Christen Ager-Hanssen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 29, 1962 |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Occupation | Venture capitalist & entrepreneur |
Christen Eugen Ager-Hanssen (born July 29, 1962) is a Norwegian internet entrepreneur & venture capitalist. Since the late 1990s, he has been based in London and is a highly controversial private equity professional.[1][2][3][4][5] Ager-Hanssen was involved in several high-profile M&A deals and has become known for public hostile takeovers.[2][3][6][7] In a Canadian Business cover story, he was described as both Gordon Gekko and a modern-day Viking. In 1999 he became one of Norway's richest citizens.
Ager-Hanssen has also been recognized for his expertise in the Internet. His work to commercialize the Internet in the 1990s included early experiments with search engines, internet infrastructure such as satellite internet access, legal music distribution, banking and financial services, e-mail advertising, banner ads, and pay-per-click advertising.[2][3][6][7] He invests in potential unicorns and media companies through his investment vehicle, Custos, and is the owner of the biggest newspaper in Sweden, the Metro.[4][8][9][10][11]
Christen Ager-Hanssen was born in Halden, Norway. He is the son of Norwegian industrialist and nuclear physicist Henrik Ager-Hanssen (1930–2004) and politician Bjørg Ager-Hanssen. He grew up in Halden, Oslo, and Stavanger before he moved to Sweden where he worked for IBM and Kinnevik in Stockholm.[2][5][6][7]
In the early 1980s, Ager-Hanssen was employed by different blue chip computer technology companies such as Burroughs, Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM. In the early 1990s, Ager-Hanssen became a recognized speaker in the field of business process reengineering and legacy information systems.[2][5][6]
Ager-Hanssen is a former Kinnevik AB group executive and recognized as an internet commercialization pioneer.[2][7][12] Ager-Hanssen was also a senior executive in the Kinnevik group with regards to Tele2 AB and its international expansion. He founded several internet startups together with Investment AB Kinnevik, including Netsys Technology Group, Webware and Polarsearch, one of the first search engines in Scandinavia.[2] He is one of many individuals within the Kinnevik Group that later became entrepreneurs.[6][7][13]
Ager-Hanssen has been an active investor on the Swedish stock exchange who invested in many blue chip companies. In 1999, Dagens Industri described him as a stock trader who made huge profits from being a brilliant stock trader rather than making a profit from his investment portfolio. His investment portfolio was at the time valued at SEK 1.7 billion.[2][5]
In November 2022, Ager-Hanssen was appointed as the CEO of nChain group.[14] In September 2023, Christen Ager-Hanssen resigned from his position as CEO due to disagreements with the company's board which he explained in a now-deleted tweet were a conspiracy to defraud nChain shareholders orchestrated by a significant shareholder, which is believed to be Antiguan/Canadian citizen, Calvin Ayre.[15] Within the same tweet, Ager-Hanseen claimed he found compelling evidence that Craig Wright has manipulated documents with the aim of deceiving the courts that he is Satoshi. Ager-Hanssen also noted in his tweet that "Dr Craig Wright is NOT Satoshi".[16] nChain released a statement on 29 September 2023 about his resignation and appointed Stefan Matthews as the new CEO.[17]
In early 1998, Ager-Hanssen made a bid for NetSys Technology Group, including Webware and Polarsearch, together with the National Pension Fund of Sweden. The bid was successful and ended up with Ager-Hanssen controlling 60% of the company through a newly established joint venture with the National Pension Fund of Sweden. Kinnevik and other shareholders subsequently made a successful exit.[2][18] In June 1998, Ager-Hanssen made a successful hostile cash bid on the publicly-traded company Verimation AB for SEK 120 million. Ager-Hanssen thereafter delisted the company and integrated the business into the joint venture with the Pension Fund. Verimation had developed one of the first email systems in the world and branded it Memo.[2][3] Memo had approximately 2.5 million end-user clients at the time and was well established among Fortune 500 companies. Later that year, the NetSys Technology Group was valued at more than USD 388 million.[3]
Just before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Ager-Hanssen chose to divest his shares in the joint venture with the Pension Fund. The profit from the divestment was used to fuel his investment activities. The National Pension Fund lost more than SEK 350 million on the investment. Their perceived lack of competence was criticized lengthily in the Swedish press, and they tried to escape the spotlight by blaming Ager-Hanssen.[19] Later that year, NetSys Technology Group was valued to more than USD 388 million.[3]
In 1998, Ager-Hanssen founded a venture capital company called Cognition where he organized most of his Internet-related investment.[2][5][6] He employed several high-profile individuals, such as Ulf Sundqvist,[6] former trade minister in Finland, and Gillian Nott, a former financial service authority director. He appointed Ron Sandler as the non-executive chairman who was the former Lloyd's of London chief executive and a former NatWest executive.[6]
Sandler commented on the appointment in Financial Times: "When I went to NatWest six months ago, the world looked like a certain world. Now it has changed substantially," he said. "In contrast to companies like Cognition, old financial services megaliths appear very slow-moving and quite bureaucratic."[20]
Cognition was valued by HSBC at the beginning of 2000 at approximately GBP 1 billion and planned for an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange. The company never floated because of the dot-com bubble.[6][20]
In many articles in Scandinavia, the US, and the UK, Ager-Hanssen was portrayed as a visible symbol for the bubble.[21][22][23]
Ager-Hanssen´s investment company Custos acquired the Metro from Kinnevik AB in February 2017.[24] The Metro was the original disrupter in the media industry and the world’s first free newspaper launched as early as 1995. Metro is today the biggest newspaper in Sweden. The company has interests in music, fashion, recruitment, health, esports, and loyalty programs. At the time of the acquisition, Ager-Hanssen was quoted, saying: "All of Metro’s business culture is based on surprising the market and doing business that shake up the industry, this fits perfectly with our ambitions in the media sector".[25][26][27][28][29][30][excessive citations]
Christen Ager-Hanssen, a Norwegian businessman and owner of the investment company Custos, became significantly involved with Johnston Press, a British newspaper group, in the mid-2010s. His interaction with Johnston Press was characterised by a series of strategic moves, public disputes, and legal actions, reflecting his intention to reshape the company's leadership and operational direction.[8][9]
Ager-Hanssen's involvement with Johnston Press began in 2017 when, through Custos, he acquired a significant strategic stake in the company, making him one of its largest shareholders.[31][32] In October 2017, Ager-Hanssen publicly announced his intention to overhaul Johnston Press's board, nominating Alex Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland, as the company's potential chairman.[33] Ager-Hanssen's strategy was predicated on radically changing Johnston Press's business model, focusing on the digital media and leveraging the company's audience to help kickstart new ventures.[34]
Ager-Hanssen's plans were initially hampered by a 'dead hand proxy', a controversial corporate defense mechanism that required an immediate repayment of Johnston Press's debt if the control of the board were to change.[35] Through public statements, Ager-Hanssen criticised the use of the defense measure and expressed his determination to carry on with his plans.[36]
Despite his stake in the company, Ager-Hanssen was not able to prevent Johnston Press from entering administration and its subsequent acquisition by JPIMedia in November 2018.[37] Ager-Hanssen criticised the sale process and declared he would initiate legal actions against the new owners.[38] His interaction with Johnston Press was characterised by a confrontational style and a persistent critique of the company's management.[39] Despite the challenges faced, Ager-Hanssen significantly influenced the company's strategic direction during a critical phase of its restructuring.[40]
In 2005 Ager-Hanssen and John Robert Porter invested together in the airline and travel industry. They acquired, among others, a controlling stake in the almost bankrupt publicly listed company FlyMe Europe AB (FLY-B.SK). FlyMe Europe was a low-cost carrier based in Gothenburg that aimed to be one of the leading low-cost carriers in Europe.[41][42][43][44][45]
Ager-Hanssen and Porter's first step in achieving their goal of being a leading low-cost carrier in Europe was to convince the owner of the biggest Danish carrier Sterling European Airlines A/S and Maersk Air, Icelandic billionaire Palmi Haraldsson, to join their plan. Haraldsson agreed and acquired a strategic holding in FlyMe Europe; Haraldsson had already invested DKK 500 million in Sterling European Airlines and an undisclosed amount in Maersk Air and Iceland Express, and saw an opportunity to bring it all together in a listed holding company such as FlyMe Europe. They changed the board and raised SEK 272 million after securing a majority stake and voting control in FlyMe to fuel the company's international expansion and to position it for consolidation in the airline industry.[44][45][46][47]
In late 2005, Haraldsson accepted an offer from the FL Group to divest his holding in Sterling Airlines (the merged entity of Sterling European Airlines and Maersk) for DKK 1.5 billion. The FL Group was led by Hannes Smárason, who had at the time a 16 percent strategic holding in the second-largest low-cost carrier in Europe, EasyJet, as well as holdings in American Airlines.[45][48][49]
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Ager-Hanssen and Haraldsson continued the consolidation discussion with Smárason and the FL Group's majority owner Baugur represented by Icelandic billionaire Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson. The plan was for Sterling Airlines to do a "reverse takeover" based on a DKK 2 billion valuation on Sterling Airlines A/S.[50][51][52] After some preliminary due diligence of Sterling in June and July 2006 FlyMe's board and Ager-Hanssen decided to not proceed with the acquisition of Sterling.[48][49]
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The decision to not acquire Sterling disturbed Haraldsson and Smárason's take-over plan, and made it impossible for Ager-Hanssen and Porter to continue a business relationship with Haraldsson. In September 2006, they acquired Haraldsson's shares in FlyMe Europe, which led to a battle between the airlines with no winners.[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][excessive citations]
Both airlines later went bankrupt because the owners would not support the companies with additional capital.
Ager-Hanssen and Porter also had a controlling stake in the English-based freight operator Global Supply Systems (GSS).[45] GSS was launched in 2001 as a British all-cargo carrier whose principal business was to provide aircraft on long-term leases to other airlines on an ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) basis. GSS was a joint venture with Atlas Air Worldwide, who operates the world's largest fleet of modern Boeing 747 all-cargo aircraft and was a 49% partner in GSS. In 2007 Porter and Ager-Hanssen's GSS signed a five-year contract with British Airways (BA), which at the time was described as the largest-ever freighter investment made by BA with total operating costs of over USD 1 billion. Porter and Ager-Hanssen controlled 51% of GSS through Riverdon Ltd.[59][60]
In 2007, FlyMe acquired a strategic minority stake in GSS with the plan to become the first airline in the world to produce low-cost long-haul flights from Scandinavia to the US and Thailand.[60] GSS was divested in 2009.
Ager-Hanssen and Porter continued to invest in the leisure industry and acquired a strategic stake in Ticket, one of the leading Scandinavian travel agencies and publicly listed company, and changed their board through a hostile takeover.[45][61] The company was divested in 2008.
Ager-Hanssen has had several investments in the telecom industry. Among the more well-known is his early investment in Glocalnet, which is owned today by Telenor. Ager-Hanssen's Cognition invested SEK 80 million together with Brummer & Partner and Nomura Holdings. The main part of the placement (SEK 50 million) was done by Ager-Hanssen.[62][63] He later sold his share in Glocalnet to Inter-Ikea.[64]
Other telecom investments held by Ager-Hanssen included Utfors, a broadband operator today also owned by Telenor, and investments in Tele2 and Millicom.
Ager-Hanssen invested in 2005 together with Porter in Nordic Oil. The company was chaired by the founder and former CEO of Statoil, Arve Johnsen. The company aimed to expand both upstream and downstream.[65] Some of the assets of the company included 105 gas stations in Sweden- branded pump and a lubricant retail business in Scandinavia. In 2006 Nordic Oil signed a deal with the Hinduja Group to re-establish the Gulf brand to the Scandinavian market and planned to rebrand all of its gas stations.[66] Ager-Hanssen and Porter divested the business in 2007.[67]
Ager-Hanssen works with blue chip executives, politicians, and billionaires such as John Robert Porter, who had made a fortune from Demon, Britain's first internet provider as well as from his divestment of Verifone to Hewlett Packard in 1997. Ager-Hanssen and Porter have several business interests together and have been business partners since the late 1990s.[4][6]