NEW YORK – In a boost to Cyprus’ shipping industry , a major ship-owning company registered in Bermuda and listed on the New York Stock Exchange has reportedly initiated the transfer of its activities to Cyprus.

The Royal Gazette, a Bermuda news outlet, said the company is Frontline, whose fleet includes oil tankers and that the company’s board has already decided to register its fleet under the Cypriot flag.

Frontline is the world’s fourth largest oil tanker company, based in Hamilton, Bermuda and controlled by John Fredriksen, a naturalized Cypriot citizen and its main business is transporting crude oil, said The Cyprus Mail.

The company had one of the world’s largest tanker fleets consisting of VLCC, Suezmax and Suezmax OBO carriers (82 tankers total, with 18 more on order) showing its reach on the seas.
Fredriksen, 78, is a Norwegian-born Cypriot shipping billionaire businessman based in London and was one of the first foreign investors to get a residency permit and Cypriot passport through a scheme that was later ended.

Fredriksen tops the Cyprus Rich List with a net worth in 2009 estimated at 2.7 million euros ($2.8 billion) and the report said he chose Cyprus because it has no inheritance taxes.
A document filed on behalf of the US authorities that supervise publicly traded companies noted: “Frontline believes that the transfer will provide legal, administrative, and other related advantages.

“As a well-established ship management centre, Cyprus is expected to offer many advantages to the company, including attracting experienced personnel commercially, administratively and managerially.”

Cyprus has been affected by European Union sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine and had lost 20 percent of the oil tanker fleet registered on the island after the bloc said it would put a cap on the price of Russian seaborne oil.