Fact-Check: Who owns Thon Hotels in Norway?

According to Wikipedia, the Thon Hotels (formerly known as Rainbow Hotels) is a Norwegian-based hotel chain. It is currently the 3rd largest hotel chain in Norway with 50-odd hotels in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands owned by Olav Thon

By Emmanuel Bida Thomas

A Facebook post this afternoon claimed that the Thon Hotels in Norway are owned by the newly appointed Managing Director of the state owned Nile Petroleum. It said that Chol Deng Thon acquired the hotel using “oil money” in 2018.

“The current managing Director of NILEPET, Dr. Chol Deng Thon, owns a hotel worth million dollars in Norway. The hotel which he acquired through oil money in 2018 is currently the 3rd largest hotel in Norway. South Sudanese urged him to invest in the country to create jobs for them rather than building big business mansions abroad,” reads the post shared on Facebook.

Investigation:

According to Wikipedia, the Thon Hotels(formerly known as Rainbow Hotels) is a Norwegian-based hotel chain. It is currently the 3rd largest hotel chain in Norway with 50-odd hotels in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

The Thon Hotel chain was established in 1989 as part of the Olav Thon Group (Olav Thon Gruppen) which in turn is owned by the Olav Thon Foundation. The CEO is Olav Thon.

Olav Thon (born 29 June 1923 in Ål, Hallingdal) is a Norwegian real estate developer and listed in the Forbes list of billionaires as the 198th richest person in the world with a net worth of $6 billion as of March 2013. He is Norway’s richest person and his Olav Thon Group is Norway’s largest private real estate company, with 450 properties, including 60 hotels.[2][3] As of 12 March 2021, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth at US$ 6.20 Billion, making him the 437th richest person in the world.

211 Check could not track any available business records of Chol Deng Thon, the new Managing Director of NilePet in Oslo, Norway. 

Conclusion:

The claim that Chol Deng Thon, NilePet Managing Director owns the Thon Hotel in Norway is FALSE. The Thon Hotels are owned by Olav Thon, a Norwegian real estate developer.

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