John Fredriksen has brought in fund manager Vegard Soraunet to restructure his Seatankers Group as it looks to invest outside shipping and oil and gas.
The tycoon's main private shipping arm said Soraunet will focus on "long-term and active ownership" outside Seatankers' traditional business areas.
It is the second major appointment at the Oslo-based company in a week, after it appointed Tor A Svelland as chief executive.
"We are very pleased to have Vegard on board," said John Fredriksen's daughter Kathrine Fredriksen, who oversees the family's investments.
"Today, Seatankers holds a lot of expertise and gets access to many interesting investment opportunities, and even though we always have a lot of free capital available, there are many good opportunities we must let go.
"The idea is that we take advantage of this, in the new company, opening up for external capital."
Seatankers is not commenting further on its plans.
Success at Odin
Until June, Soraunet was investment director at Odin Fund Management, where he handled the Odin Sweden and Odin Norden funds, with almost NOK 30bn ($3.4bn) under management.
Seatankers said his success there was based on a long-term investment strategy combined with active ownership in quality companies in the Nordic region.
"Vegard has shown through his work at Odin that he is one of the leading portfolio managers in the Nordic region. He is very analytical, knows risk management and has very good knowledge of companies outside the commodity and shipping markets, which will be important for Seatankers in the future," Svelland said.
Soraunet will work on the new structure until the end of this year, including putting together a strong investment team.
The new recruit said: "It is active ownership and long-term value creation that is my great interest. Getting the opportunity to take this to the next level with a new structure under Seatankers is a great opportunity."
'Unique environment'
He called the Seatankers system "a unique investment environment".
"In my opinion [it] has all the right prerequisites for even more active, strategic and financial executional ownership," Soraunet added.
Seatankers, which is ultimately controlled by Fredriksen Family Trusts, has controlling interests in a number of companies listed in Oslo, such as tanker owner Frontline, bulker player Golden Ocean, drillship company Seadrill and Norwegian Property.
The group also has significant private ownership interests in shipping and offshore, in addition to a large financial portfolio.
Svelland, formerly chief executive of hedge fund Svelland Capital, joined last week.
TradeWinds was told he is occupying a new position at Seatankers, although it follows the departure of key executive Harald Thorstein last autumn.
Marius Hermansen is the group chief operating officer.
Svelland has already joined the board of Golden Ocean and Frontline.
