Christen Eugen Ager-Hanssen (born July 29, 1962) is a Norwegian
internet entrepreneur
An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some CEOs ...
&
venture capitalist
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
. Since the late 1990s, he has been based in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and is a highly controversial private equity professional.
Verdens Gang, Norges rikeste i en fei[, Rogalands Avis, Den ukjente mangemillionæren] Ager-Hanssen was involved in several high-profile M&A deals and has become known for public hostile takeovers.
Canadian Business - Cover Story.
, Stavanger Aftenblad - Rikere enn Røkke In a ''Canadian Business'' cover story, he was described as both
Gordon Gekko
Gordon Gekko is a composite character in the 1987 film '' Wall Street'' and its 2010 sequel '' Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'', both directed by Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, whose performance in the first fil ...
and a modern-day Viking. In 1999 he became one of Norway's richest citizens. He was reported to be worth over $2.5 billion in 2005''.
''
Ager-Hanssen has also been recognized for his expertise in the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. His work to commercialize the Internet in the 1990s included early experiments with search engines, internet infrastructure such as satellite internet access, legal music distribution, banking and financial services, e-mail advertising, banner ads, and pay-per-click advertising.
He invests in potential
unicorns
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unicor ...
and media companies through his investment vehicle, Custos, and is the owner of the biggest newspaper in Sweden, the
''Metro''.
Early life
Christen Ager-Hanssen was born in
Halden
Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish mun ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
. He is the son of Norwegian industrialist and nuclear physicist
Henrik Ager-Hanssen
Henrik Julius Ager-Hanssen (21 July 1930 – 19 November 2004) was a Norwegian nuclear physicist and businessperson. He spent his career in the nuclear energy sector from 1956 to 1975, then in the petroleum company Statoil from 1976 to 1998.
Care ...
(1930–2004) and politician Bjørg Ager-Hanssen. He grew up in Halden,
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
, and
Stavanger before he moved to
Sweden where he worked for
IBM and
Kinnevik in
Stockholm.
Business career
In the early 1980s, Ager-Hanssen was employed by different
blue chip computer technology companies such as
Burroughs,
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...
and
IBM. In the early 1990s, Ager-Hanssen became a recognized speaker in the field of
business process reengineering and
legacy information systems.
Investment AB Kinnevik
![Skeppsbron 18 September 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Skeppsbron_18_September_2012.jpg)
Ager-Hanssen is a former
Kinnevik AB
Kinnevik AB () is a Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families.
Kinnevik is an active and long-term owner investing primarily in digital consumer businesses. Current CEO, Georgi Ganev, w ...
group executive and recognized as an internet commercialization pioneer.
[
, Investment AB Kinnevik Annual Report 1997.]
Ager-Hanssen was also a senior executive in the Kinnevik group with regards to
Tele2
Tele2 AB is a Swedish telecommunications operator headquartered in the Kista Science City, Stockholm, Sweden. It is a major telephone operator in Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Tele2 also has a 25% share in T-Mobile Netherland ...
AB and its international expansion. He founded several internet startups together with Investment AB Kinnevik, including Netsys Technology Group, Webware and Polarsearch, one of the first search engines in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
.
He is one of many individuals within the Kinnevik Group that later became entrepreneurs.
Stenbecks plantskola styr Mediesveriget.
Stock trader
Ager-Hanssen has been an active investor on the Swedish stock exchange who invested in many blue chip companies. In 1999,
Dagens Industri described him as a
stock trader
A stock trader or equity trader or share trader, also called a stock investor, is a person or company involved in trading equity securities and attempting to profit from the purchase and sale of those securities. Stock traders may be an invest ...
who made huge profits from being a brilliant stock trader rather than making a profit from his investment portfolio. His investment portfolio was at the time valued at
SEK 1.7 billion.
nChain
In November 2022, Ager-Hanssen was appointed as the CEO of nChain group.
Venture capital
Joint venture with the National Pension Fund of Sweden
In early 1998, Ager-Hanssen made a bid for NetSys Technology Group, including Webware and Polarsearch, together with the National Pension Fund of Sweden. The bid was successful and ended up with Ager-Hanssen controlling 60% of the company through a newly established
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...
with the National Pension Fund of Sweden. Kinnevik and other
shareholders
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ow ...
subsequently made a successful exit.
[, Kinnevik Annual Report 1998.] In June 1998, Ager-Hanssen made a successful
hostile cash bid on the
publicly-traded company Verimation AB for SEK 120 million. Ager-Hanssen thereafter delisted the company and integrated the business into the joint venture with the Pension Fund. Verimation had developed one of the first email systems in the world and branded it Memo.
Memo had approximately 2.5 million end-user clients at the time and was well established among
Fortune 500 companies
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...
. Later that year, the NetSys Technology Group was valued at more than
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
388 million.
![NASDAQ IXIC - dot-com bubble small](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/NASDAQ_IXIC_-_dot-com_bubble_small.png)
Just before the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
burst in 2000, Ager-Hanssen chose to divest his shares in the joint venture with the Pension Fund. The profit from the
divestment was used to fuel his investment activities. The National Pension Fund lost more than SEK 350 million on the investment. Their perceived lack of competence was criticized lengthily in the Swedish press, and they tried to escape the spotlight by blaming Ager-Hanssen.
Later that year, NetSys Technology Group was valued to more than USD 388 million.
Cognition
In 1998, Ager-Hanssen founded a
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
company called Cognition where he organized most of his Internet-related investment.
He employed several high-profile individuals, such as Ulf Sundqvist,
former trade minister in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, and Gillian Nott, a former financial service authority director. He appointed
Ron Sandler
Ron Sandler CBE is a British businessman best known for his contribution in the rescue of Lloyd's of London, where he was CEO from 1995 to 1999. He was also the government-appointed executive chairman of Northern Rock during its three-year nation ...
as the non-executive chairman who was the former
Lloyd's
Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...
of London chief executive and a former
NatWest executive.
Sandler commented on the appointment in Financial Times: "When I went to NatWest six months ago, the world looked like a certain world. Now it has changed substantially," he said. "In contrast to companies like Cognition, old financial services megaliths appear very slow-moving and quite bureaucratic."
Cognition was valued by
HSBC at the beginning of 2000 at approximately GBP 1 billion and planned for an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
(IPO) on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
. The company never floated because of the dot-com bubble.
Financial Times.
Dot-com bubble
In many articles in Scandinavia, the US, and the UK, Ager-Hanssen was portrayed as a visible symbol for the bubble.
, Nettavisen, Fem år siden bobletoppen
Investments
Media industry
Metro Media House
Ager-Hanssen´s investment company Custos acquired the
Metro (Swedish newspaper), Metro from
Kinnevik AB
Kinnevik AB () is a Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families.
Kinnevik is an active and long-term owner investing primarily in digital consumer businesses. Current CEO, Georgi Ganev, w ...
in February 2017. The Metro was the original disrupter in the media industry and the world’s first free newspaper launched as early as 1995. Metro is today the biggest newspaper in Sweden. The company has interests in music, fashion, recruitment, health,
esports, and loyalty programs. At the time of the acquisition, Ager-Hanssen was quoted, saying: "All of Metro’s business culture is based on surprising the market and doing business that shake up the industry, this fits perfectly with our ambitions in the media sector".
Johnston Press Plc
In August 2017 Ager-Hanssen was reported to have acquired a strategic stake in the 250-year-old publisher
Johnston Press plc and planned to use their digital assets in the same way as Metro, bartering exposure online for equity in startups.
![ScotsmanSign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/ScotsmanSign.jpg)
Johnston Press plc owns titles such as
I,
The Yorkshire Post
''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...
, and
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
. Johnston Press is a leading multimedia business in UK with news brands that reach national, regional, and local audiences. The Group have a portfolio of hundreds of publications and websites. Ager-Hanssen revealed his plan to use Johnston Press' audience of more than 32 million people to help kickstart new ventures.
In October 2017 it was reported that activist investor Ager-Hanssen had become the biggest shareholder in Johnston Press plc and that he planned to oust the board and the CEO. Alex Salmond, the former first minister in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
was lined up to become chairman of Johnston Press in a plan to disrupt its board. Ager-Hanssen demanded new management, more investment in journalism, and a revamped digital strategy.
= Dead hand proxy
=
The attempted boardroom coup at Johnston Press was thwarted by a controversial “poison pill” defense. Ager-Hanssen branded Johnston Press’ dead hand proxy as “a grotesque abuse of fiduciary duty”. Johnston Press is believed to be the first example of an activist coming up against such a poison pill in the UK. Ager-Hanssen commented on the poison pill in The Telegraph:
The poison pill cynically deprives shareholders of their fundamental right to change the board as they see fit. That power has been stolen from them. This is nothing short of corporate theft of power in which only the directors can decide who replaces them. The board seeks to play shareholder and bondholder interests off of one another in the hope that the balance of power can remain in the hands of a few cozy fat cats.
In the beginning of May 2018, the CEO of Johnston Press, Ashley Highfield, stepped down and Ager-Hanssen declared that he would increase his stake in the 250-year-old publisher.
Airline and leisure industry
In 2005 Ager-Hanssen and
John Robert Porter
John Robert Camber Porter (5 January 1953 - 10 November 2021) was an English businessman best known as the grandson of Sir Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco and son of Dame Shirley Porter. invested together in the airline and travel industry. They acquired, among others, a controlling stake in the almost bankrupt publicly listed company
FlyMe Europe AB (FLY-B.SK). FlyMe Europe was a low-cost carrier based in Gothenburg that aimed to be one of the leading low-cost carriers in Europe.
, GP - Sterling-och-Maersk-nya-partners?.
Dagens Næringsliv - Ager-Hanssen flyr igjen
Dagens Industri - Kuppmakere
Hegnar.no - Fly med Ager-Hanssen
FlyMe Europe
Ager-Hanssen and Porter's first step in achieving their goal of being a leading low-cost carrier in Europe was to convince the owner of the biggest Danish carrier
Sterling European Airlines, Sterling European Airlines A/S and
Maersk Air, Icelandic billionaire
Palmi Haraldsson, to join their plan. Haraldsson agreed and acquired a strategic holding in FlyMe Europe; Haraldsson had already invested
DKK 500 million in Sterling European Airlines and an undisclosed amount in Maersk Air and
Iceland Express, and saw an opportunity to bring it all together in a listed holding company such as FlyMe Europe. They changed the board and raised SEK 272 million after securing a majority stake and voting control in FlyMe to fuel the company's international expansion and to position it for consolidation in the airline industry.
Dagens Industri - Islansk Milijardær med smak för svenska företag
, Nettavisen - FlyMe to the moon
Low-cost Carrier Consolidation
In late 2005, Haraldsson accepted an offer from the
FL Group
Stodir ( is, Stoðir, FL Group prior to 4 June 2008) is a majority family-owned investment company located in Reykjavík, Reykjavík, Iceland. The company was founded on July 20, 1973, under the name Flugleiðir. It was formed as a holding compa ...
to divest his holding in
Sterling Airlines (the merged entity of
Sterling European Airlines and Maersk) for DKK 1.5 billion. The FL Group was led by
Hannes Smárason, who had at the time a 16 percent strategic holding in the second-largest low-cost carrier in Europe,
EasyJet
EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...
, as well as holdings in
American Airlines
American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...
.
Berlingske - Sterling klar til nyt islandsk salg
The Local- FlyMe plans Nordic takeover
![Boeing 737-700 (UR-AAQ) 05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Boeing_737-700_%28UR-AAQ%29_05.jpg)
Ager-Hanssen and Haraldsson continued the consolidation discussion with Smárason and the FL Group's majority owner Baugur represented by Icelandic billionaire Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson. The plan was for Sterling Airlines to do a "reverse takeover" based on a DKK 2 billion valuation on Sterling Airlines A/S.
SVT, Flyme vill bilda nordisk lågprisjätte
Flyme köper Sterling
E24, Ønsker lavprisgigant After some preliminary due diligence of Sterling in June and July 2006 FlyMe's board and Ager-Hanssen decided to not proceed with the acquisition of Sterling.
![GSS Boeing 747-400 KvW](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/GSS_Boeing_747-400_KvW.jpg)
The decision to not acquire Sterling disturbed Haraldsson and Smárason's take-over plan, and made it impossible for Ager-Hanssen and Porter to continue a business relationship with Haraldsson. In September 2006, they acquired Haraldsson's shares in FlyMe Europe, which led to a battle between the airlines with no winners.
E24, Nordman i svensk fykamp
Hegnar.no - Nordman vant svensk flykamp
Privataaffarer - Ägarturbulens-sänkte-Flyme
Dagens Næringsliv - Går for Jumbo
, Sydsvenskan - Norrman ny huvudägare i Flyme
Helsingborgs Blad -
Norrman ny huvudägare i Flyme
Both airlines later went bankrupt because the owners would not support the companies with additional capital.
Global Supply Systems
Ager-Hanssen and Porter also had a controlling stake in the English-based freight operator
Global Supply Systems (GSS).
GSS was launched in 2001 as a British all-cargo carrier whose principal business was to provide aircraft on long-term leases to other airlines on an ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) basis. GSS was a joint venture with Atlas Air Worldwide, who operates the world's largest fleet of modern
Boeing 747 all-cargo aircraft and was a 49% partner in GSS. In 2007 Porter and Ager-Hanssen's GSS signed a five-year contract with
British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...
(BA), which at the time was described as the largest-ever freighter investment made by BA with total operating costs of over USD 1 billion. Porter and Ager-Hanssen controlled 51% of GSS through Riverdon Ltd.
[, BA World Cargo invests over $1 billion in freighter fleet (25/07/2007)]
Veckans Affärer, Lågpris till Asien
In 2007, FlyMe acquired a strategic minority stake in GSS with the plan to become the first airline in the world to produce low-cost long-haul flights from Scandinavia to the US and Thailand.
GSS was divested in 2009.
Ticket
Ager-Hanssen and Porter continued to invest in the leisure industry and acquired a strategic stake in Ticket, one of the leading Scandinavian travel agencies and publicly listed company, and changed their board through a hostile takeover.
, Affarsvarlden.
DagensPS. The company was divested in 2008.
Telecom & technology industry
Ager-Hanssen has had several investments in the
Telecommunication, telecom industry. Among the more well-known is his early investment in
Glocalnet, which is owned today by
Telenor. Ager-Hanssen's Cognition invested SEK 80 million together with
Brummer & Partner and
Nomura Holdings
is a Japanese financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group. It, along with its broker-dealer, banking and other financial services subsidiaries, provides investment, financing and related services to individual, institut ...
. The main part of the placement (SEK 50 million) was done by Ager-Hanssen.
[, Press-release Glocalnet.]
Press-release in English Glocalnet. He later sold his share in Glocalnet to
Inter Ikea Holding, Inter-Ikea.
Dagens Industri, Inter Ikea new big shareholder in Glocaclnet.
Other telecom investments held by Ager-Hanssen included Utfors, a broadband operator today also owned by
Telenor, and investments in
Tele2
Tele2 AB is a Swedish telecommunications operator headquartered in the Kista Science City, Stockholm, Sweden. It is a major telephone operator in Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Tele2 also has a 25% share in T-Mobile Netherland ...
and
Millicom
Millicom International Cellular SA (NASDAQ U.S.: TIGO, NASDAQ Stockholm: TIGO_SDB) is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. As of ...
.
Oil industry
![Gulf logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Gulf_logo.png)
Ager-Hanssen invested in 2005 together with Porter in Nordic Oil. The company was chaired by the founder and former CEO of
Statoil,
Arve Johnsen. The company aimed to expand both upstream and downstream.
Rogalands Avis, Madlagutt vill pumpe billigt Some of the assets of the company included 105 gas stations in Sweden- branded pump and a lubricant retail business in Scandinavia. In 2006 Nordic Oil signed a deal with the Hinduja Group to re-establish the Gulf brand to the Scandinavian market and planned to rebrand all of its gas stations.
[, Gulf Oil, Orange Disc.] Ager-Hanssen and Porter divested the business in 2007.
Dagens Industri - Ager-Hanssen säljer Nordic Oil
Business partners
Ager-Hanssen works with blue chip executives, politicians, and billionaires such as
John Robert Porter
John Robert Camber Porter (5 January 1953 - 10 November 2021) was an English businessman best known as the grandson of Sir Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco and son of Dame Shirley Porter. , who had made a fortune from
Demon internet, Demon, Britain's first
internet provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
as well as from his divestment of
Verifone
Verifone is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida. Verifone provides technology for electronic payment transactions and value-added services at the point-of-sale. Verifone sells merchant-operated, consume ...
to
Hewlett Packard in 1997. Ager-Hanssen and Porter have several business interests together and have been business partners since the late 1990s.
Bibliography
*Christen Ager-Hanssen and Jenny Hedelin: ''HQgate - den okända dramatiken bakom Sveriges mest uppmärksammade bankkrasch'' - English title: HQgate - the unknown drama behind Sweden's most notable bank crash, Ekerlids, Stockholm 2017,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ager-Hanssen, Christen
1962 births
Living people
Angel investors
British mass media owners
British newspaper publishers (people)
Burroughs Corporation people
IBM employees
Internet pioneers
Norwegian company founders
Norwegian media executives
People from Halden
Private equity and venture capital investors
Venture capitalists