MILLIONAIRE'S SUICIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21131, 14 March 1932, Page 9

MILLIONAIRE'S SUICIDE.

WORLD "MATCH KING." DEATH IN PARIS FLAT. A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received March 13, 7.55 p.m.) PARIS, March 12. Mr. Ivar Kreuger, a Swedish financier, known as the world's " match king," who had just returned from America, was found dead in a< flat in Paris with a revolver by his side. Ifis suicide is attributed to a nervous breakdown. Mr. Kreuger lent money to the Swedish Government, in return for which he obtained match monopolies which extended to.all parts of the world. A message from Stockholm says the Swedish Government has hurriedly convened Parliament, to pass , a Moratorium Bill for private concerns, with special application to the Kreuger interests.

FINANCIAL INFLUENCE. CAREER IN AMERICA. BEGAN AS ENGINEER. (Received March 13. 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK,March 12. The late Mr. Ivar Kreuger exerted great, influence in the financial world in the United States. He began his career in America as an obscure engineer. He built the athletic stadium for the Syracuse University, which, in 1930, gave him the honorary degree of doctor of business ad ministration. During his recent visit to America Mr. Kreuger had an interview with the President, Mr. Hoover, and was engaged in consultation with New York stock market experts.

Mr. Ivnr Kreuger was born in March, j 1330, rd Kalmar, Sweden. After at- { fending tlie Stockholm Technical College he secured his diploma in engineering at j the age of 19. Disregarding his later j lie always described himself i simply as " civil engineer." After passing j his examinations he went at once to the j United States, where lie was at first, an ! estate agent arid then engineer with a Chicago firm, for which he superintended the building of a bridge at A era Cruz. On his way back to Sweden lie saved the life of a girl who had fallen overboard into the harbour at Havana. A specialist in steel-frame construction, ho built the Carlton Hotel at Johannesburg for the firm of Waring and Gillow. Ho then tried his fortune in South Africa as a contractor with little success. Returning to Sweden in 1907, he and Mr. Paul Toll founded the building firm of Kreuger and Toll, which later became the holding company of his vast undertakings. Personally, Mr. Kreuger, when he had attained great wealth and power, was just as genial, simple and modest as when lie 'was merely a. young engineer. He loved solitude and lived only for his work. The large residences he owned in all the important capitals of Europe and in New York served merely for conferences and not for entertaining. Mr. Kreugcr was a teetotaller, but smoked cigarettes. The " match king," however, carried no matches on him. The fortune of the world's most eligible bachelor was estimated recently at £10,000,000. It was with the transformation of Kreuger and Toll into a holding company in 1911 and the abandonment of building that, the financier's rise earnest. He worked steadily to secure a monopoly of the match industry in as many countries as possible. In 1917 he founded the Svenska Tandsticks A.8., and in 1919 the International Match Corporation, in which Mr. Rockefeller has an interest. Mr. Kreuger's trust now possesses some 150 factories in about 40 countries, eniploying over 60.000 workers. H*. devised a new method of ensuring a market for his output, making loans to States and in return securing monopolies or preferential treatment for his products. Up to the end of 1929 he had granted loans totalling over £37,000,000, of which France received £15,000.000, Yugoslavia £4,400.000, Hungary £6,200,000, Rumania £6,000,000, and Poland and Ltuvia £1.200.000 each. He controlled the manufacture of matches all over Northern Europe, in almost every part of Central Europe and in Greece, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, India, China and Japan. He was also associated with the British Match Company, which owns large factories in Britain and Canada. In January, 1930, his offer of a loan of £30.000,000 to Germany in return for the match monopoly was accepted—a deal which ended the imports of matches from Russia, to the resentment of the Soviet.

Mr. Kreuger had also large interests in other industries. Ho secured mines in North Africa for the great Swedish Grangesberg Iron Company and in 1929 had acquired suflicient shares in it to give him control. Through his SwedishAmerican Investment Corporation he had holdings in a number of American undertakings, while by means of the Swedish Ball-Bearing Works he completely controlled that industry in Germany. The Prussian Hypotheken-Aktien Bank belonged to his group. Then there are the Skandinavisk'a Kredit A.8., the Stockholms Intecknings Garantie, Hammerforsens Kraft, Kreuger and Toll, of Amsterdam. He had also close connections with tho American issue house of Higginson Lee. Recently, by acquiring a majority of the shares of 10 of the largest Swedish timber and wood-pulp concerns, he had begun to pave the way for another huge trust in wood and paper under the title of the Svenska Cellulosa A.8., with the co-operation of the Svenska Handelsbank.