This week it emerged that Color Line is being sold to its competitor Stena Lina in Gothenburg. Potential Norwegian investors were at a disadvantage due to the wealth tax.
Last week it was announced that Olav Nils Sunde is selling Color Line to Stena Line in Gothenburg. “A sad but right decision,” he told Dagens Næringsliv, which reported that the parties would not disclose the sale price.
Finansavisen reported that Sunde could pocket 3–4 billion kroner from the sale, with an estimated mid-point valuation of around 3.6 billion kroner.
Stena Line is owned by Stena AB, which is wholly owned by the Olsson family. At the head of the dynasty sits Dan Sten Olsson.
In the wake of the news, comments have emerged suggesting that yet another Norwegian company is falling into foreign hands, that the wealth tax is to blame, and so on.
The story is that Olav Nils Sunde had reached a point where he wanted to sell after having owned and run the company for 30 years.
It is unclear whether there were any potential Norwegian owners. If so, they would have been owners or groups of owners operating in the shipping/cruise/tourism sector. Peter Stordalen’s Strawberry could have been a relevant buyer. However, many potential Norwegian owners have moved abroad due to the wealth tax, such as Torstein Hagen with his Viking Cruises.
For a buyer based in Norway, the wealth tax is a disadvantage in any potential bidding round.
25.5 million to own in Norway
The shipping company Color Line is privately owned, with Olav Nils Sunde and his family holding all the shares.
The book value of equity stood at 2.9 billion kroner at the end of 2025. The paid-up portion of this is NOK 2.5 billion, which implicitly means that approximately NOK 400 million is retained earnings remaining on the balance sheet after dividend payments.
For an unlisted company such as Color Line, the book value of equity is used as the basis for calculating wealth tax.
With an 80 per cent tax-assessed value of assets and a 1.1 per cent wealth tax rate, Sunde must pay NOK 25.5 million in wealth tax each year to own Color Line, because he lives in Norway.
This is entirely regardless of whether the company makes a profit or not.
The company’s annual results
The shielding allowance – that is, the amount that can be withdrawn annually as a dividend without triggering dividend tax – is 3.6 per cent of paid-up equity. This means that with paid-in equity of 2.5 billion kroner, Sunde can withdraw up to 90 million kroner without triggering dividend tax.
He can therefore finance the payment of wealth tax by withdrawing a corresponding amount from the company, within the limits of the tax shield deduction. This naturally presupposes that there is available cash in the company and retained earnings on the balance sheet.
The accounts for 2025 showed an ordinary profit of NOK 52 million and approximately NOK 20 million in cash at the end of the year.
To be up to date with tax payments by 31 May, he had to withdraw NOK 25.5 million from the company. Based on the year-end balance sheet, this could put the company’s liquidity under pressure unless funds were freed up during the winter and spring. But clearly, the wealth tax that Sunde must pay for owning the company influences the decisions the company makes.
Alternatively, the wealth tax must be financed from other income or unrestricted funds. In any case, Sunde’s ownership of Color Line entails an annual after-tax cost of 25.5 million kroner.
Dan Sten Olsen is exempt
Dan Sten Olssen, who, through his wholly-owned company Stena, is acquiring the shares in Color Line, does not have to pay this annual Norwegian-specific ownership tax of NOK 25.5 million that Sunde must pay. This is because there is no wealth tax in Sweden.
This advantage, with the shares in Olsson’s possession, represents a cash flow after tax. With a dividend tax rate in Sweden of 30 per cent, this corresponds to a pre-tax cash flow of 25.5 / (1–30%) = 36.4 million kroner.
This naturally affects how Dan Sten Olssen assesses the value of the company, compared with how potential buyers in Norway would assess its value.
At least 300 million more in value in Sweden
A natural question when valuing such transactions is which ‘multiple’ to use.
To find the answer to this, one should look at how comparable companies are priced in the stock market. For example, the ratio between the share price and earnings per share – Price/Earnings – P/E. This is calculated by dividing the share price by the company’s previous or expected earnings per share.
Comparable listed companies include cruise operators such as Royal Caribbean (RCL), Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) and Viking. These are priced at multiples ranging from 9 to 25, with NCL and Carnival at the lower end and Viking at the higher end, whilst RCL sits in the middle.
Color Line is probably most similar to NCL and Carnival, which are valued at P/E multiples of 9–11.
The size of the multiples depends on how the stock market assesses the company’s growth potential. High growth expectations result in high multiples, and vice versa.
If we take a conservative approach and apply a P/E ratio of 9, Olsson’s advantage over Sunde is 9 × 36.4 = NOK 328 million.
Consequently, all other things being equal, Olsson will be able to go significantly further in the bidding round than a potential competitor based in Norway.
With *Finansavisen*’s estimated sale price of NOK 3.6 billion, and applying the conservative end of the multiples, Dan Sten Olsson’s advantage over a potential Norwegian owner still amounts to more than 9 per cent of the purchase price.
Consequently, all other things being equal, foreign owners can bid more than Norwegian owners and still end up with the same, or more. And this is solely due to the uniquely Norwegian wealth tax.
