Thursday, April 8th, 2021
Richer than Trump at the age of 18
The youngest billionaire in the world is German
Kevin David Lehmann receives a generous present on his 18th birthday. He receives 50 percent of the shares in Europe’s largest drugstore chain. In one fell swoop, he became the youngest multibillionaire in the world – knocking influencer Kylie Jenner off the throne.
The 18-year-old Kevin David Lehmann is the youngest billionaire in the world. The German fortune will according to the current “Forbes” ranking estimated at 3.3 billion dollars (the equivalent of 2.8 billion euros). That makes him richer than Donald Trump, for example. Media like “Business Insider” are now biting their teeth to be able to speak to the super-rich “Teenager from Germany” – but he, like his father, is keeping a low profile.
That couldn’t be further from his predecessor, who topped the list of youngest billionaires last year: social media star and entrepreneur Kylie Jenner. In contrast to the 23-year-old influencer, Lehmann is invisible: No social media profile, not even “Forbes” could find a photo of him.
Lehmann is one of “only a handful of billionaires” who were able to integrate into the ranks of the super-rich as a teenager, as “Forbes” reports. However, this should not come as a surprise to anyone: his father, Günther Lehmann, had already transferred his shares in the drugstore brand dm to his son when he was 14 years old. Until he came of age, the assets were managed by a trustee – but Kevin David Lehmann celebrated his 18th birthday in September 2020.
Heirs from large companies can also be found in positions two to four in the “Forbes” list of the youngest billionaires. Austin Russel, the richest self-billionaire in the rankings, ranks fifth. The 26-year-old American is the founder of Luminar Technologies, a company that develops vehicle sensors and software for autonomous driving.
Little is known about Lehmann or his father. Neither father nor son are actively involved in the company’s business, according to a 2017 report by “Wirtschaftswoche”. In 1974 Günther Lehmann had acquired 50 percent of the shares in the drugstore chain. At that time, founder Götz Werner was just opening his second branch, but he still lacked the money to expand. Lehmann, who was a partner in the Karlsruhe grocery chain Pfannkuch at the time, got involved as a financier. Today, with around 3,700 branches and 62,000 employees, dm is the largest drugstore group in Europe.
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