reasons unknown to me.]

 

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Edit 22^nd November 2025 :

 

Messed around today with the pdf file linked to above, this time giving it a stab compressing the pdf file online to absolutely minimum size by the use of my Adobe subscrption, and giving it it a spin again in Google Translate, Google Translate still coughing, but after a couple of attemps it worked out.

 

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Thus, pfd file translated by the use of Google Translate to English language attached.

 

 

De-100-rigeste-2024-121224-low-1-komprimeret - English language.pdf

Edited November 22, 2025 by John Hjorth
Fixed spelling in topic title

[Sweet]

1 hour ago, John Hjorth said:

we can call "betting on something uncertain in the long term," also called the biotech industry.

This made me laugh.  Good list John, won’t be starting a bank anytime soon.

[John Hjorth]

18 hours ago, Sweet said:

This made me laugh.  Good list John, won’t be starting a bank anytime soon.

 

Yes, @Sweet,

 

It was meant as entertaining for folks here on CoBF who do generally not need advice about what to do with their money - at all! - Simply because about all aspects of money, they are totally self-propelled and able tooption for the right solutions for them selves, based on a minimum of advice.

 

Then there is the language by financial reporters here in Denmark who all - as far as I know - educated journalists, but autodidact [self-taught] in accounting, finance, company law etc. and all that related stuff, and in that space very fast with a flat, horisontal learning curve, never really diving into something at depth, likely never reading a new book about anything. Result and outcome : Cursory, often flawed, written publiciced stuff by a financial media here in Denmark, based on ignorance, lack of knowledge, misconceptions, misunderstandings. And it's sold for money, and there are acually sufficient subscriptioners to suck it up, to the socall honorable business going!

 

It's now long time ago I have cut such Danish subsciptions for greener grass somewhere else, because it was waste of money.

 

Here, as first example the use of the word 'uncertainty'. It's so lame : One element of 'uncertainty' is actually 'potential' on upside, while the other is what we partially call 'risk' the permanent part of the possibily, the rest of it we call 'volability'.

 

The next example is the confusion of the the underlying causes and common denominators about 'investing in something 'uncertain'', and 'waiting on Corona or a geopolitical crisis'.  The true real common denominator for those are the concentration risks that founders and private company owners are willing to assume, simply because such a company percieved as 'an extra, special kid' which was not carried and popped by the owner, or the spouse, partner, whatever.

 

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But despite all that, the list produced is to me still interesting to study, even if it shall be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Luckily, we have a lot of good companies living 'under the radar' here in Denmark, to contribute to make the wheels go around here.

[John Hjorth]

Today I messed around again with the pdf file containing the full article list 100 richest Danes list, this time succeding getting it translated to English language by the use of Google Translate. Translated file now added to the topic starting post above.

 

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Going forward I'll leasurely apply this topic for sharing my relaxed, casually chat and tellings about awesome non-listed, privately controlled and held businesses, that I pesonally find interesting, and that I personally think may also be of interest for fellow CofB&F members. Such companies are not only the Lego sphere, Danfoss and Grundfoss, just to mention a few that I personally think are internationally recognized and known. Some of them may eventually end up being IPOed and listed, however seldom that may be, or some may be acquiired or merged with an already listed company, Danish or not - we still have such serial acquirers other than PE private firms in the field, i.e. Schouw & Co. A/S.

 

Also, please feel free to post suggestions for Danish businesses to cover here in this topic, and I'll do my very best to be forthcoming.

 

Denmark is one of the best digitalized countries in the world, however for many important Danish public websites status is that they mostly aren't or only rudimentary translated into English, so the language barrier is still real and a bitch for most of the world.

[EgonKuhn]

This year I almost pulled the trigger on CBRAIN.CO (in their march drawdown) and AMBU-B.CO (more recently) - maybe you have some opinion about them?

[John Hjorth]

Egon [ @EgonKuhn ],

 

I have never dived into any those two before, I can't really explain why, all I can say by now is AMBU has several times indirectly crossed my path, latest in the Novo Nordisk saga,one of the new board members elected and cherry picked for the new Novo Nordisk board of directors is the AMBU CEO Brit Melby Jensen, and I can assure you is this not just coincidental, based on my knowledge about Lars Rebien Sørensen, 'Lars 1' already knows her from her carrier path at Novo Nordisk back from when she a manager at Novo Nordisk, and 'Lars 1' was a Novo Nordisk CEO.

 

Novo Nordisk - About - Board of directors : Britt Meelby Jensen

 

So I'll start with that. Eventually, I'll look at them both. But please give me some time for both.

 

The offer was made so that I I would avoid solidifying like a hot piece of lava that gradually cooled down. It's called inspiration, combined with sharing something for something here at CofB&F. I owe this lovely place to give back as much as I can, because when I found it at 13^th March 2013, after finally finding Nordnet Bank, Danish Branch, via a news paper add and seetting up an account there at 21^st June 2012, later in September transferring an inferioir pension account account converted to cash and transferred to Nordnet Bank for immedially buying the first few Berkshire shares at 12^th September 2012, as first thing to do, then for the first time after the first time on,  I was a soulless orphan with no home, absolutely frustrated by looking at at mispriced Danish listed small caps, typically run for the giggles of the controlling shareholder and CEO, untill I more or less accidentidentially stumbled upon CofB&F, after spending something like 15 minutes  reading in what then was available for unregistered guests, reading for free here at CofB&F, I found and pressed the 'buy' button and transferred I think it then was CAD 30.00 via my Paypal account, to Sanjeev [ @Parsad ]- an absolutely nominal entrance fee, to stay on here, for life. 

 

It's the the best investment I've ever made, but it's $MS WYGIWYG - What you give is what you get - mutual in its nature per se.

 

Something for something.

 

So, thank you for the inspirational request, Egon [ @EgonKuhn ]. It doesen't matter that they are already listed, I'll happily take your polite requests  here from the inspirational angle for my part, what is in it for me, that a CofB&F member already has directed some interest and kJoules towards something in my geographical turf. For these two specific Danish companies I'll likely open and start separate topics in the Investment Ideas Forum, because they are both already listed, and thereby already available, likely available by choice of broker, but only for all of us here as registered members of CofB&F.

Edited November 22, 2025 by John Hjorth

[EgonKuhn]

Investing in Berkshire Hathaway in September 2012 was a pretty good choice for an initial position .

 

From my perspective there are quite a few interesting companies listed on the Danish stock market. These two just happened to be the ones that came close to my price targets for an initial position in 2025. I also quite like ChemoMetec and Novonesis for example, but unfortunately they stubbornly remain expensive.

[John Hjorth]

New, updated Denmarks 100 richest list out and available :

 

 

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Attached :

 

1. English language version, generated by the use of Google Translate,

2. Danish language original, source for 1.

Økonomisk Ugebrev - De 100 rigeste i Danmark - 2025-2026 - Dansk - 20251126.pdf Økonomisk Ugebrev - De 100 rigeste i Danmark - 2025-2026 - English - 20251126-komprimeret.pdf

[Spekulatius]

Die Deutschen kommen:

 

[John Hjorth]

Here is the latest financials from the holding company of the second weathiest Dane, next to Lego, the total Lego Sphere, which consists of several persons, foundations etc. :

 

Anders Holck Poulsen, his holding company called Heartland A/S [for a good reason!, that is!].

 

If interested, please read the The Wikipedia article about him. I'm personally confident and convinced, that he is taking in asbetos flakes with milk as an integral  part of his morning ritual, and when he's in need of going unplugged, he's going to Chernobyl area, Ukraine, trecking there alone! -An awesome guy!

 

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Attached :

 

1. Heartland A/S Annual Report 2024/25, in English language.

 

HEARTLAND AS - Annual report 2024-25.pdf

[John Hjorth]

Here is yet another very interesting Financial Report for Imbtech A/S 2024/25.

 

The sole shareholder has flagged out the company from Denmark to Swhitzerland, now quite some years ago. It has so far been impossible for to dig up, where that the Danish sole shareholders equity come from, nor is it possible to find a photo of Ib Nymark Petersen on the web - Meticously keeping head low,, and out of the limelight.

 

There has been really stubborn and persistent rumours of this man being all-in on Novo Nordisk A/S! - Now that is ballsy! - I havent made the calulations for 2024/25 yet!  -But incurring a not-realized MtM loss of about 7 billion DKK without as much as releasing a shrug worth noticing? If it's really so, balls of steel!

Annual Report - CVlass C - IMBTECH AS - FACT - 2024-25 - 20250617 - 20251201.pdf