Flee the State to Protect the Company

“During Frederik and Eva Paulsen’s time with the company, the business was established. Ferring developed, produced, and sold pharmaceuticals independently. Foreign expansion had begun, partly because Frederik Paulsen wanted to protect the family business from the Swedish state. The heavy tax burden and the ongoing discussion about nationalizing the pharmaceutical industry risked destroying everything the Paulsen family had built up. Frederik Paulsen was active in Ferring for nearly three decades, although he began to reduce his involvement with the company after his 60th birthday in 1969. During the 1970s, he gradually handed over responsibility to the then management. When Frederik Paulsen Jr joined Ferring in 1976, it opened the door for a possible generational shift, but from the start, it was not certain that it would be the youngest of six siblings who would take over Ferring. Neither for Frederik Paulsen Senior nor Junior. The founder was skeptical, and the son was reluctant. He expressed this in an interview with Veckans Affärer in 2013: “In the late 1960s when I was 17, my father asked me what I thought he should do with the company in the future. Then I replied: Give it to the employees. It was in the spirit of the times. I wasn’t at all interested in taking over then.””

“Frederik Paulsen represents the foundation that owns Ferring. The company is essentially debt-free. Over the years, he has also initiated, spun off, and developed several other enterprises, including a diagnostics company, another for the manufacture of peptide hormones, and an offshore company. As the sole owner of these companies, the foundation has been able to receive significant dividends from Ferring and the other companies over the years. In this way, the capital in the foundation grows. The companies are controlled through various holding companies, and this structure limits tax costs at all stages. Frederik Paulsen is also involved in several projects requiring investments, including two vineyards in Georgia, which is said to be the cradle of wine, and a publishing company.”