Shipowner John Fredriksen is strengthening his position as Norway’s richest person.
The list of the country’s 400 richest published people plublished by the respectable magazine Kapital calculates that Fredriksen’s fortune increased by NOK 1bn to NOK 114bn ($13bn) last year. That makes him twice as rich as the second on the list, fellow shipowner Torstein Hagen.
Fredriksen is Cypriot citizen and lives in London, but has kept strong ties to his home country.
The shipping tycoon told TradeWinds that Seatankers employs some 70 to 80 people in Oslo. The Fredriksen group also conducts extensive business with banks and shipbrokers in Norway, the shipowner noted.
Fredriksen said 2019 will be one of the worst that the group has had ,but due to the strong US dollar, so asset values are looking quite good.
“But we are in a dollar business, thus the net values in Norwegian kroner is not that important,” he said in an interview last month.
Starting at the bottom
Fredriksen started off as a messenger boy at the age of 16 in the broker firm Blehr and Tenvig, so he has spent a full 58 years in shipping and has no plans of retiring.
Cruiseship owner Hagen has an estimated fortune of NOK 60bn. Shipowner Kjell Inge Rokke was among the main losers on the list with a fortune falling by NOK4.4bn, but he still holds fifth place.
Also on Kapital’s 400 richest is Arne Wilhelmsen, with a fortune of NOK 30.5bn.
Another shipowner, Arne Wilhelmsen, also made it to the 10 on the top with a calculated NOK 30.5bn.
Among the big losers are also Fredriksen’s former righthand man, Tor Olav Troim, who has seen his fortune fall from NOK 2.8bn to NOK 1.26bn, largely due to paper losses on his investments in Borr Drilling and Golar LNG.
