H&M founding family accelerates open-market share purchases toward potential take-private as fast fashion faces structural headwinds
The family of Stefan Persson, son of H&M founder Erling Persson, has been steadily purchasing shares on the open market throughout 2026 as the Swedish fast fashion group faces sustained competitive and financial pressure. Persson's family private investment firm, Ramsbury Invest, purchased 36.8 million shares since the start of the year, bringing the Persson family and associated entities' collective holding to over 68% of total H&M shares as of late August. Under Swedish law, a shareholder reaching a 90% equity threshold can initiate a mandatory squeeze-out (compulsory acquisition) of remaining minority shareholders, a process that would enable a full take-private of the listed company. Industry observers consequently expect the Persson family to push toward that threshold before 2030, according to reporting cited by CNBC. H&M has faced sustained pressure from ultra-low-price online competitors including Shein and from Inditex (parent of Zara). The company's stock price had fallen more than 50% in cumulative losses since touching record highs in 2015. H&M was founded in 1947; Stefan Persson led the company as CEO until 1998 and as chairman until 2020, overseeing its global expansion from a Swedish retailer into a major international chain.
Why this matters
If the Persson family's buying programme is oriented toward a 90% squeeze-out threshold, H&M could become one of the largest European retail take-private transactions in recent years. The strategic logic is clear: as a listed company, H&M is subject to public market pricing pressure and quarterly earnings scrutiny that constrain the long-term restructuring required to compete with Shein and Inditex. Private ownership would allow the founding family to absorb short-term losses from store closures, supply chain restructuring, and digital investment without quarterly market penalty. The structural decline of traditional fast fashion at the mid-market price point makes the take-private thesis commercially coherent even at a premium to current depressed trading levels.
On the Ground
A take-private of a major European listed company of H&M's scale would be a landmark public M&A transaction activating Swedish and cross-border public company takeover law, squeeze-out mechanics under Swedish corporate law, and significant English law-governed financing if international banks participate. For City firms, the primary advisory opportunity would arise on the financing side, structuring acquisition debt alongside the Persson family's equity, and on any debt capital markets work required to support the transaction. A trainee on a public M&A matter of this type would assist with preparing CP checklists for regulatory and shareholder approvals, reviewing disclosure letter drafts, and maintaining the completion bible as conditions are satisfied.
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