Dagens Næringsliv

"Christmas 1995 was for the family, and it was only a few days later that John Fredriksen noticed a small inconspicuous article in Dagens Næringsliv on December 27. It was about possible acquisitions in shipping, and among many candidates, the pink newspaper mentioned Nordic American Shipping (NAS) in Sandefjord. "Potential takeover candidate," it said, with "open ownership structure." In good Norwegian, it meant that the shareholders in NAS were not in love with either steel, directors, or offices. In other words, they would sell if the price was right. Fredriksen chuckled to himself, if only they knew… If the article was also read in Sandefjord, it didn't raise any alarms for Herbjørn Hansson, popularly called "Hebbe-Lille". The booming yet charming man from Rogaland had built up NAS with NOK 50,000 in equity and with his brother and his wife on the board. But then, Hansson was also in the inner circle of established shipowners: former chief of Intertanko and financial director at Kosmos during the war with the Blystad brothers. Indeed, "Hebbe-Lille" took his daily swim every morning in the pool at Park Hotel, confident that he was a big man in Sandefjord. What Hansson did not know, and neither did the journalists at Dagens Næringsliv, was that the period after Christmas was also busy in the floors below the newspaper at Grev Wedels Plass in Oslo. At Fearnley Funds they worked intensively to prepare a lightning attack on the Sandefjord shipping company on behalf of Fredriksen. The suit-clad brokers who ate their bread rolls and glanced over at the unkempt radicals from the newspaper were used to discussing entirely different things than business in the common canteen. The skepticism was mutual, and the ship brokers knew that journalists could have long ears. Therefore, nothing leaked out."

"Sture also mastered the art of surprise. He contacted Johan Warpe and lawyer Ola Røthe and invited them to Stora Julaboda. Just three days after Fredriksen's attempted arrest, Eriksen and Warpe entered into a peculiar agreement. Sture bought ten percent of Warpe's 100 million-claim on Fredriksen, with an option to buy the remaining 90 percent. While Sture had previously spoken very scornfully about Warpe's claim, both around restaurant tables and in public, the tone now changed. To Dagens Næringsliv he said: – Due to John Fredriksen's excesses, I am now joining forces with Johan Warpe to demand the money Warpe has been entitled to for several years, based on very clear agreements. The new partners raised the claim to 35 million dollars, 200 million kroner, because Fredriksen had become wealthier since the last time…"

"Where Fredriksen had a knack for shipping and the courage to invest money, Trøim was the cool finance brain who spread risk across several companies and attracted risk-willing co-investors. Separately, they could cause quite a stir. Together, they were dynamite. Especially now that they had control over a publicly-traded company. – Even though there is solid substance in the Fredriksen group, the ability to raise equity for new projects will be much greater through having a stock market instrument, said an anonymous analyst to Dagens Næringsliv."

"It is a strange industry that John Fredriksen has dedicated his life to. World's tanker owners are their own worst enemies, all fighting an intense battle against each other. The opponent fully exploits this. If there are nineteen oil cargoes to be shipped out of the Gulf, and twenty ships available, the price is pushed to the bottom. A collaboration between some of the shipowners would have turned the situation around and improved the income for everyone involved. Everyone knew that, but still, no one managed to establish such a collaboration. Speaking to Dagens Næringsliv at the time, John Fredriksen said, "the problem is that every single player in the market always wants to squeeze the last cent out of the market." (When Fredriksen many years later did manage to establish such a collaboration, it turned out that he too could not keep his fingers from the last cent.)"