John Fredriksen: The Sea Wolf Who Built an Oil and Fish Empire

John Fredriksen did not drill for oil. He carried it. He did not fish in the ocean. He farmed it. Chapter 24 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of a Norwegian who built an eight-billion-dollar empire on tankers, oil rigs, and salmon.

Born Near Oslo, Lives Everywhere Else

Fredriksen was born on May 11, 1944, near Oslo. He is the richest person Norway has ever produced. But he does not live in Norway. He moved to London and took Cypriot citizenship. The reason is straightforward: Norwegian taxes. When your fortune is over eight billion dollars, the tax savings from moving to a different country are not a rounding error. They are a business decision.

His twin daughters, Kathrine and Cecilie, made the Forbes “Hottest Billionaire Heiresses” list. But Dennin’s book is not interested in the celebrity side. It is interested in how the money was made. And the answer starts with crude oil on ships.

Oil Crises Made Him Rich

Fredriksen built his shipping business during the 1970s oil crises. When oil prices spiked and supply routes got disrupted, the people who owned tankers suddenly had enormous bargaining power. If you needed to move crude oil from the Middle East to Europe or America, you needed someone like Fredriksen.

During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, he kept shipping. Tankers were being attacked in the Persian Gulf. Insurance rates went through the roof. Many operators stayed away. Fredriksen did not. Higher risk meant higher rates.

He also delivered oil to apartheid-era South Africa, which most countries had sanctioned. Dennin presents it as a fact of his career without judgment.

The Empire of Ships

By the time Fredriksen hit his stride, the list of companies he controlled reads like a shipping directory. Frontline for crude oil tankers. Golar LNG for gas tankers. SeaDrill for offshore oil rigs. Golden Ocean Group for dry bulk. Overseas Shipholding for more tankers. In Germany, he became a major shareholder of TUI Group.

If it moved across the ocean, Fredriksen probably had a ship for it. Same playbook as Onassis from Chapter 7. Build a fleet. Be ready when disruptions hit. Profit when everyone else is scrambling.

From Oil to Fish

Here is where the story gets interesting. The biggest move of Fredriksen’s career was not another tanker deal. It was salmon.

Norwegian fish farming had a rough time in the early 2000s. Fish prices dropped. Companies that had expanded aggressively were drowning in debt. Pan Fish, founded in 1992, had been struggling since 2000. Fjord Seafood was in similar trouble.

Fredriksen saw something different. He started buying.

First, he acquired about 50% of Pan Fish through his investment vehicles. Then he picked up 24% of Fjord Seafood, eventually building to roughly 50%. In March 2006, he bought 75% of Marine Harvest from Nutreco for about 900 million euros. Three struggling companies, one owner.

On December 29, 2006, Pan Fish, Fjord Seafood, and Marine Harvest merged into Marine Harvest Group. Overnight, Fredriksen controlled the world’s largest fish-farming company.

Why Fish Farming Is a Big Deal

This might seem like a strange move for an oil shipping guy. But the numbers tell a different story. Global fish exports were worth $96 billion in 2015. Over one-third of the 150 million metric tons of fish produced worldwide came from aquaculture, not wild catch. The OECD and FAO estimated that farmed fish would hit 50% of total production by 2020.

The world is running out of wild fish. Oceans are overfished. Populations are growing. Fredriksen bet on that trend before most investors understood it. Buy distressed assets, consolidate into one dominant company, wait for the world to catch up. Same strategy he used with tankers.

What Stays With Me

Dennin uses this chapter to show a different kind of commodity play. Most of the book is about traders who speculate on price movements. Fredriksen is not a speculator. He is an operator. He does not bet on oil prices going up. He owns the ships that carry the oil regardless of where the price goes. He does not bet on fish prices. He owns the farms that grow the fish.

The move from oil to fish also shows something about timing. Fredriksen did not enter fish farming when it was profitable and exciting. He entered when the industry was broken and cheap. He showed up with cash when everyone else was running away.

Same pattern as almost every chapter of this book. The people who build lasting fortunes are not the ones who buy when things look good. They buy when things look terrible and have the patience to wait.

Previous: Chapter 23: Orange Juice

Next: Chapter 25: Lakshmi Mittal

This is part of my From Tulips to Bitcoins book retelling series.