Topline
One of the richest people in the United Kingdom, shipping billionaire John Fredriksen, is reportedly selling his 300-year-old Georgian manor in London a month after he declared “Britain has gone to Hell,” joining a mass exodus of super wealthy residents leaving the United Kingdom.
Picture made on October 17, 2007 in Oslo of John Fredriksen.
Key Facts
Fredriksen has reportedly fired more than a dozen domestic employees and is arranging for discreet viewings of the 30,000-square-food mansion known as The Old Rectory, cementing his departure from Britain.
The Old Rectory in Chelsea is one of Britain’s most expensive houses at an estimated $337 million (£250 million) and includes 10 bedrooms, a ballroom and two acres of land—the third-largest private gardens in London.
The move to sell the famous property comes one month after Fredriksen blamed the abolishment of non-domicile tax status (which previously allowed non-citizen residents to only pay British taxes on the money they earned in the country) for his decision to leave the U.K.
He confirmed to E24, a Norwegian publication, that he was relocating to the United Arab Emirates and declared, “the entire western world is on its way down.”
Fredriksen closed the London headquarters of Seatankers Management, one of his private shipping businesses, earlier this year.
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Key Background
Fredriksen is just the latest of the United Kingdom’s super wealthy residents to leave the country. Britain is losing millionaires and billionaires faster than any of the other wealthiest countries in the world, according to Henley & Partners, and 16,500 millionaires are expected to leave this year. The U.K. ranks fifth in the world in terms of its high-net-worth ($1 million and above) individual population, but is the only one of the world’s 10 richest countries to have negative millionaire growth over the past decade. Tax reforms—including a hike in inheritance tax, 15% value-added tax on private school fees and shifts in the residence-based tax system—have all made the U.K. increasingly unattractive to high-net-worth investors, Henley reports. Others to have recently left Britain include billionaires Christian Angermayer and Nassef Sawiris, who owns Aston Villa.
Surprising Fact
Montenegro has seen the highest millionaire growth by percentile than any other country in the last decade. Its millionaire population has ballooned by 124%. The United Arab Emirates is in second place (98%), followed by Malta (87%), the U.S. (87%) and China (74%).
Big Number
9,800. That’s how many millionaires are expected to move to the UAE this year, more than any other country. Together, they’re expected to be worth an estimated $63 billion.
Tangent
The Old Rectory in Chelsea dates back to the 1720s and the site was formerly home to the rector of Chelsea parish church, which dates back to 1157. It was refurbished in the 1990s and sold to Greek shipping magnate Theodore Angelopoulos in 1995 for $30 million (£22 million), after which it long held the record for London’s largest and most expensive property sale. Fredriksen bought the property for $50 million (£37 million) in 2001 and reportedly turned down an unsolicited $135 million (£100 million) offer from Russian business oligarch Roman Abramovich to buy the property in 2004.
Forbes Valuation
Fredriksen, an 81-year-old Cypriot national, was the 136th-richest man in the world as of Monday. He has an estimated net worth of $17.3 billion, which he made in the oil and shipping businesses. Today, his empire includes oil tankers, dry bulkers, LNG carriers and deepwater drilling rigs. He is expected to hand control of his empire to his twin daughters, Cecilie and Kathrine Fredriksen.