John Fredriksen

John Fredriksen
Born	1 February 1945 (Forbes; 1944 per The Independent) Norway (Forbes); a suburb of Oslo (The Independent)
Nationality	Cypriot (formerly Norwegian)
Residence	London, United Kingdom (Forbes)
Occupation	Shipping investor
Known for	Frontline, Seadrill, Seatankers; stake in Mowi
Children	2 (twin daughters Kathrine and Cecilie)

Norwegian-born Cypriot shipping investor; controlling figure behind Frontline, Seadrill and other shipping and offshore companies

John Fredriksen (born 1944 or 1945) is a Norwegian-born shipping investor who has held Cypriot citizenship since 2006.^[1]^[2]^[3] Forbes says his holdings include oil tankers, dry-bulk carriers, LNG carriers and deepwater drilling rigs, and a stake in the fish farmer Mowi.^[1] He first made his fortune in the 1980s, when his tankers carried Iranian oil through the Gulf during the Iran–Iraq war.^[2]^[1] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked John Fredriksen 118th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$22.4 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Shipping.^[1]^[4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked John Fredriksen 118th, at US$21.2 billion.^[5] He lives mainly in London.^[1]^[2]

Early life

Forbes gives his date of birth as 1 February 1945, while The Independent said in 2011 that he was born in 1944 in a working-class suburb of Oslo.^[1]^[2] His father was a shipyard welder. After school he worked as a messenger for a shipbroker and then ran fish cargoes from Iceland to Hamburg.^[2] In his early twenties he moved to Beirut to ship crude oil from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and he bought his first ship in 1973.^[2] Forbes dates his start in oil trading in Beirut to the 1960s and his first tankers to the 1970s.^[1]

Shipping and offshore business

In the 1980s his tankers exported Iranian oil through the Gulf during the Iran–Iraq war, and The Independent reported that they were hit three times.^[2] Forbes says he ran crude for Iran in that decade.^[1] He later acquired the Swedish shipping company Frontline, which The Independent described in 2011 as the world's largest independent oil-tanker operator, with 81 ships.^[2] Forbes says his drilling-rig company Seadrill emerged from bankruptcy in 2018, with Fredriksen helping to raise about US$1 billion in new debt and equity.^[1]

A 2022 SEC filing showed Hemen Holding, a Cyprus company, as Frontline's largest shareholder with about 39%. Hemen is owned through Greenwich Holdings by two trusts that Fredriksen set up for members of his family, with C.K. Limited as trustee. The filing states that he is neither a beneficiary nor a trustee, but may have indirect influence over the trustee as settlor.^[6] Forbes says he owns a stake in Mowi, the world's largest fish farmer.^[1] Mowi's beneficial-owner list for February 2026 shows Geveran Trading Company as its largest shareholder, with 15.47%; the list does not say who controls Geveran.^[7] Forbes says he plans to hand control to his twin daughters, Kathrine and Cecilie.^[1]

Citizenship and tax

In 2006 Fredriksen gave up his Norwegian citizenship for Cypriot citizenship.^[3]^[2] E24/Aftenposten reported that the main reason was Norway's tighter residence rules, which let him spend an average of only 90 days a year in Norway without becoming liable to Norwegian wealth tax. They said his private tanker company Seatankers was based in Cyprus, and that Norwegian tax authorities had pursued him for years, including a 1999 request to change the law.^[3] The Guardian reported that he wanted to avoid Norwegian income tax and inheritance tax for his daughters. It quoted Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as saying that Fredriksen had not lived in Norway or paid tax there "in several decades".^[8] Forbes quotes him as saying: "I've been doing this for 50 years. If I stopped I would probably drop dead."^[1]

Wealth

Forbes lists shipping as his source of wealth and classes him as self-made.^[1] The Independent reported that he bought a house in Chelsea, London, for £36 million in 2002.^[2]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 24 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2001. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[5]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2001	421	1.2
2004	293	1.9
2005	160	3.4
2006	114	5.0
2007	104	7.0
2008	113	8.0
2009	132	4.0
2010	88	7.7
2011	72	10.7
2012	75	11.3
2013	87	11.5
2014	76	13.6
2015	120	10.5
2016	133	8.5
2017	131	9.9
2018	228	7.0
2019	129	10.8
2020	141	9.6
2021	216	10.4
2022	158	11.9
2023	130	13.7
2024	108	16.9
2025	119	17.0
2026	118	21.2

Philanthropy

The Independent reported in 2011 that he was a major donor to medical research through the Inger and John Fredriksen Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, which he set up after his wife died in 2006.^[2]

Political activity

No donations to political parties or political offices were found in the sources checked. His long dispute with the Norwegian tax authorities is covered under Citizenship and tax.^[3]^[8]

Controversies and legal issues

In 1986 he spent more than three months in pre-trial detention in Norway on suspicion of tax evasion and fraud, over allegations that his tankers had used fuel belonging to customers. The main charges were dropped and he was fined for a lesser offence.^[2] One of his tankers, the Sea Empress, spilled 70,000 tons of oil off the west coast of Britain.^[2] In 2011 one of his businesses was named in a US lawsuit alleging manipulation of crude-oil prices, which he denied ("We have done nothing wrong"). A 2009 US State Department cable that surfaced the same year alleged that his Arcadia Petroleum business used a "long-standing monopoly" to buy Yemeni oil below market value.^[2]

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."