Norway Billionaire Roekke Seeks Takeovers After Aker Revamp

Billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke’s Aker ASA, which controls Norway’s largest maker of oil platforms and its second-biggest crude explorer, anticipates growing through acquisitions while expanding in Asia and Africa.

“We are basically not present in the Middle East,” Oeyvind Eriksen, 47, the chief executive officer of the Aker holding company and Aker Solutions ASA, said in a June 20 interview in Oslo. “We have a very fragmented presence in Asia Pacific and we lack local content in West Africa to participate in the next expected upturn cycle for subsea equipment.”