Half of IKEA founder’s private fortune goes to economic development of northern Sweden

It is the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter which has posted a photo of Ingvar Kamprand’s handwritten will where he says half of the fortune will go to his children, while the other half goes to the family’s foundation aimed at supporting economic developments in the northernmost region of the country.

The newspaper estimates the IKEA founder’s private fortune to be about 750 million Swedish kroner (€74,3 million).

Regional newspaper Norrländska Socialdemokraten (NSD) tells the story about Ingvar Kamprand’s passion for traveling the Torne Vally in the years after establishing the company’s northernmost mall in Haparanda on the Swedish, Finnish border.

The IKEA mall in Haparanda serves customers throughout the Barents Region, including northern Norway, Russia’s Kola Peninsula and Republic of Karelia, as well as Finnish Lapland.

How the money will be spent in Norrbotten is not year clear. Decisions will be taken by the family’s foundation. Kamprand’s will simply reads «These funds will be used for the development of business activities in Norrland.»

The will only contains a smaller part of the IKEA founder’s total generated income from the furniture malls. At the time of his death this winter, Kamprand’s foundations world-wide value had could be worth as much as 620 billion Swedish kroner (€61,4 billion), the business weekly Veckans Affärer reports.

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