With mounting debts exacerbated by a bad €1 billion ($1.35 billion) bet on shares of carmaker Volkswagen AG, German billionaire Adolf Merckle, who according to Forbes is the world's 94th wealthiest person, took his own life Monday. In a statement, the industrialist's family said the 74-year-old felt helpless by the process of trying to cover his bad investments.
Continue reading below
"The
perilous economic situation of his firms caused by the financial crisis
and the related insecurities of the last weeks as well as the
helplessness of no longer being able to act [as he wished] broke the
passionate entrepreneur," the family said in a statement Tuesday.
To cover his debts, Merckle's vast empire likely will be sold off.
Through his VEM Vermögensverwaltung GmbH holding company, Merckle owned:
- Ratiopharm GmbH,
a generic pharmaceutical maker
- Phönix
Pharmahandel AG, a drug distributor
- HeidelbergCement AG, a publicly traded cement company
The tycoon was shorting
shares of VW when now-parent Porsche AG unexpectedly announced that it
held about 70% of the carmaker. That forced Merckle to scramble for shares and temporarily made VW the world's
most valuable company.
Merckle reportedly left a suicide note in his modest house
before stepping in front of a moving train near the southern German town
of Ulm. - Andrew Bulkeley
