About us
Videos where Jens Ulltveit-Moe give advice on how to succeed in business:
Umoe is owned and controlled by Jens Ulltveit-Moe,
who is one of Norway’s largest private company owners.
Umoe owns and manages a number of wholly and partly owned companies in where management also have
minority shareholdings. The partly owned companies are mainly listed Norwegian companies in which Umoe is
the largest owner, with a considerable minority shareholding, and exercises active long-term ownership by
having representatives in the board and in other governing bodies. Umoe emphasizes to have a good, trusting
cooperation with the management, employees’ representatives and any other shareholders in each company.
Umoe has a strong focus on safety, the environment and business ethics.
The parent company, Umoe AS has a small, highly qualified staff that exercises active ownership. The
subsidiaries have their own management and are mainly financed by their own earnings and balance sheet. There
is little synergy between the individual investments in the portfolio. The individual companies’ value drivers and
market conditions are different. This allows flexibility and risk equalisation in the portfolio as a whole.
Umoe invests counter-cyclically in companies in mature industries with the aim of active ownership doubling the value over a five-year period. Umoe’s strategy allows room for underlying assets to both increase and decrease in value and Umoe seeks to have enough equity to be able to both invest during downturns and avoid the enforced sale of assets. Umoe has been involved in maritime industries since it was established in 1984 and has also been involved in Norwegian sheltered industries since the sale of Umoe Olje og Gass (Oil & Gas) in 2000.
When we cannot add new value, we consider selling. During the past two years, we have sold oil-dependent
investments in order to reinvest the amounts in renewable energy. The large investment in sugar cane ethanol is
the first result of this strategy.
Our investments are mainly recognised at cost and considerable added value compared to the book value has been created over time for several of the investments. Investments whose value has decreased during the year have been written down to their estimated market value at the year-end. Umoe places emphasis on maintaining a good and necessary reported financial strength. Its real financial strength will normally be, and is now, much higher than the reported one. Parts of Umoe’s share portfolio is considered to be liquid assets, and taking this to account, Umoe currently has more than NOK 1 billion available for new investments.
The company’s registered office is at Fornebuveien 84, NO-1324 Lysaker.