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Frontline PLC is the world's fourth largest
oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...
shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...
, based in
Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...
,
Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
and controlled by
John Fredriksen John Fredriksen (born 10 May 1944) is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping billionaire businessman based in London. He owns the world's largest oil tanker fleet and has major interests in the offshore driller Seadrill, the fish farm ...
. Its primary business is transporting
crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...
. As of 2008 the company had one of the world's largest tanker fleets consisting of VLCC, Suezmax and Suezmax OBO carriers (82 tankers in total with 18 more on order).


History

Frontline has its origin in Frontline AB, which was founded in 1985, and which was listed on the
Stockholm Stock Exchange Nasdaq Stockholm, formerly known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange (), is a stock exchange located in Frihamnen, Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1863, it has become the primary securities exchange of the Nordic countries. As of March 2021, a total ...
from 1989 to 1997. Hemen Holding (a company indirectly controlled by the largest shareholder and chairman of Frontline,
John Fredriksen John Fredriksen (born 10 May 1944) is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping billionaire businessman based in London. He owns the world's largest oil tanker fleet and has major interests in the offshore driller Seadrill, the fish farm ...
) became the largest shareholder of Frontline in 1996. In May 1997, a decision was made at the general meeting in Frontline AB to change its domicile from Sweden to Bermuda and to list its shares on the
Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange () (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway's only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, derivatives and fixed ...
. The change of
domicile Domicile may refer to: * Home, a place where someone lives * Domicile (astrology), the zodiac sign over which a planet has rulership * Domicile (law), the status or attribution of being a permanent resident in a particular jurisdiction See also * ...
was executed through a share for share exchange offer from the then newly formed Frontline in
Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...
. Under Fredriksen the company absorbed several other companies:
London and Overseas Freighters London & Overseas Freighters Ltd. (LOF) was an ocean-going merchant shipping company that for most of its history was based in the United Kingdom. Counties Ship Management In 1920 Manuel Kulukundis from the Aegean island of Kasos and his cou ...
(1997), ICB (1999), and Golden Ocean (2000). These takeovers made Frontline the world's largest tanker company, a position it has retained to the present day.


Today

As of 31 December 2010, Frontline's tanker and OBO fleet consisted of 73 vessels. The fleet consists of 44 VLCCs, which are either owned or chartered in, 21 Suezmax tankers which are either owned or chartered in and eight Suezmax OBOs which are chartered in. Frontline also had five VLCC newbuildings and two Suezmax newbuildings on order and three VLCCs under their commercial management. The company's largest
shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...
is Hemen Holding Ltd., a company indirectly controlled by the chairman of Frontline,
billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...
John Fredriksen John Fredriksen (born 10 May 1944) is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping billionaire businessman based in London. He owns the world's largest oil tanker fleet and has major interests in the offshore driller Seadrill, the fish farm ...
, Norway's highest
net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, so net w ...
person. The freight market is very volatile, with
standard deviations In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation of the values of a variable about its mean. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the ...
of up to 70%. From an options perspective, this is a possibility for a very large up and downside—part of this downside can be hedged away via
freight derivatives The international shipping industry can be divided into four closely related shipping markets, each trading in a different commodity: the freight market, the sale and purchase market, the newbuilding market and the demolition market. These four m ...
. AG-Japan clean and dirty are the most liquid routes traded in the
derivatives market The derivatives market is the financial market for derivatives - financial instruments like futures contracts or options - which are derived from other forms of assets. The market can be divided into two, that for exchange-traded derivatives a ...
. Frontline has a very high dividend yield, both in cash and in Ship Finance (SFL) stocks; for example, in late 2007 its annual dividend ran between 12 and 18%, depending on the fluctuating share price. SFL is an offshoot of Frontline; the offshoot is estimated to have generated 25% gains to shareholders due to the different risk in Frontline and SFL.
Golden Ocean Group Golden Ocean Group Limited is a Bermuda-registered, Norway, Norway- based dry bulk shipping company. The company was created as a demerger, demerged part of Frontline Ltd, Frontline in 2004 and is listed on Nasdaq and the Oslo Stock Exchange. 39 ...
(GOGL), a
dry bulk Bulk cargo is product cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, such as petroleum/crude oil, ...
carrier firm, was also spun off of Frontline and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. GOGL is a volatile stock, and as with Frontline, dry
freight derivatives The international shipping industry can be divided into four closely related shipping markets, each trading in a different commodity: the freight market, the sale and purchase market, the newbuilding market and the demolition market. These four m ...
are available. In 2006, Frontline started a new Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) project, Sea Production. In June 2007, Frontline sold its entire holding of 25,500,000 shares in Sea Production. The sale of the shares was in line with Frontline's strategy to remain a pure crude oil transportation company. Frontline and Sea Production will continue a strategic partnership with respect to conversion of crude oil tankers into oil storage and production units. On 7 April 2022 there was announced a merger between Euronav and Frontline Ltd. pending regulatory approval and ironing out of the last details. The merger would have created the world's largest publicly listed tanker company. Euronav's largest shareholder,
Compagnie Maritime Belge The Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) is one of the oldest Antwerp ship-owners. It is controlled by the Saverys family who also own major stakes in the Exmar and Euronav groups. History CMB was founded in 1895 under the name Compagnie Belge Maritim ...
, opposed the merger and on 9 January 2023, Frontline announced that the merger would not take place. On 9 October 2023, Frontline sold its 26% stake in Euronav to Compagnie Maritime Belge. As part of the sale, Frontline acquired 24 of Euronav's oil tankers for an aggregate purchase price of $2.35 billion USD.


References


External links

* * Form 20-F submitted to the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...
{{Authority control 1985 establishments in Sweden Companies established in 1985 Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange Shipping companies of Bermuda Shipping companies of Norway Tanker shipping companies