How much crisis costs Cyprus' richest citizen?

(John Fredriksen)

A band of super-rich foreign tycoons who took Cypriot citizenship in recent decades – lured by a favourable tax regime – are expected to be among the hardest hit by the island's surprise deposit tax as several are believed to have been required to deposit at least €17m of their fortunes on the island to qualify for citizenship.

Billionaires attracted to the island by the controversial citizenship scheme, designed to court super-rich figures, include Norwegian-born oil tanker tycoon John Fredriksen, Israeli internet gambling entrepreneur Teddy Sagi, and Alexander Abramov, the Russian steel magnate who chairs FTSE 100 group Evraz.

Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people puts Abramov's fortune at $4.6bn, which does not come close to making him Cyprus's wealthiest naturalised citizen. That honour goes to 68-year-old Fredriksen, who made his first fortune during the Persian Gulf "tanker wars" that accompanied the 1980s Iran-Iraq conflict.

Companies owned by this shipping tycoon, now a Cypriot national, have little exposure to the Cyprus bank levy, his top aide Tor Olav Troeim was reported as saying in Norwegian daily Dagens Naeringsliv.

Fredriksen, one of the world's richest men, was born in Norway but has adopted Cypriot nationality. Some of his companies have offices in Limassol.

The newspaper said that the companies would lose less than a million dollars, without citing sources.

It said that Bank of Cyprus used to be one of the main banks used by Fredriksen to deposit money, but more recently it had been used only for routine transactions.

Fredriksen controls one of the world's largest rig companies, Seadrill, as well as shipping businesses Frontline, Frontline 2012 and Golden Ocean.