Ludwig Merckle inherited a rotten-debt fortune, and has carried out an extraordinary turnaround. In order to pay off the debt, he began to sell his assets by cutting his stake from 74% to 25% of the shares of HeidelbergCement. He also sold Ratiopharm, generic drug producer, to Teva Pharmacueticals for $5 billion. Furthermore, he owns one of Europe’s major pharmaceutical distributor, Phoenix, and chairs Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG and Wuerttemberg AG. Only three years after he inherited the debt-fated fortune, he was not only able to restore it successfully, but in December 2011, he was also nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year by Handelsblatt, a top German trade journal.