Billionaire French pharma heir leaves riches to mystery charity

LUXEMBOURG CITY - One of the billionaire heirs behind French drugmaker Ipsen SA has left his US$4 billion (S$5.2 billion) fortune to a Luxembourg charity and an offshore trust, clouding the outlook for the company’s long-term control and ownership.

The succession plan of Henri Beaufour, a grandson of the firm’s founder who died aged 60 in 2025, began taking effect earlier in June, according to corporate filings.

His holding was transferred to a foundation and new governance structure.

Beaufour and his 62-year old sister Anne had each held an equal share in the Paris-listed company and together controlled about two-thirds of the voting rights.

The siblings kept a low profile over the years and little has been revealed publicly since Henri’s death about how dividends going to his branch of the family will be spent, or what other instructions were given to his offshore trust, set up on the island of Curacao in the Dutch Caribbean.

His 26 per cent stake is worth €3.4 billion (S$5 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a 55 per cent increase from a year ago.

The French maker of pharmaceuticals, including a rival to anti-wrinkle treatment Botox, has outpaced major market indices in recent months on a better-than-expected sales growth outlook and product pipeline.

Switzerland-based Anne Beaufour declined to comment through an Ipsen spokesperson, as did the company.

Earlier in June, Henri’s stake held through a Luxembourg-based company called Beech Tree was transferred for 15 years to the Alasol Foundation, which he created as a non-profit four years ago to “promote education, school and vocational training for disadvantaged children and young adults”.

Filings shows that just months before he died it was transformed into a foundation with the right to a €2 million annual dividend.

Alasol has no website and three people listed on either LinkedIn or in a filing as working for the organisation did not respond to requests for comment.

The succession plan has attracted scrutiny from France’s stock market regulator, which ruled that the transfer does not call into question Ipsen’s ultimate control.

The Curacao trust ultimately has veto powers over company matters, according to the succession plan.

In handing over control of his wealth to legal entities separate from his clan, Henri Beaufour’s bequest has parallels with other ultra-rich European founders in recent years, including Pierre Castel in Switzerland, the founder of a drinks empire, and Polish media baron Zygmunt Solorz.

The move also forms part of the so-called great intergenerational wealth transfer, when an estimated US$83 trillion in assets is expected to be passed down around the world over the next two decades.

A long-serving Ipsen director, Henri did not attend any board meetings in 2025, according to the latest annual report.

His main focus appears to have been his work as a sculptor based in northern Tuscany, near the famous Carrara marble quarries.

Like many family-controlled companies that passed through more than one generation, Ipsen has hit hurdles in the past.

Anne and Henri’s grandfather founded the firm in 1929 to make a rosemary-based digestive remedy and the company expanded over nearly a century to produce treatments against cancer and other diseases as well as the anti-wrinkle product called Dysport.

In the late 1990s, control passed to one of the founder’s sons, Albert, following a disagreement with his brother about strategy.

After Albert died in 2000, his own succession plan quickly soured, according to media reports.

The father of Anne, her sister Veronique and Henri had designated Veronique’s husband, Stephane Francois, to take the helm.

Conflict erupted between the siblings, with Anne and Henri pushing their brother-in-law out and gaining control.

Anne also holds her Ipsen stake through a Luxembourg company, Highrock Sarl, which owns other assets including French vineyards Jas des Papes in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation, Domaine du Pavillon in Crozes Hermitage and Chateau de Calavon near Aix-en-Provence.

She changed her residency in 2025 to Switzerland from the UK, joining other ultra-wealthy individuals leaving after the UK government modified the so-called non-dom tax regime and also exposing overseas assets to inheritance taxes.

In 2025, Ipsen sales rose 8 per cent to €3.7 billion while the payout to shareholders has jumped by a third over the past two years to a record. BLOOMBERG