Do we like them?

Do we like Stefan Persson?

Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record on what we could open, held back because the harm and conduct search turned up little either way.

The big story around the family lately is ownership. Bloomberg-sourced reporting says the Perssons have spent more than US$6.6 billion since 2016 buying H&M shares through their investment vehicle, lifting their stake from about 35.5% to nearly 64%. Small shareholders have questioned it and an analyst reckoned a buyout could come within two years. The family has denied any plans to take the company private.

On the harm check, we went looking for anything he has said or done about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate. Nothing turned up in what we could read, no campaigning, no donations to causes that push harm, and no conspiracy-theory slide. That is an absence of evidence rather than a glowing reference, because he is a quiet owner who rarely gives interviews.

The good stuff is real money. In March 2022 the Erling-Persson Foundation, which he chairs, gave SEK 150 million to Ukraine relief, split between Save the Children and the Red Cross. In 2023 it gave SEK 467 million to the Stockholm School of Economics, with the decision signed by Stefan Persson. That is serious giving, though it comes from enormous wealth.

H&M has copped plenty of criticism over the years, including Swedish press coverage and a critical book about him. We couldn't open those pieces, so we haven't leaned on them either way, and we found no court ruling against him personally. Nothing recent that we could confirm either, so this is a card with gaps rather than a clean bill of health.

So where does that leave us? On what we can verify he's a quiet billionaire with a generous foundation and no sign of the grievance-and-culture-war slide this page watches for. It's a lean yes, with the caveat that the file is thin.