Brick toy company Lego has been around for over 90 years—and the founder’s descendants still own large chunks of the multi-billion-dollar business.
Now, one of the company’s heirs has sold shares in Lego’s family firm, called Kirkbi A/S, worth roughly 6.32 billion kroner or $930 million, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The founder’s great-granddaughter Sofie Kirk Kristiansen sold 4 million shares in Kirkbi, which controls 75% of The Lego Group, for 158,000 kroner a piece, the outlet reported citing filings on the Danish central business register’s website.
The Billund, Denmark-based toymaker is privately held and continues to be owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family.
Proceeds of the share sales were paid out as a dividend and the shares were subsequently canceled by Kirkbi, leaving the other family members with higher stakes at the firm, Kirkbi told Bloomberg in a statement.
“Sofie Kirk Kristiansen has earlier this year sold minor part of her shares back to KIRKBI in agreement with the remaining shareholders–to focus more time and resources on private projects in nature conservation and preservation,” Kirkbi said in a statement to Fortune.
Fourth-gen heirs of the Kirk Kristiansen family
The family firm is currently chaired by Sofie Kirk Kristiansen’s brother, Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, who took over from their father in May. At the same time, her sister Agnete Kirk Kristiansen was elected as a board member of Kirkbi. Thomas was previously the chairman of The Lego Group’s board of directors.
Sofie had 12.7% voting rights, according to a Kirkbi press release from May, while the other two members of the fourth-generation Lego heirs had 37.7% and 12.8%, respectively. The three siblings have a 25% ownership share in Kirkbi each, and the rest is held by their father (22.5%) and the family’s nonprofit foundation K2 Fonden af 2023 (1.5%).
It’s unclear exactly how Sofie’s sale of shares would increase her siblings’ voting rights or share ownership in the family holding company.
Lego didn’t immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
Lego’s enduring toy leadership
Lego’s brand might be nearly a century old, but its toys have continued to amass a following among children and adults through the years.
The company saw immense growth during the COVID-19 pandemic as people looked for avenues of indoor entertainment—sales for the Danish toymaker soared 43% in the first six months of 2021.
Demand has since cooled down as Lego saw its worst profit drop in nearly two decades of 19% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period a year ago. The company’s CEO Niels Christiansen told the Financial Times that he was “very satisfied” with Lego’s performance as it was performing better than some of its peers in the toy industry. He said the decline in profits was also linked to elevated raw material costs and greater investment into expanding the company’s operation—but the company still had a robust financial position.
“We’ve kept outperforming the market at the same rate as the past four or five years. This year, the market was down,” Christiansen told the outlet.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated with a comment from Kirkbi.
