Anders Holch Povlsen

Anders Holch Povlsen (born 1972) is a Danish billionaire who is the CEO and sole owner of the international clothes retailer chain Bestseller-Group (Vero Moda, Jack&Jones, etc.), a company founded by his parents, and the biggest shareholder in the British internet clothes retailer Asos and biggest shareholder in German internet clothes retailer Zalando. He is the second largest private landowner in Britain.

Constantinsborg Estate in Aarhus, drawing by F. Richardt in Prospecter af danske Herregaarde

Anders Holch Povlsen was born in 1972 to Troels Holch Povlsen and Merete Bech Povlsen. The family's first clothes store opened in 1975 in the tiny Danish town of Brande, with a population of just 7,000. Other outlets soon followed. Anders was only 28 when his father made him the sole owner of Bestseller. The family also has an interest, along with two Danish partners in China, in Bestseller Fashion Group China, a company that designs its own collections for 5,000 stores in China.

He serves as its Chief Executive Officer. In 2013, Povlsen bought a 10% stake in the German internet clothes retailer Zalando, becoming the third largest shareholder. Bestseller already has a 27% stake in ASOS.com, the largest UK internet-only fashion retailer.

In June 2015, Anders Holch Povlsen's net worth was estimated to be $5.8 Billion.

Aldourie Castle

In 2012 it was reported that Povlsen owns about 120,000 acres (49,000 ha) in Scotland, having bought two further large estates, the 24,000-acre Ben Loyal, and 18,000-acre Kinloch, both in Sutherland. These are in addition to a 47,000-acre estate he bought in Inverness-shire in 2006 and a 30,000-acre estate near Fort William that he bought in 2008. Making him one of the Highlands’ biggest landowners behind the Prince of Wales, British billionaire Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, better known as the Duke of Westminster.

In 2013 it was reported that Povlsen had bought the 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) Gaick Estate in Inverness-shire earlier that year, bringing his total to 150,000 acres (61,000 ha), second only to the Buccleuch Estates as Scotland's largest private landowner. In addition, Povlsen had bought land in the Borders specifically to trade it with the Forestry Commission, in return for 1,000 acres of woodland to add to his 43,000-acre Glenfeshie Estate, south of Aviemore. Povlsen bought Glenfeshie in 2006, and expanded it by buying the 4,000-acre neighbouring farm of Killiehuntly.

Inn 2015 he bought Aldourie Castle on the banks of Loch Ness for £15 million. In October 2016 he bought 18,000-acre Eriboll estate in Sutherland for £7 million.

In Denmark, Holch Povlsen owns and resides at the old Constantinsborg Estate west of Aarhus, along with substantial farmland and forests. He has also bought land in Romania's Carpathian Mountains to create a wilderness reserve for the surviving wolves, bears and lynx.

Povlsen is married with four children and lives in Aarhus, Denmark.