The new King of Scotland: How an ultra-secretive billionaire (with a very traumatic past) is set to be Scotland's biggest landowner... in a bid to take it back in time

Anders Holch Povlsen and his spouse Anne had been photographed in a uncommon image collectively in 2011

Sir Edwin Landseer's Monarch Of The Glen is legendary the world over as an iconic picture of the Highlands, so it's comprehensible that the Nationwide Galleries of Scotland ought to be combating to put it aside for the nation and stop it being bought to a overseas purchaser.

The authorities may do worse than ask for assist from the person who really owns the magnificent panorama that the 1851 masterpiece depicts: the Glen Feshie property within the coronary heart of the Cairngorms.

He's Anders Holch Povlsen, the fabulously rich proprietor of the worldwide vogue enterprise Bestseller and the most important shareholder within the British on-line vogue firm Asos.

Greater than that, the secretive rag-trade billionaire can also be the proud possessor of a staggering £100 million of Highland property, the results of a stealthy marketing campaign of acquisition that might quickly make him the most important personal landlord not simply north of the Border, however of Britain.

Povlsen has purchased 11 Scottish estates, together with Glen Feshie within the Cairngorms, and is known to be eyeing up but extra.

The 44-year-old father-of-three was already the second-largest personal landowner in Britain when, final month, he made yet one more buy – the 18,000-acre Eriboll property in Sutherland for £7 million.

It introduced his complete to a staggering 218,364 acres.

So what lies behind his land seize, and who's the person some are calling the brand new King of Scotland?

Povlsen has the style in quick vehicles and personal jets you may count on from a person estimated to be value £three.76 billion.

Aldourie Citadel on the banks of Loch Ness (pictured) was purchased for £15million in 2015 

Povlsen has the style in quick vehicles and personal jets (pictured) you may count on from a person estimated to be value £three.76 billion

However whereas his plans for the Scottish countryside are hardly high-tech or flashy, they're definitely dramatic. Certainly, he needs to take his estates again in time, and is ready to spend £100 million returning them to their unique wilderness and realise his dream of making an eco-tourism paradise.

The 'rewilding' plans are already below approach at Glen Feshie, the place a big deer inhabitants – as soon as inspired to feed the stalking trade – had destroyed the pure habitat.

It's all a good distance from the tiny Danish city of Brande, with a inhabitants of simply 7,000, the place Povlsen's father, Troels, opened the household's first garments retailer in 1975. Different retailers quickly adopted. And Anders was solely 27 when Troels made him the only real proprietor of Bestseller.

By 2007, it was so profitable that supermodel Gisele Bundchen was employed to market it.

It is a spectacular success story, however it was not with out private value. In 1998, the Povlsens had been subjected to a ten-month reign of terror by an extortionist referred to as Kurt Hansen, who threatened to kill relations if he did not obtain £1 million.

Hansen, 34, despatched a sequence of letters, scratched his initials on to household vehicles and finally broke into the Povlsen household house, leaving a observe a number of yards from the place they slept.

He was subsequently arrested carrying three units of handcuffs, ankle cuffs, tape, a pistol and flammable liquids. Officers later discovered disguises, a wetsuit, a guide on poisoning and a secret room below the floorboards of Hansen's house.

Then, in 2003, a detailed household good friend was kidnapped in India – the place the agency has factories – by a gang that mistook him for one of many Povlsens. He was lastly rescued by native police after a dramatic automotive chase.

Troels Povlsen mentioned on the time: 'The gang thought he was my son. There is no doubt that was why they picked him up, to blackmail me and get cash out of Bestseller. We deal with individuals nicely within the space and that is probably why police organised a really efficient rescue mission.'

Danish writer Soren Jacobsen defined that the expertise compelled the household to take away themselves from the general public eye. Povlsen lives along with his spouse Anne, a former worker at Bestseller, and their three daughters Alma, Agnes and Astrid, at Constantinsborg, a former royal palace close to Aarhus, Denmark's second metropolis.

Jacobsen mentioned: 'They're so petrified of publicity that they do not even really feel the should be seen amongst different Danish celebrities.

'They're mates with the Danish royal household, which in a approach is protected for them. The royal household by no means reveals something about its interior circle.'

Maybe it's no marvel then that Povlsen himself retains a low profile. Keen on a single malt and regionally brewed actual ale, he's identified to go to native pubs in Scotland however hardly ever says a lot about himself.

In a uncommon and notably understated public utterance about his Scottish estates, he mentioned merely: 'My household and I are very keen on Scotland. It's a beautiful place with great nature and good individuals. We had the chance to purchase some land – and we're very completely happy about that.'

Thomas MacDonell, Povlsen's director of conservation, can also be reluctant to offer an excessive amount of away, however says that his love of Scotland was impressed by conventional household holidays. He says: 'Anders may be very regular and, when you noticed him on the street, you wouldn't assume he's a tremendously rich man,' says 'He's fairly nameless.'

Povlsen's outstanding spending spree started in 2006 with the £eight million acquisition of the 42,000-acre Glen Feshie property, which had been badly broken by extreme numbers of deer. In 2008, Povlsen spent a complete of £15.5 million on estates overlaying 27,400 acres at Braeroy close to Fort William, close by Tulloch and Lynaberack within the Cairngorms.

Povlsen has purchased 11 Scottish estates, together with Glen Feshie within the Cairngorms, and is known to be eyeing up but extra

This yr, Povlsen spent £2 million on the 6,234-acre Polla property close to Durness (pictured) 

He purchased Kinloch close to Tongue with its 19,000 acres in 2011 for £5.1 million. The next yr he added 24,000 acres at Ben Loyal for £6.9 million. In 2013, Povlsen purchased the 20,000-acre Gaick property within the Cairngorms from the French luxurious items inheritor Xavier Louis Vuitton for £2.17 million, and in 2015 he paid £15 million for the 17th Century Aldourie Citadel on the shores of Loch Ness.

This yr, Povlsen has not solely purchased the Eriboll property, however spent £2 million on the 6,234-acre Polla property close to Durness in addition to shopping for the 21,000-acre Strathmore property close to Altnaharra, Sutherland, for £6.45 million.

The accounts for his firm, Wildland Restricted, worth his Scottish property empire at £100 million. As issues stand, Povlsen owns a number of sq. miles lower than the Duke of Buccleuch, who has 224,792 acres in Scotland and an additional 11,000 acres elsewhere within the UK – an property that took 700 years of feudal patronage to construct up.

Povlsen has labored reasonably extra rapidly. His dream of changing into Scotland's biggest laird is fuelled by his huge earnings by Bestseller, which employs 15,000 individuals and boasts practically 6,000 outlets.

He owns manufacturers reminiscent of Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, and 27 per cent of ASOS.com, Britain's greatest web vogue retailer.

The household has a repute for treating their workers generously – supplied, in typical Scandinavian model, that they work onerous.

A former Bestseller govt mentioned: 'If you're not performing on the high of your sport, you'll quickly be in your approach out. At Bestseller it's all or nothing. All people offers their all. I've the utmost respect for Anders however he treats workers the identical approach as he does his vehicles: he steps on the gasoline and wears them down.'

Povlsen is a part of a rising Viking invasion of Britain by Scandinavians shopping for substantial estates. They embrace H&M billionaire Stefan Persson, who has 10,000 acres of land in Wiltshire and Hampshire. Danish Lego inheritor Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen owns 69,845 acres in Ross shire, and Swedish Tetrapak heiresses Sigrid and Lisbet Rausing personal practically 90,000 acres of the Highlands.

Most of them share with Povlsen a conventional Scandinavian reluctance to have interaction in shows of wealth.

One household good friend mentioned: 'They epitomise the Danish ethos of 'Jantelov', which interprets as 'Do not assume you might be particular' and emphasises the collective reasonably than the person.'

One other former senior worker, who didn't wish to be named, mentioned: 'Anders rotated to me a number of years in the past and mentioned, 'Look, I've an excellent life. I've every little thing I want and a pleasant watch that works. What else do I want?'

'I keep in mind that the watch was a cheap Citizen. He drove a VW Golf for years, however has upgraded to a Tesla electrical automotive. He's very involved in regards to the surroundings so that they tick all his containers.'

The previous worker added: 'Anders works 12-hour days so there's not a lot time for socialising. He hangs on to his outdated mates from his childhood in Brande. He is aware of they're real mates. Shopping for castles and estates isn't about social climbing. In Scotland, he finds peace.'

He owns Glen Feshie within the Cairngorms (pictured) after he purchased it for £7.9million 

The 44-year-old father has now purchased the 18,000-acre Eriboll property in Sutherland for £7million (pictured) 

In accordance with Thomas MacDonnell the Dane now has a 200-year imaginative and prescient for taking his land again to a pure state. 'What we try to do is modernise the sporting-estate mannequin and supply one thing that encourages individuals to come back and see the property,' MacDonnell mentioned. 'The capturing season is sort of quick and is a declining and a few would say an old school market. If you wish to construct a contemporary vacation enterprise, you need to supply individuals heat and luxury and supply one thing for feminine visitors, and that is the place the spa is available in.

'Anders Povlsen must be applauded for doing this and we want to implement the mannequin we have now used on the Glen Feshie property on our different estates. He had a few holidays within the Highlands along with his dad and mom and actually preferred it right here. That's the place his emotional attachment began.'

Decreasing deer numbers permits the return of indigenous Caledonian forests and predators such because the lynx. In the long term, wolves may make a comeback.

Povlsen additionally plans a contemporary resort close to Eriboll, full with luxurious spa, restaurant and spectacular views throughout his estates, which embrace the mountains Ben Hope and Ben Loyal.

To protect the panorama, a lot of the proposed complicated shall be beneath floor, with the one seen indicators being a clump of conventional Scottish bothies.

Povlsen has moved so quietly there appears neither criticism nor reward for his extraordinary ambitions.

Will there actually be submarines taking vacationers by way of the lochs on his property, underground spas and packs of wolves? Time will inform.

However for the second not less than, there is not any doubt that Povlsen is the brand new Monarch of the Glen. 

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