Eyal Ofer

Eyal Ofer (born 1950) is a Monaco-based billionaire, born in Israel.[4] He is a real estate, energy, technology and shipping magnate, an art collector, and a philanthropist. He is the chairman of Ofer Global, Zodiac Group and Global Holdings.

Eyal Ofer
Ofer in April 2021
Born1950 (age 72–73)
Haifa, Israel
Occupation(s)Chairman, Ofer Global,
Chairman, Zodiac Group,
Chairman, Global Holdings,[1]
Chairman, Eyal & Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation[2]
SpouseMarilyn Ofer
Children4
Parent(s)Sammy Ofer
Aviva Ofer
RelativesYuli Ofer (uncle)
Idan Ofer (brother)[3]

Biography

Ofer was born in 1950 in Haifa, Israel.[1][5] His father, Sammy Ofer, was a Romanian-born Israeli shipping magnate and once Israel's richest man.[1][6][7] Ofer graduated from Atlantic College, an international boarding school affiliated with the United World Colleges, based in St Donat's Castle, Wales.[8] In his teenage years, he spent summers working on one of his family's ships, loading cargo, scraping the boats' sides and repainting them, as well as traveling to international ports.[5]

He served as an intelligence officer in the Israeli Air Force from 1967 to 1973.[5][8] He then studied Maritime Law at the University of London.[5]

Career

Ofer's business interests are concentrated in shipping, cruise lines and global real estate within the Ofer Global group,[9] a Monaco-based private company focused on shipping, real estate, oil and gas, banking and investments in Europe, North America, the Near East and Asia.[10]

In 2014, he received an honorary lifetime membership of the Baltic Exchange in London in recognition of his contribution to shipping in the UK and global maritime trade.[8] Other recipients of this award have included the Duke of Edinburgh, Winston Churchill, and Maersk Mc-Kinney.[11]

He is "one of the most influential shipowners in the industry”, according to Lloyd’s List, ranking among its 100 most influential people, since 2013,[12] including as tenth in 2016,[13] and seventh in 2014,[12] 2021,[14] and 2022.[15]

He has spoken at industry events, including at the Milken Institute Global Conference in 2012, 2013 and 2015.[16][17][18][19] Ofer also regularly attends the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.[20]

In 2018, Ofer joined the Advisory Board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.[21] The board is made up of a group of leaders in their fields from business, government, education and philanthropy.[22]

In June 2023, Bloomberg reported his net worth to be US$20.7 billion.[23]

Property

Ofer first moved to New York City in 1980 to start the family real estate business, and invested in properties on Park Avenue South, which he rented to law firms and public relations firms through his real estate company, Global Holdings.[5][8] Over the years, he assembled a real estate empire, having acquired a deep knowledge of ships which had made him comfortable with managing similarly tangible assets.[20]

Ofer is the chairman of Global Holdings, a private real estate holding company specializing in large-scale commercial real estate and high-end residential developments. Its holdings include prime commercial properties in Manhattan, and a controlling stake in Miller Global Properties, a large real estate investment fund focusing on key markets in North America and Europe.[24] He serves as Miller Global's co-chairman.[25] Global Holdings' commercial projects include, among others, and 120 Park Avenue – the former headquarters of the Altria Group.[26]

Its residential projects include 15 Central Park West, which was described as “the most powerful apartment building in the world” and “the most lucrative”, with quoted apartment sales of approximately $2 billion.[27][28] It was the subject of a book published in March 2014 by Michael Gross entitled House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World's Most Powerful Address.[29]

They also include the development at The Greenwich Lane (in partnership with the Rudin family - formerly the site of Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center), together with the redevelopment of 18 Gramercy Park South, 520 Park Avenue and 50 United Nations Plaza (all in partnership with Zeckendorf Development).[5][30] 18 Gramercy Park South (ranked the most expensive Manhattan development in 2013)[31] and 15 Central Park West were designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern.[28][32] 50 UN Plaza is a 44-story tower designed by London-based architects Foster and Partners.[33][34] Ofer’s portfolio includes more than 120 properties and over 2,500 hotel rooms.[20]

Shipping

Ofer started his career in international maritime transportation in all the major shipping segments in the 1980s.[8]

He is the chairman of Zodiac Group, a privately held Monaco-based ship owning and chartering (i.e. leasing) company with a fleet of more than 180 vessels.[20] It is the largest operator of vessels under the Red Ensign by tonnage.[35] Ofer has been a director of Royal Caribbean Cruises, the second largest cruise company in the world, since May 1995 and holds a significant stake in the company.[8][36]

In 2022, Ofer was ranked 7th in the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry. According to Lloyd’s List, "the consensus view from those who know Eyal Ofer best is that he is a man who understands the markets with forensic detail".[15] He controls one of the larghest private shipping fleets in the world,[20] and is the third-largest non-operating owner of containerships in the world.[14]

In 2021, a Japanese-owned merchant tanker managed by Zodiac Maritime suffered a drone attack which killed two people. The US military announced that the drone had been produced in Iran.[37][38]

Energy

Through O.G. Energy, he is involved in energy production, including renewable energy, and the production of green hydrogen. In 2022, he invested in Belgium-based green hydrogen energy startup Tree Energy Solutions (TES), through O.G. Energy.[39] Through O.G. Oil & Gas, the oil and gas arm of Ofer Global's O.G. Energy division, he has exploration and production interests in South East Asia and in Australasia, including a 70% majority stake in New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG), acquired in 2017.[40][41][42][43][44]

In October 2018, O.G. Energy agreed to acquire a 40 per cent stake in Beach Energy’s Otway Basin assets off the south east coast of Australia.[45] In 1990, he also founded OMNI Offshore Terminals, the largest provider of floating production storage and offloading (FSO and FPSO) assets to the offshore oil and gas industry, with headquarters in Singapore.[46]

Technology

Ofer has interests in technology companies[47][48][49][50] through single LP VC fund O.G. Venture Partners,[51][52] the tech investment arm of Ofer Global.[50] Its $150 million Fund I launched in 2017 to invest in early growth start-ups with disruptive technologies,[50] including LendBuzz, WSC Sports, BlueVine, Bringg, Paxos, Connecteam, Elementor, Coralogix, Candivore and SuperPlay.[53] In 2022, Ofer stated that "Technology has become the global economy’s central nervous system" at the launch of O.G. Venture Partners $400 million Fund II, continuing his focus on early growth stage investments in software tech start-ups.[53]

Arts

Ofer is listed among the top 200 collectors in the world of contemporary, modern, impressionist and post-impressionist art by ARTnews. He inherited half of an extensive collection from his father,[1] including masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, and continues to expand a significant collection. He is associated with several Arts institutions and is a founding member of the Circle of Friends of Fondation Giacometti in Paris. He is a trustee and serves on the permanent acquisitions committee for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.[4]

Through his family Foundation, in 2013, he donated £10 million to expand the Tate Modern museum in London. As a result, the exhibition gallery on the third floor bears his name. He gave £1.5 million to the National Maritime Museum to allow it to keep two 18th-century George Stubbs paintings (Portrait of a Large Dog and The Kongouro from New Holland) in the UK after a public appeal by Sir David Attenborough.[6][54][55][56] The Foundation also made a donation of $5 million to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2019 to renovate the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art,[57] which reopened as the Eyal Ofer Pavilion in May 2023 with the first retrospective of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti to be shown in Israel.[58]

Philanthropy

Ofer is a supporter of artistic, educational and cultural institutions – including the Tate Modern and the National Maritime Museum in the UK and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art – through the Eyal & Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation, which continues his family's philanthropic tradition.[56] Ofer is chairman of the Foundation.[2]

Ofer was one of the donors to the Gloriana during the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012.[6]

In 2020, the Eyal Ofer Heart Hospital opened with financial support from Ofer for the Rambam Health Care Campus, which built the new cardiology hospital.[59]

Personal life

He is married to Marilyn Ofer, and they have four children.[1][60] They reside in Monte Carlo, Monaco.[1] In 2008, they resided in west London and had a home in Herzliya Pituah near Tel Aviv.[7] He also owns an apartment at 15 Central Park West, a building he developed located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.[5]

References
  1. "Forbes profile: Eyal Ofer". Forbes. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  2. "Eyal Ofer Family Foundation gives £10 million towards Tate Modern's new development". tate.org.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  3. "Eyal Ofer, Zodiac Group". Lloyd's List. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  4. "TOP 200 Collectors". ARTnews. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  5. Karmin, Craig. Developers Team Up With a Man Behind the Scenes, The Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2013
  6. Pickford, James. Eyal Ofer donates £10m to Tate Modern extension, Financial Times, July 2, 2013
  7. Starkman, Rotem; Georgi, Anat. Be smart, work hard - and be born into the right family, Haaretz, April 3, 2008
  8. "List of Public Companies Worldwide". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  9. "Bloomberg Billionaires: Eyal Ofer". Bloomberg. Bloomberg Billionaires. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  10. "About Ofer Global". Oferglobal.com. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
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  12. Eyal Ofer Lloyd’s List, 12 December 2014.
  13. "Top 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry". Lloydslist.com. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  14. Eyal Ofer, November 2021 Lloyd’s List 21 November 2021.
  15. "07 Eyal and Daniel Ofer, Zodiac Maritime". Lloydslist.com. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  16. "Global Conference 2012 | Eyal Ofer". Milken Institute. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  17. "Global Conference 2013 | Eyal Ofer". Milken Institute. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
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  35. "Zodiac signals its commitment to the Red Ensign", Lloyds List, 22 March 2010. Accessed 21 October 2015.
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  51. Home website
  52. Perez, Sarah (16 January 2018). "Delivery logistics platform Bringg raises $12M from strategic investors, including Salesforce Ventures". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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  54. "George Stubbs' kangaroo and dingo paintings to stay in UK", BBC News Online; Entertainment & Arts, 6 November 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
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  59. Silkoff, Shira (22 June 2022). "Israel's most advanced cardiology hospital to open in Rambam Campus". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
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