Â鶹APP

Young boys counting money. Photo by RichVintage.

10 Wealthiest People from Norway

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, occupying the western and northernmost portions of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with the majority of the population living comfortably.

The richest people in Norway come from a variety of backgrounds. They have lovely scenery and a generally high standard of living. As a result, it’s not surprising that Norway has a plethora of billionaires. However, there are some issues in Norway’s retail forex market.

This list is compiled of the top ten wealthiest people in Norway, who come from diverse backgrounds and work in fields ranging from fishing to cruise ships to banking. So, if you’ve ever wondered who Norway’s wealthiest people are and what they do, this list is for you!

1. Ole Andreas Halvorsen

Halvorsen is the co-founder and CEO of Viking Global Investors, a privately held hedge fund. The firm is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, and has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. It primarily invests in public and private equity interests and manages approximately $37 billion in assets.

Halvorsen has consistently ranked among the top earning hedge fund managers, ranking 11th in Forbes’ 2012 rankings and 9th in 2015. 

His net worth was estimated to be $6.6 billion in August 2022.

2. John Fredriksen

1 U.S.A. dollar banknotes. Photo by Alexander Grey.

John Fredriksen is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping tycoon based in London. He owns the world’s largest oil tanker fleet and has significant holdings in the offshore driller Seadrill, the fish farming firm Mowi, the dry bulk company Golden Ocean Group, and the supply vessel company Deep Sea Supply.

Fredriksen, who was born in Oslo, Norway, is now a naturalized Cypriot citizen. He was Norway’s richest man before abandoning his Norwegian citizenship.  

His net worth is currently estimated to be 11.2 billion USD.

3. Odd Reitan

Odd Reitan. Photo by Kjetil Ree.

Many of the top ten are likely to be involved in shipping or the energy industries, but Odd Reitan is not one of them. He established the well-known supermarket chain Reitan Group. His privately owned Reitangruppen now owns grocery and convenience stores throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic and employs 38,000 people.

Ole Robert Reitan is the Administrative Director of the grocery chain REMA 1000, while Magnus Reitan oversees Reitan Convenience. His net worth is currently $4.2 billion USD.

4. Ivar Tollefsen

Tollefsen Enterprises and Fredensborg AS were founded by Ivar Tollefsen. Ivar Tollefsen was raised in Asker. He began delivering papers on four different routes at the age of 12; to do so, he had to get up at 3:30 a.m.

Tollefsen bought a DJ set and began performing at neighborhood school parties with the money he earned. Soon after, he founded Tollefsen Enterprises and dropped out of high school to focus solely on the business of renting out DJ services and event equipment. Tollefsen Enterprises was purchased by the investment firm Vest Invest in 1985 for approximately $2.8 million.

In 1994, he ventured into real estate, purchasing a 20-unit building in central Oslo. Later, he founded Fredensbrog AS, which is one of the largest owners of rental housing in Scandinavia, with over 27,000 apartments. The company has actively invested in foreign property since 2020. Only in 2020, the Fredensbrog AS-controlled Heimstaden Bostad AB acquired 1732 buildings across Germany. 

Ivar Tollefsen ranked 398th on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2022, with an estimated wealth of $6.4 billion.

5. Kjell Inge Rokke

Rokke began fishing at the age of 18 and has no secondary or higher education. In 1979, he relocated to the United States to work on trawlers in Alaska. He eventually owned the American Seafoods Company after saving enough money to buy his first trawlers. In the 1980s, Rokke was based in Seattle, Washington, where he owned and operated American Seafoods as well as Resource Group International (RGI).

Rokke returned to Norway in the mid-1990s. When RGI purchased enough Aker shares to become Aker’s largest shareholder in 1996. The two companies then merged. Rokke is currently the largest shareholder of Aker ASA, a Norwegian-based industrial investment company with interests in oil and gas, maritime assets, and marine biotechnology.

Rokke was convicted of corruption in the illegal purchase of a boat license in 2005 and served 24-25 days of a 120-day prison sentence before being released on parole. His current net worth is estimated at 4.2 billion USD.

6. Gustav Magnar Witzoe

Who knew salmon could be so valuable? The Witzes most emphatically do. Witzoe founded and serves as executive vice president of SalMar, one of the world’s largest salmon farmers, in 1991. Every year, SalMar processes hundreds of thousands of tonnes of salmon.

One of Norway’s most important industries is seafood exports. Gustav Magnus Witzoe, his son, will inherit a large portion of his fortune. Aside from a future controlling stake in SalMar, the 27-year-old has already invested in technology startups and real estate, and has worked as a model. He has a sizable following on social media.

7. Torstein Hagen

Torstein Hagen is the Chairman of Viking, the world’s leading small ship travel company that offers river, ocean, and expedition cruises on all seven continents. Viking was founded in 1997 with the purchase of four ships in Russia and the vision of making travel more destination-focused and culturally immersive.

In the year 2000, the company entered the American market by opening a sales and marketing office in Los Angeles, California. Since then, Viking has grown to be the world’s #1 River Cruise Line, and Condé Nast Traveler readers voted it the Best River Cruise Line in the publication’s 2020 and 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards.

Hagen, a Norwegian native, has extensive experience in the shipping and cruise industries, having served as CEO of Royal Viking Line, the industry’s leading cruise line at the time, from 1980 to 1984. He was also a member of the boards of directors of Holland America Line and Kloster Cruise Ltd., as well as a partner in Europe of the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.  His current net worth is estimated at1.5 billion USD. 

8. Erik Must

Stock exchange rates on computer monitor. Photo by Nick Chong.

Erik Must is a stockbroker and investor from Norway. He co-founded the investment firm Avanse Forvaltning with Kjell Christian Ulrichsen, and later became the owner of Fondsfinans.

He’ s a major shareholder in Norwegian media companies, owning a large portion of the publishing house Gyldendal Norsk Forlag as well as the newspapers Dagens Naeringsliv and Adresseavisen. Not only that, but he also has a stake in the energy company Arendals Fossekompani. 

His net worth is $1.1 billion USD as of April 2022.

9. Caroline Marie Hagen Kjos

Wealthy woman carrying shopping bags. Photo by freestocks.

Caroline Marie Hagen Kjos is a Norwegian businesswoman, heiress, and billionaire who currently resides in Switzerland. She was the richest woman in Norway in early 2018. She was elected Chairman of the Board of Canica, the family holding company, in 2014.

Hagen Kjos works as a project manager in the family business’s Swiss subsidiary. In 2014, Hagen Kjos inherited a majority stake in the company from her father, Stein Erik Hagen, who moved to the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, in 2009 to promote low income and wealth taxes. Her current net worth is 2.1 billion USD.

10. Petter Anker Stordalen Bjorvand

Petter Anker Stordalen Bjorvand. Photo by Poltikerveckan Almedalen.

Petter Anker Stordalen Bjorvand is a hotel and property developer. He is estimated to have a net worth of US$1.3 billion as a result of investments in hotels, shopping centers, and real estate.

Strawberry, a corporate group composed of ten companies in real estate, finance, hotels, and art, is owned by Stordalen.  Stordalen owns Nordic Choice Hotels through Strawberry Hospitality Group, which operates over 200 hotels and employs 17,000 people.