John Fredriksen Net Worth, Biography and Career

John Fredriksen Net Worth $12 Billion

John Fredriksen is well known for being the world’s richest Cypriot alive. He is a shipping and oil tanker tycoon whose wealth has come from a number of businesses concerned with shipping and the oil and energy sector.

Previously, John was widely considered the wealthiest individual in Norway until he decided to secure a passport in Cyprus. He owns what is regarded as the largest tanker fleet on earth.

Through Meisha and Hemen Holdings, it has been possible for Mr. Fredriksen to control two successful companies, Frontline and Golar LNG. He is also known for his interests in other companies including Golden Ocean Group, Marine Harvest, Deep Sea Supply, and SeaDrill.

Through Frontline, Mr. Fredriksen owned roughly 10 percent of the Overseas Shipholding company but has presently elected to divest his interest. Read further for more details.

Early Life: Childhood, Education

The Norwegian-born Cypriot businessman, John Fredriksen, who currently lives in London, was born on 10 May 1944 in Norway, to a welder and his wife. He was raised in Etterstad, in the eastern half of Oslo. He studied at reputable academic institutions in his country before traveling overseas to craft a name for himself in business.

Professional Life: Business Career

It was in the 1960s that Frederiksen first got into oil trading in Beirut, Lebanon, before purchasing his first tankers in the 1970s.

He amassed his wealth during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s when his tankers supplied oil at great risk and huge profits. Eventually, he become the world’s largest tanker owner, owning more than 70 oil tankers to his name. He also had major interests in oil rigs and fish farming.

His fleet is mainly made up of expensive double-hulled, environmentally safer tankers. In 2006, one of his associated businesses, Seadrill, acquired more than 50 percent of Smedvig, gaining total control of the company.

Smedvig is the businessman’s biggest to date. In 2009, Noble Corp sold its stake to Seadrill, leaving the latter with full control.

Also, John Fredriksen has been the principal owner of Vålerenga I.F. for many years. This is a football team that currently competes in the Norwegian top football league.

Achievements: Awards & Honors

In the year 2013, the Norwegian magazine Kapital listed John Fredriksen as the wealthiest man in the country with a net worth of $11 billion. A year before that, the businessman was named one of the 50 most influential people in the world of business by Bloomberg Markets Magazine.

In 2014, the Lloyds List named him one of the 10 most influential individuals in the shipping industry. In 2012, his wealth was chosen as the criteria for naming him and his family on the list of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, on which they claimed the 9^th position.

Personal Life: Family, Philanthropy

John is widowed but he has two children, Kathrine and Cecilie. They’re twins and are considered by Forbes magazine as two of the most promising female heiresses around the globe.

The businessman has refused to marry again since his late wife, dentist Inger Astrup Fredriksen, passed away in 2006. She was the daughter of a professor of psychiatry, and her grand uncle was Nikolai Astrup the prominent painter.

Mr. Fredriksen claims to support and fund research projects at The Radium Hospital. It has also been reported that the businessman has donated several hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research at hospitals in Norway.

John Fredriksen Net Worth: Salary, Income Sources, Assets

Mr. John Fredriksen owns a net worth of 12 billion dollars thanks to the success he found via his profession as a businessman primarily concerned with the shipping and transportation industry. He is also heavily involved in the oil business, sports, and other things.

After starting his career in his late 20s when he first began trading oil in the 1960s, he started buying his own tankers in the 1970s, and from there, he began to build his empire which has, today, made him the richest man in Cyprus.

At the moment, Mr. John runs a number of investment companies, such as Meisha and Hemet Holdings, and has partial or full ownership of companies like Deep Sea Supply, Golden Ocean Group, Frontline, Golar LNG, and SeaDrill.

He owns homes in London (UK), Oslo (Norway), Marbella, and Cyprus. He is currently positioned as the 9^th wealthiest person in the United Kingdom, and as he is still very much active in his numerous lines of business, our guess is just as good as yours that this dedicated shipping magnate’s wealth will only continue to rise exponentially.