Shipping, salmon and offshore tycoon John Fredriksen continues to top the list of the wealthiest Norwegians, even though he hasn’t lived permanently in Norway for years. This year’s list, meanwhile, shows once again that wealth isn’t necessarily tied to university degrees.
Fredriksen, a self-made man who grew up on Oslo’s working class east side, is good for NOK 90 billion (USD 15 billion) according to the calculations of magazine Kapital, which compiles a list of the 400 wealthiest Norwegians every year. He has no higher education, in line with several others on the list like real estate magnate Olav Thon and hotel owner Petter Stordalen.
Fully 200 of the Norwegians on the list have net worth that makes them billionaires, a new record, with Fredriksen’s fortune growing by an estimated NOK 20 billion over the past year. All told the top 400 can claim collective net worth of NOK 848 billion.
Fredriksen is in a class for himself given his enormous wealth, with the four next-richest claiming fortunes of between NOK 22 billion and NOK 27.7 billion: Thon, grocery store owners Johan Johannson (NOK 26 billion) and Odd Reitan (NOK 25.2 billion) and investor and tobacco heir Johan Henrik Andresen (NOK 22 billion).
After that came another grocery store founder, Stein Erik Hagen (NOK 13.8 billion), industrialist and former fisherman Kjell Inge Røkke (NOK 12.9 billion), entrepreneur Trond Mohn (NOK 12.2 billion), shipowner Arne Wilhelmsen (NOK 10.2 billion) and Stordalen (NOK 10.2 billion).
To qualify for the list, Kapital required net worth of at least NOK 475 million (USD 79 million).
newsinenglish.no staff
