Trøim

"When Trøim studied at NTH, the dismantling of Swedish shipyards was part of the curriculum. Fredriksen's right-hand man had firsthand knowledge of how industrial companies grow – and fall. In the 60s, Sweden was the world's leading shipbuilder. From the slips at shipyards like Eriksberg, Kockums, Uddevalla, and Götaverken, rows of supertankers emerged which in later years would make Norwegian and Greek shipowners alternately filthy rich and scraped – in line with the merciless cycles of shipping."

"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."

"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."

"Sensibly, Fredriksen and Trøim had three offshore units that they had bought for around 85 million dollars just a few months earlier, which – except for the rig – were in lay-up. But prudence disappears like dew in the sun in good times, and both brokers and investors saw gold. According to Trøim, people were almost generous. The clever shipping man told the newspapers that they had received offers from anonymous American brokerage houses to bring in a total of 575 million dollars for the two drillships and the one rig in a public offering in the USA. Instead, they chose to accept a price tag of "only" 400 million dollars in Oslo, Trøim said. And both the press and the investors bit. Led by the court brokers Pareto Fonds and Fearnley Fonds, the shares in the newly started Northern Offshore ASA were put on the market. In one day, the shares were snapped up, more than 200 investors stood in line. That the emission in practice meant that the bellwether was selling, bothered no one significantly. Thus Fredriksen got rid of both drillships and production rig – and could pocket a profit of an incredible 240 million dollars on just a few months’ paperwork. Fredriksen celebrated the sale by guaranteeing that "Northern Producer" would have good rates for the first year. During that period, the rig was leased out on a lucrative charterparty to Texaco."

"In old days, people became rich through their own work. Then, they became wealthy through the work of others. The modern version is to make money by managing one's own money, as Fredriksen had done with varying success. With Trøim, the final phase came; namely, to get rich on other people's money. With Frontline, the partners got the perfect instrument to procure such money."

"The completely new thing in the mid-90s was that John Fredriksen, for the first time, had a heavyweight in finance as his right-hand man. Trøim had learned one more thing: The stock market is a wonderful instrument for selling off in pieces, yet still retaining control. The two drillships and the one production rig were perfectly suited for such a maneuver."

"In Golar, one could fine-tune operations and be creative with financing, but the main figures were set when tied up in contracts over two decades. It's almost like a banking business. Neither Fredriksen nor Trøim are suited for that. Something needs to happen all the time, and Golar is after all in a market that is expected to grow significantly for a long time. World gas production is increasing strongly, we know this not least in Norway, and with high oil prices, gas is very competitive. Everyone expects the USA to cover a larger part of its energy needs with natural gas, Japan will replace nuclear power with natural gas, and in Asia generally, the energy need seems insatiable. Someone has to transport all the gas from the production fields to the market. The conclusion was clear for Fredriksen: ordering more ships."

"Against a background of tanks, he describes Frontline as a warrior in the tank market: - The only thing you can do to protect yourself is to control a large part of the market. We do that, and it gives us power over the prices, said Trøim, predicting $40,000 as the rate level the following year."

"Essentially, Fredriksen and Trøim agreed on the recommendations from their most important brokerage connection. The race was on, and Pareto would hold their hands throughout. In May, just three months later, the investor market was introduced to SeaDrill, Fredriksen's new major venture. In addition to three worn drill rigs, the company comprised the two floating production ships "Crystal Sea" and "Crystal Ocean". It was only mentioned in a footnote in the first prospectus that SeaDrill did not own, but had the option to purchase the ships. The owner was Fredriksen-controlled Active Capital, the debt collection agency that benefitted from the enormous tax deductions associated with the ships when they were picked up from the failed Brøvig company Crystal Productions. Now, the ships were ready for a new round in the Fredriksen family of companies. Half of Norway wanted to subscribe for shares, and Trøim had to diligently cross off names on the subscription list. Just days after the allotment, the price had almost doubled. No one wanted to miss out on a new Frontline. The information was scarce; the brokers had some blurry photos of rigs with Russian names, there were two production ships and a couple of construction contracts. Based on this, ambitious financial projections were made for the coming years."