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Norwegian Billionaire Gustav Magnar Witzøe Boosts Wealth on Salmon Sales

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Gustav Magnar Witzøe

The salmon farming business owned by Gustav Magnar Witzøe has delivered strong third-quarter results, elevating its share price and increasing the wealth of the world’s third youngest billionaire at 25 years old.

Witzøe controls over 52% of one of the largest producers of farmed salmon – SalMar, through his 97% ownership of SalMar shareholder Kverva.

SalMar has exceeded analyst’s expectations delivering revenue growth and cost savings, according to its quarterly report on Friday. SalMar’s third-quarter revenue for 2018 is up to around $213 million from just over $200 million for the same period last year.  Operating profit for Salmar has reached around $111 million for the quarter compared to around $95 million last year.

Olav-Andreas Ervik, SalMar’s CEO, referring to this year’s healthy salmon crops said:

“Efficient operations and a strong biological performance have helped SalMar deliver a strong financial result. This achievement has been made possible by the dedication and hard work of our employees, whose efforts have contributed to lower costs, good price achievement and increased efficiency in our harvesting and processing plants.”

Based in Frøya, Norway, SalMar owns 100 licenses for the production of Atlantic salmon in the country and operates commercial salmon farming operations as well as processing and selling the fish.

Overnight Million Dollar Gains for Witzøe

SalMar’s share price jumped by 4% immediately on Friday after the release of the results, then continued to rise during trading to achieve over 10% gains.

SalMar Share Price 2018 Source: Google

SalMar Share Price 2018 Source: Google

The growth delivered billionaire owner Witzøe an overnight increase to his stock value of $332 million. The company has seen steady and significant growth, 84% overall to date, across 2018, on the Norwegian Oslo Børs stock exchange.

Witzøe, avoiding inheritance tax, was transferred the bulk of his father’s company shares in 2011 when he was just 19. He’s reportedly earned the equivalent of over $2 billion over 2018.

The young billionaire also models professionally and has recently invested in Norwegian social media startup Gobi.

Melanie Kramer is a freelance fintech, blockchain, and cryptocurrency journalist/writer with a background in business and economics and an avid interest in global politics and money markets.