IKEA Brand sold for $11,2 billion. The former owner, registered in Lishtenshteyne Interogo Foundation Fund has transferred the rights to the brand Dutch Inter Ikea Systems - A subsidiary of the Swedish furniture concern. In fact Interogo Foundation Fund owns IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. So, in fact, IKEA has sold its brand itself.
Officially, the purpose of the transaction is a "consolidation and simplification of the business structure of the group," but, in addition, IKEA now the brand has a specific, rather than a hypothetical cost. At the same time, experts note that the price of the transaction "is quite reasonable and justified."
"You buy not only the IKEA brand, you get all the relationships with customers and the enthusiasm with which the Company operates. You pay for it, not the logo - said Bengt Hakansson from Brand Clinic. - IKEA - a brand that is bought, that combines low prices and cultural values. People go to IKEA, no matter what. "
In comments The Local He explained that the company's founder Ingvar Kamprad "has made sure that people understand that he is a good man and did something useful for Sweden." "To have such an impact on people - infinitely valuable ability" - summed Hakansson.
Why Kamprad sold brand? IKEA is not the most open company, as controlled by the family. Try to tell fortunes.
The entrepreneur has always been distinguished at modesty. The fact that Kamprad, already a billionaire (in 2012 year with the state $ 3 billion. He served 377-th place in the list of the richest people in the world), had only Volvo 240 GL 1993 year of issue and preferred to get to the office by bus, it is widely known. So the version that he needed the money, does not deserve even a nomination.
Version One: tax optimization
Kamprad has always used the opportunity to increase business efficiency through legal tax cuts. Parent company net INGKA Holding BV owned fund INGKA Foundation, in turn owned by the Fund IKEA Foundation, in the statutes which spelled out the need to sponsor innovation in the field of architecture and interior design.
Former CEO Anders Dahlwig writes in his book IKEA: Collect a Dream, recently published by Mann, Ivanov and Faber: “The modern structure of this company was invented in 1982. The main goal, as Ingvar Kamprad explained, is to protect the furniture company from fragmentation or resale by subsequent generations of owners. Another - though secondary - goal was to optimize tax payments. <…> If I had to express my opinion as objectively as possible, I would say that IKEA is really efficient in terms of taxes. " And then he describes in detail why: wholesale trade is controlled from Switzerland (there, and not in beloved Sweden, of which Kamprad is a citizen and patriot, by the way, and lives), and the cashier and the management company are located in Belgium, “in both countries taxation is very favorable. " It is possible that the sale of the brand by a Liechtenstein firm to a Dutch company at market price was currently beneficial to IKEA.
Version two: age.
March 30 86 company founder celebrated years, Kamprad is famous for its ability to plan in the long. 1996 when the company was not able to get in the Moscow City Hall permission to build the first store on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, the businessman said quietly: "Do not worry, wait." Today, businesses in Russia is actively developing. It can be assumed that in order to avoid legal complications that may arise after his death, he had decided in advance to transfer the assets to the private firms in the overall structure.
Version Three: The company is preparing for the IPO, and all significant assets need to consolidate on a single structure.
The sale of the brand allowed the personal firm to legally receive a large sum, at the same time increasing the value of the business. But personally, I don't believe in this version. Kamprad was building a family company. The entire ideology of IKEA with its own "Bible" - a system of values - is family. And there is economic sense if the company does not need working capital too much - family companies are more stable, which Dahlvig also writes a lot about in his book using the example of IKEA. Kamprad's grandfather and grandmother, by the way, also owned the family business. And it's not for nothing that he began to transfer the reins of government to his sons twenty years ago.
In any case, there is a lot to learn.
So in conclusion, a few facts. IKEA Brand 89 took place among the most expensive brands in the world. Leader on this indicator is Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), - In 2011 the agency Millward Brown valued brand in the $ 153 billion. On the second place Google ($ 111,5 billion), and the third IBM ($ 100,8 billion). The top ten most expensive brands there was a place McDonald's, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, AT & T, Marlboro, China Mobile и General ElectricAnd the only non-US brand has become a Chinese telecommunications company China Mobile.
