Millionaire journalist Herlin passes away

The sudden death of the wealthy Finnish publisher and journalist Niklas Herlin was confirmed on Wednesday by media houses he was involved with.

Herlin, 53, had succumbed to a sudden illness in his residence in Nice, France on Tuesday. The news got widely covered in Finland.

Herlin was one of the five children of Pekka Herlin, who developed the lift and escalator company KONE into a world leader. The elevator giant occupies around 20 percent of the world market currently.

Even though very affluent, Niklas Herlin worked for years as a salaried journalist in economics for several Finnish media houses. In 2007, he relaunched the historic Finnish newspaper Uusi Suomi, which was closed in 1992, as an internet product.

Niklas Herlin was a household name in Finland and known for preferring leather jackets instead of business attire. Herlin himself once said he was stopped at a U.S. airport by the border agents who suspected him, based on his appearance in leather jacket and jeans, that he was not wealthy enough to support himself in the U.S. But the matter was quickly solved.

Besides holdings in KONE, he was a major owner in Cargotek, a spinnoff from Kone. Finnish media sums up Niklas Herlin's personal wealth which exceeds 1 billion euros. Business daily Kaupalehti said he had 700 million euros worth of shares of Kone, 420 million euros worth of holdings of Cargotek and 104 million euros at the Alma Media.