John Fredriksen
Encyclopedia
John Fredriksen, is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker
and shipping
tycoon, owner of the world's largest oil tanker fleet, and was Norway
's richest man until he chose to abandon his Norwegian citizenship and take up a Cypriot
passport. Norwegian magazine Kapital
listed Fredriksen in 2010 with a net worth of NOK
69 billion ($13 billion USD). Through his investment companies Hemen Holdings and Meisha, Fredriksen controls the companies Frontline and Golar LNG
from London
.
He also has major interests in the offshore driller
SeaDrill
, the fish farming
company Marine Harvest the dry bulk company Golden Ocean Group
, and supply vessel company Deep Sea Supply
. Fredriksen also recently announced that Frontline through acquisitions and options and secured 9,6% of the worlds largest shipholding company Overseas Shipholding Group
.
's east side, Etterstad, the son of a welder, Fredriksen began as a trainee in a shipbroking company. At the age of 27 he started working for himself. Fredriksen made his fortune during the Iran-Iraq war
s in the 1980s when his tankers picked up oil at great risk and huge profits. As described by his biographer, "he was the lifeline to the Ayatollah
." He is now the world's largest tanker owner, with more than seventy oil tankers, and major interests in oil rigs and fish farming. His fleet is dominated by costly double-hulled, environmentally safer tankers.
Back in December 2005 rumours circulated of Fredriksen-controlled firm Seadrill
bidding for Stavanger
based rig company Smedvig
, and since has been in a bidding war with U.S.
company Noble Corporation
. But it was announced in late January 2006 that Seadrill had bought more than 50 percent of Smedvig, and therefore gained control of the company (51.24 percent of the votes and 52.27 percent of the capital). Smedvig is valued at NOK 15 billion, and is Fredriksen's biggest ever deal. Noble Corp sold its stake in Smedvig to Seadrill in April 2009. Smedvig is now fully under Seadrill's control.
On 7 June 2007 the British newspaper the Daily Mail
reported that Fredriksen was interested in buying the Premiership football club Tottenham Hotspur. Prior to this Fredriksen has been majority owner of Vålerenga I.F. for many years.
got suspicious about losses of cargo from Fredriksen's tankers. A private investigation was initiated and a system for the use of heavy oil as bunker fuel was revealed. The case was turned over to the Norwegian police and in June 1986 Fredriksen's offices in Oslo were searched and several of his nearest associates, and after a while also Fredriksen, were placed in detention while the case was investigated.
After several years of argument's between the various lawyers the case were settled out of court. Fredriksen had to pay a fine of 2 million NOK for risking his crew's life, in addition he had to pay the insurance company Gard an amount of over 800.000 USD.
art, and reportedly turned down an offer of $200m (£180m) from Chelsea Football Club
owner Roman Abramovich
for his Chelsea home. He also owns houses in Oslo, Cyprus, and Marbella
. In 2006 John Fredriksen chose to abandon his Norwegian citizenship and is now a citizen of Cyprus.
The Sunday Times Rich List
2003 (published every April) ranked Fredriksen 66th (in Britain) with a worth of £475m, in their 2004 list he ranked 30th with £1,050m, and in 2005 ranked 16th with a fortune of £1,887m. Whilst in 2005 Forbes
ranked Fredriksen 160th in the world with $3,400m. And in the newly released 2009 list he has tied for 132nd with $4 billion.
James Winchester, a veteran shipping analyst at Lazard Frères has said of him, "He's a modern-day Onassis. The tanker king. He landed squarely in the sweet spot of the tanker cycle, with the largest fleet of ships." In 2001 an article on Forbes.com described him as having "a tanker fleet bigger than anything Aristotle Onassis
ever had."
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
and shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
tycoon, owner of the world's largest oil tanker fleet, and was Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
's richest man until he chose to abandon his Norwegian citizenship and take up a Cypriot
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
passport. Norwegian magazine Kapital
Kapital
Kapital is a 1992 album by Laibach. It includes tracks such as "Wirtschaft ist tot" . Unusually, the LP, CD and cassette releases each contain different versions of every song...
listed Fredriksen in 2010 with a net worth of NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
69 billion ($13 billion USD). Through his investment companies Hemen Holdings and Meisha, Fredriksen controls the companies Frontline and Golar LNG
Golar LNG
Golar LNG is liquefied natural gas shipping company based in London and registered in Bermuda. The company operates 13 LNG carriers and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and NASDAQ and is controlled by John Fredriksen.-History:...
from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
He also has major interests in the offshore driller
Offshore drilling
Offshore drilling refers to a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled through the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently produce hydrocarbons which lie in rock formations beneath the seabed...
SeaDrill
SeaDrill
Seadrill is a Norwegian-Bermudan offshore drilling company with operations in Angola, Brunei, the Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The company operates Semi-submersibles, Jack ups, Tender rigs, Semi-Tenders and Drillships. The company is...
, the fish farming
Fish farming
Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases young fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species'...
company Marine Harvest the dry bulk company Golden Ocean Group
Golden Ocean Group
Golden Ocean Group is a Bermuda registered, Norway based dry bulk shipping company. The company was created as a demerged part of Frontline in 2004 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange...
, and supply vessel company Deep Sea Supply
Deep Sea Supply
Deep Sea Supply is an international operator of offshore supply vessels. It operates nine anchor handling tug supply vessels and two platform supply vessels . 17 ships are under construction...
. Fredriksen also recently announced that Frontline through acquisitions and options and secured 9,6% of the worlds largest shipholding company Overseas Shipholding Group
Overseas Shipholding Group
Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. is one of the largest oil tanker operating companies in the world. It is based in New York City....
.
Biography
Born on OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
's east side, Etterstad, the son of a welder, Fredriksen began as a trainee in a shipbroking company. At the age of 27 he started working for himself. Fredriksen made his fortune during the Iran-Iraq war
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
s in the 1980s when his tankers picked up oil at great risk and huge profits. As described by his biographer, "he was the lifeline to the Ayatollah
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
." He is now the world's largest tanker owner, with more than seventy oil tankers, and major interests in oil rigs and fish farming. His fleet is dominated by costly double-hulled, environmentally safer tankers.
Back in December 2005 rumours circulated of Fredriksen-controlled firm Seadrill
SeaDrill
Seadrill is a Norwegian-Bermudan offshore drilling company with operations in Angola, Brunei, the Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The company operates Semi-submersibles, Jack ups, Tender rigs, Semi-Tenders and Drillships. The company is...
bidding for Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
based rig company Smedvig
Smedvig
Smedvig ASA, , was a Norwegian offshore oil rig company headquartered in Stavanger until it was acquired by rig newcomer SeaDrill. At time of the merger Smedvig operated two semi submersibles, one drillship and one jack up rig in the Norwegian and British sector of the North Sea...
, and since has been in a bidding war with U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
company Noble Corporation
Noble Corporation
Noble Corporation is the modern name of Noble Drilling Corporation, by which it was known through the 1990s. The company was part of the S&P 500 stock market index until 3/26/2009, when the headquarters were transferred to Switzerland. Noble Corporation is a major contract driller of oil and...
. But it was announced in late January 2006 that Seadrill had bought more than 50 percent of Smedvig, and therefore gained control of the company (51.24 percent of the votes and 52.27 percent of the capital). Smedvig is valued at NOK 15 billion, and is Fredriksen's biggest ever deal. Noble Corp sold its stake in Smedvig to Seadrill in April 2009. Smedvig is now fully under Seadrill's control.
On 7 June 2007 the British newspaper the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
reported that Fredriksen was interested in buying the Premiership football club Tottenham Hotspur. Prior to this Fredriksen has been majority owner of Vålerenga I.F. for many years.
Bunker investigation
In 1985 the Norwegian insurance company GardAssuranceforeningen Gard
Assuranceforeningen Gard is the largest Protection & Indemnity insurer among the thirteen members of the International Group of P&I Clubs, and ranks second in the marine insurance industry behind Allianz...
got suspicious about losses of cargo from Fredriksen's tankers. A private investigation was initiated and a system for the use of heavy oil as bunker fuel was revealed. The case was turned over to the Norwegian police and in June 1986 Fredriksen's offices in Oslo were searched and several of his nearest associates, and after a while also Fredriksen, were placed in detention while the case was investigated.
After several years of argument's between the various lawyers the case were settled out of court. Fredriksen had to pay a fine of 2 million NOK for risking his crew's life, in addition he had to pay the insurance company Gard an amount of over 800.000 USD.
Fortune
He has two children, collects classic NorwegianNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
art, and reportedly turned down an offer of $200m (£180m) from Chelsea Football Club
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
owner Roman Abramovich
Roman Abramovich
Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich is a Russian businessman and the main owner of the private investment company Millhouse LLC.In 2003, Abramovich was named Person of the Year by Expert, a Russian business magazine. He shared this title with Mikhail Khodorkovsky...
for his Chelsea home. He also owns houses in Oslo, Cyprus, and Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....
. In 2006 John Fredriksen chose to abandon his Norwegian citizenship and is now a citizen of Cyprus.
The Sunday Times Rich List
Sunday Times Rich List
The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families in the United Kingdom, updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989...
2003 (published every April) ranked Fredriksen 66th (in Britain) with a worth of £475m, in their 2004 list he ranked 30th with £1,050m, and in 2005 ranked 16th with a fortune of £1,887m. Whilst in 2005 Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked Fredriksen 160th in the world with $3,400m. And in the newly released 2009 list he has tied for 132nd with $4 billion.
James Winchester, a veteran shipping analyst at Lazard Frères has said of him, "He's a modern-day Onassis. The tanker king. He landed squarely in the sweet spot of the tanker cycle, with the largest fleet of ships." In 2001 an article on Forbes.com described him as having "a tanker fleet bigger than anything Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Sokratis Onassis , commonly called Ari or Aristo Onassis, was a prominent Greek shipping magnate.- Early life :Onassis was born in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna to Socrates and Penelope Onassis...
ever had."
Personal
- John Frederiksen is a widower and father of two children. He is a Vålerenga IF Fotball and Tranmere Rovers fan.
Literature
- Hauge, Odd Harald and Gunnar Stavrum. Storeulv, en uautorisert biografi om John Fredriksen. Oslo: Gyldendal, 2005. ISBN 978-82-05-35346-6. Print.