Who Owns BMW? Quandt & Klatten Stakes, Brands (2026)
BMW AG is a publicly listed company whose two largest shareholders are Stefan Quandt (27.7%) and Susanne Klatten (22.5%), measured against ordinary shares at the end of December 2025 per BMW’s own governance document. That is 50.2% between them, which older pages still show as 46.7%. This guide covers the shareholder table, the four brands BMW Group owns, a 1916 to 2026 timeline and the plants.
Who Owns BMW? The Short Answer
BMW is not owned by another carmaker. It is an independent company, BMW AG, with a Board of Management that runs it and a Supervisory Board that oversees it. Two individual shareholders, Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, hold the biggest blocks, BlackRock is the only institution BMW itemises, and the rest of the ordinary shares sit with other investors. Under BMW AG, BMW Group runs four brands: BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad.
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Every ownership figure on this page comes from BMW Group’s own pages, mainly its February 2026 Key Aspects of Corporate Governance document and its leadership, history, company and locations pages, read for this update. Where we could not confirm an older claim in a BMW source, we removed it.
BMW Ownership Breakdown: Current Shareholder Table (2026)
BMW publishes who holds its ordinary shares, and the latest version we found is dated end of December 2025. The company says the holdings of the two family members are voluntary notifications they provided, so treat the numbers as BMW’s disclosed picture, not a live register.
| Holder | Share of ordinary shares | Note from BMW |
|---|---|---|
| Stefan Quandt | 27.7% | Direct and indirect holdings, voluntary notification |
| Susanne Klatten | 22.5% | Direct and indirect holdings, voluntary notification |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 3.2% | The only institution itemised |
| Treasury shares | 1.3% | Shares BMW AG holds itself |
| Others | 45.3% | Not broken down by BMW in that document |
The same document counts 561,134,926 ordinary shares and 54,675,505 preference shares, 615,810,431 shares in total. The percentages above apply to the ordinary shares only, which matters for the next point.
Do the Quandt and Klatten Stakes Add Up to a Majority?
On BMW’s own December 2025 numbers, 27.7% plus 22.5% is 50.2% of the ordinary shares, so the two holdings together are just above half. Older pages, including the earlier version of this one, gave 25.8% and 20.9%, a combined 46.7%, and described the family as having no majority. Which figure you quote depends on what you divide by, as the table below shows (our arithmetic from BMW’s share counts).
| How you count | Quandt + Klatten | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| Share of ordinary shares (BMW’s table) | 50.2% | 27.7% + 22.5% |
| Their ordinary shares as a share of all shares, preference included | about 45.7% | about 281.7 million ordinary shares divided by 615.8 million total (assumes none of their holdings are preference shares) |
| Older published combined figure | 46.7% | 25.8% + 20.9%, the figures on earlier versions of this page |
Two cautions. BMW’s document lists the two holders separately; it does not say they vote together, so describing them as one legal bloc goes further than the source. And a stake near half of the ordinary shares is not the same as running the company day to day: that job sits with the Board of Management, covered next.
Does the Quandt Family Control BMW?
Influence is real, control is shared. BMW operates a two-tier governance system, as its own document labels it. The Board of Management is responsible for managing and steering the company and is normally appointed for periods between 3 and 5 years. The Supervisory Board oversees it. In the February 2026 document the Supervisory Board has 20 members, and 10 of them carry the footnote for employee representatives, so half the seats belong to employees and half to shareholder representatives.
Stefan Quandt is one of the Deputy Chairmen of the Supervisory Board and Susanne Klatten is also a member, per BMW’s leadership page and governance document. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board is Dr Nicolas Peter, who holds the post since 2025 and is a shareholder representative. So the big holders have seats on the board that picks and watches the management, but employee representatives hold half the seats on that same board.
Who Runs BMW Today?
The Chairman of the Board of Management changed in 2026. BMW’s February 2026 governance document lists Oliver Zipse as Chairman. BMW’s leadership page now lists Dr Milan Nedeljkovic as Chairman of the Board of Management, effective 14 May 2026, and notes he sat on the board for Production from 2019 to 2026. Dr Raymond Wittmann took over Production on the same date. If you see Zipse named as BMW’s chief executive on other pages, that is the old information.
Who Saved BMW From a Takeover in 1959?
BMW’s own history page says that in 1959 the shareholders and the workforce rejected an offer to take BMW over by Daimler-Benz, after which Herbert Quandt expanded his stake and BMW stayed independent. That is the root of the Quandt connection. The company’s 1961 BMW 1500, the first of the Neue Klasse range, then established BMW as a successful carmaker, according to the same page.
Earlier versions of this page said Quandt doubled his stake to about 50% and gave other details about his family and bankers. BMW’s history page does not state those, so they are gone from this version.
What Does BMW Group Own? (MINI, Rolls-Royce & More)
BMW’s company page names four brands that BMW Group is home to, and says the group sold 2.46 million cars in 2025 and had 154,540 employees at the end of 2025. Revenue for 2025 is shown as 133.5 billion euros.
| Brand | What BMW says about it | Date from BMW’s history page |
|---|---|---|
| BMW | The core brand and the car company founded in 1916 | 7 March 1916 is the official founding date |
| MINI | Relaunched by BMW as the first premium vehicle in the small-car segment | 1994 decision to acquire Rover Group (which included MINI), 2000 Rover sold, MINI kept, 2001 relaunch |
| Rolls-Royce Motor Cars | Built at the Goodwood plant | 1998 BMW acquired the brand and naming rights, 2003 Goodwood plant opened and BMW took over brand responsibility |
| BMW Motorrad | The motorcycle brand | First motorcycle, the R 32, shown at the Berlin Motor Show in 1923 |
A common mix-up: BMW does not own Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz. For the Volkswagen Group side of the German premium market, read our guide on who manufactures Audi cars. For brands owned from outside Europe, see who makes Genesis (Hyundai) and who makes Jaguar (Tata). Our overview of what car brands own what puts the groups side by side, and the Rolls-Royce price guide covers what that brand costs.
BMW Ownership Timeline: 1916 to 2026
The timeline below uses dates from BMW’s own history page, plus the 2026 leadership change from its leadership page. It also fixes a few details older versions of this page got wrong, such as the first car, which BMW dates to its 1928 takeover of Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach.
| Year | Milestone | Why it matters for ownership |
|---|---|---|
| 1916 | Official founding on 7 March, when Flugmaschinenfabrik Gustav Otto was reorganised as Bayerische Flugzeugwerke | The company BMW traces itself to |
| 1923 | BMW R 32 motorcycle shown in Berlin | First motorcycle, the start of the Motorrad brand |
| 1928 | BMW takes over Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach and starts car production | BMW’s entry into cars |
| 1959 | Shareholders and workforce reject a Daimler-Benz takeover offer; Herbert Quandt expands his stake | Why BMW stayed independent |
| 1967 and 1972 | Takeover of Hans Glas facilities in Dingolfing and Landshut; Rosslyn plant in South Africa acquired | Dingolfing became a core site; Rosslyn was the first foreign plant |
| 1994 | Decision to acquire Rover Group, including MINI; Spartanburg, US plant opens | The group becomes a multi-brand business |
| 1998 to 2003 | 1998 Rolls-Royce brand and naming rights; 2000 Rover sold, MINI kept; 2001 MINI relaunch; 2003 Goodwood plant opens | The three-car-brand structure as it stands today |
| 2013 and 2025 | BMW i3 launches as the first series-produced fully electric model; BMW iX3 debuts as the first Neue Klasse model | The electric era |
| 14 May 2026 | Dr Milan Nedeljkovic becomes Chairman of the Board of Management | The most recent top-management change we found |
Where Does BMW Group Build Its Cars?
BMW’s company page says the group operates over 30 production sites around the world. Its locations page names the sites below. That page gives no as-of date and its own list and counts do not fully match (it also mentions eight German plants where the list names more), so treat this as BMW’s named list, not an audited count.
| Country | Sites named on BMW’s locations page |
|---|---|
| Germany | Berlin, Dingolfing, Eisenach, Irlbach-Strasskirchen, Landshut, Leipzig, Munich, Regensburg, Wackersdorf, plus battery and Cellex competence centers |
| United Kingdom | Hams Hall, Oxford, Swindon, and the Rolls-Royce plant at Goodwood |
| United States | Spartanburg and Woodruff |
| Other Europe | Steyr (Austria), Debrecen (Hungary) |
| China | BMW Brilliance sites in Dadong, Tiexi and Shenyang |
| Other | Chennai (India), San Luis Potosi (Mexico), Rosslyn (South Africa), Rayong (Thailand), Manaus and Araquari (Brazil) |
For a rough sense of how other groups spread production worldwide, see what brands GM owns and what companies Fiat owns. Our guide to luxury car brands shows where BMW sits against its rivals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns BMW right now?
BMW AG is a publicly listed company. Per BMW’s governance document at the end of December 2025, Stefan Quandt holds 27.7% and Susanne Klatten 22.5% of the ordinary shares, BlackRock holds 3.2%, BMW holds 1.3% as treasury shares, and 45.3% is held by others. No other car company is named among the holders.
Is BMW owned by Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz?
No. BMW’s disclosed shareholder list names Stefan Quandt, Susanne Klatten, BlackRock and BMW’s own treasury shares, and no carmaker. Volkswagen Group and Mercedes-Benz are separate companies. BMW’s own brands are BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad.
Who is the CEO of BMW?
BMW calls the role Chairman of the Board of Management. Dr Milan Nedeljkovic holds it, effective 14 May 2026, according to BMW’s leadership page. Oliver Zipse was listed as Chairman in BMW’s February 2026 governance document, so pages naming Zipse as CEO are out of date.
Does BMW own Rolls-Royce?
Yes. BMW’s history page says BMW acquired the brand and naming rights for Rolls-Royce motor cars in 1998, and in 2003 opened the Rolls-Royce plant at Goodwood and took over brand responsibility for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
Does BMW own MINI?
Yes. BMW decided in 1994 to acquire the UK’s Rover Group, which included MINI. It sold the Rover Group in 2000, kept only the MINI brand, and relaunched MINI in 2001, according to BMW’s history page.
Is BMW still a German company?
Yes in origin and structure. BMW AG runs a Board of Management and a Supervisory Board with employee representatives, and its top two shareholders are individuals. Most of its sites are in Germany, but BMW also builds cars in the UK, the United States, Mexico, China and other countries.
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