Calle Steen

"In January 1996, fortune turned for John Fredriksen. True, NAS went bust, but that was a trifle. More importantly, Kreditkassen once again stood behind its most important shipping customer. Calle Steen and his team managed to involve an international banking syndicate in lending the Fredriksen group 230 million dollars based on the rising ship values. Suddenly, Fredriksen had 650 million kroner in cash, and with bright prospects in the industry, the money was burning a hole in his pocket. Just days after NAS went bust, Fredriksen attempted a blitz attack on the drilling company Neddrill in the Netherlands. Once again, he chose a target with great values but little cash in hand. It takes no prize to guess that the idea was one of the first from CFO Trøim. He had extensive knowledge of Neddrill, a subsidiary of the shipping company Nedlloyd. Trøim's former boss, Torstein Hagen, had for many years tried to gain control of Nedlloyd. Neddrill had nine drilling rigs valued at over 2 billion, and Fredriksen would have become a major player in offshore overnight. But there too, another hunter came in from the sidelines, and Fredriksen was left spurned. He just had to swallow his pride."

"The old feuds with former drinking buddies and friends were history, a new court was in place. At the forefront was none other than Little Wolf, Tor Olav Trøim, who was never far away. Just as loyal, and apparently always in the shipowner's favor, was Nordea's Calle Steen, the man who had conjured up a loan of one and a half billion during the banking crisis ten years earlier. Among brokers, many would like to be in the inner circle of the court, but undoubtedly, one finds the brokerage firm Platou there. They were the world's leading ship brokerage firm in the early 70s along with British Clarkson but fell to mediocrity in Norway. The contact with Fredriksen brought the firm back towards old heights and record results, thanks to the socially intelligent chief Peter Anker and the experienced broker Wilhelm Holst. In stocks, Fearnley and their Harald Moræus Hansen are never far away. They have been good at finding undervalued shipping stocks worldwide, especially in Asia. With the great interest in offshore, eventually Pareto entered the innermost circle, their Stein Schie being for many years John Fredriksen's court broker on the offshore sector when he worked at the company Normarine Offshore, and he brought the client into Pareto. Fredriksen still has some of his old friends, such as Petter Olsen and Petter Thorendal. But with limited time in Norway, it can only be sporadic contact; business and family take all the time. And after all, it has been twenty-five years since he moved from the country. Both geographical distance and tens of billions in economic distance tend to create distance."

"Eventually, the brokers' suggestions also come outside of shipping; everyone knows that Big Wolf and Little Wolf are fast, non-bureaucratic, and liquid. And hungry. Sometimes this leads to surprising results, like the raid on Pan Fish. Admittedly, Fredriksen is an avid salmon fisher, but it's not obvious that he should dream of creating new structures in the salmon industry. However, Trøim insists that the investment in Pan Fish was their own idea, something they had thought about for a long time. Since Nordea held a controlling share (48 percent), they could approach Fredriksen's old friend in the bank, Calle Steen, and present the proposal. It undoubtedly helped the bank's decision-making that they made almost 800 million from the sale. The purchase in Pan Fish had an immediate Fredriksen effect throughout the industry. Share prices rose, and everyone became richer on paper. Fredriksen, who quickly had a paper profit of several hundred million kroner. Then followed a massive investment in Fjord Seafood of 25 percent, and new shakes in the industry. Everyone believes there will be a major merger between Pan, Fjord, and Cermaq, and if so, it would have been high odds that it was John Fredriksen who would force this. Everything Fredriksen has touched in recent years has yielded gains. Gradually, his fortune is spread across multiple industries and not as susceptible to extreme fluctuations. It is not certain he will be on the brink several more times."