The Grieg family divides business ownership

The background is a desire – and a need – to be the best possible owners for the companies through more focused ownership. Grieg Gaarden will continue to be jointly owned, and the Grieg Foundation will remain a shared commitment of the family.

After the division, three of the family branches will continue and further develop the ownership in the Grieg Group, which will consist of the companies Grieg Maritime Group, Grieg Investor and Grieg Kapital. The shareholders in the Grieg Group will, in the future, work purposefully to further develop these companies and also allocate new capital to develop new business areas from a long-term and industrial perspective.

The Willumsen Grieg family branch will take over the Group’s ownership of 50.2% in Grieg Seafood through the company Grieg Aqua, in addition to some smaller companies in consulting and real estate. They will establish a new family company to maintain ownership and pursue new investment activities. As a result of the division, the Belgian investment company Ackermans & van Haaren (AvH) will become a co-owner in Grieg Aqua with a 37.5% ownership stake.

The entire Grieg family will continue joint ownership of Grieg Gaarden as the headquarters for all the businesses. In addition, Grieg Foundation will continue to be a shared commitment with a 25% ownership stake in both family companies.

– The owners of the Grieg Group have completed a generational transition and there are now 17 shareholders consisting of the 4th and 5th generations. A large proportion of the portfolio is exposed to the shipping and seafood sectors, both of which are cyclical and capital-intensive. This requires active and focused ownership, and I believe that the family has now taken a correct and natural step to prepare their companies for the future, says Jon Haugervåg, chair of Grieg Maturitas.

Statement from the Grieg family:

For over 140 years, the Grieg Group has developed through targeted decisions and the ability to adapt to new challenges and opportunities. This has been crucial to ensuring the group’s long-term value creation and further development.

The shareholders in the Grieg Group have for some time considered how we should pass ownership on to the next generations. We have now decided that a division of ownership will be best for both value creation in the companies we own and for us as a family. The final decision to divide Grieg Maturitas is largely based on the fact that we are shareholders with different interests and competencies. The division ensures more focused ownership, which we believe is best for the further development of our companies.

Grieg Foundation will continue to own 25% in both family companies, and in this way, we will continue the good work together. Since the foundation was established by our father and grandfather, Per Grieg Sr., in 2002, we have distributed over NOK 1.2 billion to charitable purposes. We look forward to further developing this work together. Grieg Gaarden will also remain in joint ownership as both headquarters and a common meeting place.

The division is the result of a thorough process in which the assessment of various possibilities has been characterised by constructive cooperation among the shareholders. We are all looking forward to continuing our ownership into new generations, now distributed between two active and industrial family companies.

For questions, please contact 

Erlend Horn
Head of Communications and Public Affairs at Grieg Group
erlend.horn@grieg.no  // +47 98619431