Many shipping companies “pure fraud”, says Arne Fredly

Norwegian shipping magnate, Arne Fredly, is on record as saying that, in his opinion, 80 per cent of companies are fraudulent, reports Shippingwatch. The comments were made during a podcast with Finansavisen.

Fredly, an independent investor who controls Hunter Group, said: “Basically, I think being an equity investor in shipping has been a sad story. It’s mostly because 60 to 80 per cent of the listed shipping companies are pure fraud.” He went on to say that he thinks many stock-listed shipping companies “pilfer” funds, pay high management fees and “make stupid decisions so the money just disappears”.

The Hunter Group owner took pains to make clear that Hunter Group is different from other companies because it does not pay him large consultancy fees. He does acknowledge, however, that shareholders that bought equity in the company within the last 20 months have not seen a return on their investments.