The UK’s ninth richest billionaire, Norwegian-born delivery tycoon John Fredriksen, has stated “Britain has gone to hell” and has moved his enterprise out of London within the newest worrying signal of the large exodus of wealth from the capital.
The 81-year-old, who owns one among London’s most prestigious non-public properties, The Previous Rectory in Chelsea, is now stated to spend most of his time working his empire from the United Arab Emirates.
The oil tanker magnate, whose wealth was estimated at round £13.7 billon on this yr’s Sunday Instances Wealthy Checklist, is the most recent in a sequence of rich foreign-born London residents who’re quitting the UK – or at the very least loosening their hyperlinks – due to Labour’s scrapping of the non-dom tax regime and their disillusion with Britain’s poor financial prospects.
He made his outspoken criticism on the Nor-Delivery occasion in Oslo earlier this month.
Requested by Norwegian title E24 about his emotions for the UK, Fredriksen stated: “It’s beginning to remind me an increasing number of of Norway. Britain has gone to hell, like Norway.”
The billionaire, who turned a Cypriot citizen practically 20 years in the past, added: “I attempt to keep away from Norway as a lot as I can.”
The feedback got here after it emerged he has closed the London headquarters of Seatankers Administration, one among his non-public delivery companies, which was based mostly on Sloane Sq..
Fredriksen, the son of an Oslo welder, left Norway in 1978 and purchased his Grade II listed riverside Chelsea mansion for £37 million in 2001 from rival Theodore Angelopoulos of Greek tanker group Metrostar/Metrofin.
The property is now estimated to be price as a lot as £250 million, making it one among Britain’s most respected non-public residences. In 2004 former Chelsea proprietor Roman Abramovich reportedly provided £100 million for the house however was turned down.
The house consists of ten bed room suites and an enormous ballroom, in addition to a swimming pool and a tennis court docket.
The Previous Rectory was as soon as house to the rector of Chelsea parish church, and dates to 1725. Its secluded two acres of gardens are among the many largest of any non-public house in London.
Former rectors embrace when George Valerian Wellesley, brother of the Duke of Wellington and Charles Kingsley Sr, father of Charles Kingsley, creator of the Water Infants. It’s not considered presently available on the market.
Wellington is alleged to have deliberate the Battle of Waterloo on its lawns.
Within the interview Fredriksen, broadly often known as JF within the delivery trade, added: “Your entire Western world is on its manner down.”
“Individuals ought to stand up and work much more, and go to the workplace as a substitute of getting a house workplace.”
