Anders Holch Povlsen's Wildland Ltd reveals £9.3 million annual loss
Scotland’s richest man has reported an operating loss of almost £9.3 million on his Highland hospitality and estates business.
The annual accounts for Anders Holch Povlsen’s conservation and eco-tourism firm Wildland Ltd show turnover of £2.9 million in the 12 months to July last year, down from £4.2 million in the previous period.
Povlsen, 51, is a Danish businessman who made his fortune in retail. He is the largest shareholder in the online giant Asos and a major investor in Zalando.
He is Scotland’s largest landowner, with more than 220,000 acres across13 estates, and has been investing heavily in conservation for several years.
According to the accounts, the farming, forestry and property businesses made positive contributions but the hospitality business “tipped back into loss”.
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Wildland runs the Lundies House hotel, in Tongue, as well as offering luxury self-catering accommodation at other properties it has renovated, including Aldourie Castle on Loch Ness, which "absorbed" marketing costs before re-opening after a four-and-a-half years refurbishment.
Mr Povlsen says in his foreword: "The cost of running and maintaining the landed estate asset base remains a significant and necessary overhead, being the landscape within which the companies' conservation and regeneration takes place."
However the companies' asset base increased by £36m to over £244m and they are committed to achieving profitability "over time".
Its loss for the financial year after tax was just over £8.5m.
Mr Povlsen is ranked the richest person in Scotland in the latest published edition of the Sunday Times Rich List in Scotland.
He comes in 17th on the overall UK Rich List last year, with a valuation estimated at £8.5 billion - up £2 billion from £6.5 billion in 2022.
