Outsider-to-Kingpin Control Loops

"Storeulv's eyes were fixed on a new prey; this time one of Sweden's largest shipping companies. He now intended not to let a larger predator take the prey right from under his nose. Slowly he circled towards the Stockholm shipping company, which was run by the once so powerful Salen shipping family. Previously, the company was known as Uddevalla Shipping, originally started to take care of the ships left by the Salen-owned Uddevallavarvet after the shipyard crisis. Now it was called Frontline and was considered the easiest acquisition target on the Stockholm stock exchange. The Salen family was just a pale shadow of its former glory."

"For a quarter billion Swedish kronor, Fredriksen's company Hemen Holding already owned 28 percent of the Frontline shares when they bid for the rest. The paralyzed Swedish management realized their fate: – We see that John Fredriksen has been successful, and in that sense we are positive that he will engage, said Frontline's CEO Kjell Jonson to the press. So it should sound! Jonson was rewarded with continuing in the CEO position. It was worse with Frontline's chairman, Sven H. Salen. Just a month later, Fredriksen took his private jet to Stockholm to throw the old leader out of the board. Then he took over the chairman position himself and brought along Tor Olav Trøim to the board. Thus, 20 percent of the entire Swedish tanker fleet disappeared out of the country."

"It is not necessary to own everything to control everything. Fredriksen is not the first to discover this, but rarely has anyone known to use it to such an extent. Since Fredriksen raided Swedish Frontline back in 1996, he has made countless transactions with himself on both sides of the table. It started with the sale of large parts of the private fleet to Frontline in exchange for shares, which gave Fredriksen complete control of the company, and has been a steady stream since."

"The issue does not only concern Frontline, it is the same for all the companies in the Fredriksen group. Deals are constantly made where Fredriksen is actually dealing with himself; whether it's buying or selling, construction contracts, options, or freight agreements. And there are not always clear rules like in the case of Frontline. While Northern Offshore was listed on the stock market, John Fredriksen had other offshore interests privately. "Negotiations" to sell them to Northern Offshore did not succeed."