Home furnishing giant IKEA sells brand for $11bn August 9, 2012 - 20:49 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The world’s largest furniture retailer IKEA has sold its brand for 75 billion Swedish kronor ($11.2 billion) to one of its subsidiaries, Swedish newspaper The Local, reported on Thursday, August 9, according to RIA Novosti. The brand was sold by Interogo, controlled by IKEA's founder Ingvar Kamprad and based in the tax haven of Liechtenstein, to daughter company Ikea Systems in the Netherlands. IKEA said the transaction was aimed at simplifying the company’s structure. The Ikea brand ranks 89th among the world’s 100 most valuable brands but is not the highest-ranking Swedish company. It is second to Swedish Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) apparel retail chain estimated at 125 billion Swedish kronor and ranking 58th among the world’s most valuable brands. IKEA was founded in 1943 and operates over 300 outlets in 41 countries. The Swedish company entered the Russian market in 2000. The paper cited an expert as saying 75 billion kronor was not an unreasonable sum. “If you buy Ikea’s brand you are simultaneously buying all the customer relations and goodwill that the company has worked for. That’s what you pay for – not the logo,” Bengt Hakansson of Brand Clinic told the TT news agency. Partner news  Top stories “It’s a pity that instead of operating flights, airplanes with Armenian flags stand idle under the sun,” Ghazaryan said. The issue was discussed by Gazprom chief Alexey Miller and Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan. On Feb 23, 2012, Yerevan Jur CJSC issued application for decreasing water prices from current AMD 174,059 to AMD 166,044 per cubic meter. Finance Minister David Sargsyan met with the regional director of KfW German Development Bank Lars Oermann.   Partner news |  Latest news Turkish police detain 13 more demonstrators over violence  Human rights groups say more than 3,000 people have been detained, then released, since anti-government rallies began.Pirate Bay co-founder sentenced to two years in prison Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was found guilty of hacking into computers at a company that manages data for the Swedish tax authority.Syrian rebels reportedly get first heavy weapons from Saudi Arabia A handful of the missiles were already in use and in high demand after opposition forces looted them from captured bases.UNESCO adds six ancient sites in Syria to World Heritage list Members also supported a French proposal calling for a special fund to help conserve World Heritage properties in Syria. |
