Rokke is the chairman of Aker, an industrial group with stakes in oil companies, a ship charterer and real estate. The former fisherman took over oil-rig builder Aker in 1996 before expanding into seafood and marine biotechnology. The Oslo-based company had total assets of 77.9 billion Norwegian kroner ($8.8 billion) in 2021.
Kjell Inge Rokke's net worth of $4.98B can buy ...
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The majority of Rokke's fortune is derived from his 68% stake in Aker. He holds the shares through holding company TRG Holding AS, according to Aker's 2021 annual report. Stakes held by Aker in other public companies are excluded from the analysis to avoid double counting.
His cash holdings are based on an analysis of dividends, insider transactions, market performance and taxes.
Rokke said in 2017 that he would give away most of his fortune to clean up the world's oceans. This analysis assumes that he is yet to do so.
Atle Kigen, a spokesperson at Aker, declined to comment on the net wealth calculation.
Kjell Inge Rokke was born in Norway on Oct. 25, 1958. He started working on a fishing trawler when he was 17, before moving to Alaska. He bought a 69-foot trawler in the United States in 1982, and gradually built a fisheries business, according to his biography on Aker's website.
In 1996, his company, RGI, purchased enough Aker shares to become the oil-rig builder's largest shareholder, and later merged RGI with Aker, according to a 2011 Bloomberg News article. He became majority shareholder in engineering company Kvaerner in 2002, which later became Aker Solutions.
Rokke said May 2017 that he would give away most of his fortune to clean up the world's oceans.