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Idan Ofer
Summary
Idan Ofer is the founder and chairman of Quantum Pacific Group, whose shipping arm, Eastern Pacific Shipping, grew into the world's largest privately owned tanker and gas-carrier fleet under his ownership; TradeWinds named him its Person of the Year for 2024 for the buildout. He is the controlling shareholder of Israel Corporation, a Tel Aviv-listed holding company whose principal asset is a 43.9% voting stake in fertilizer and chemicals producer ICL, and controls Singapore-based Kenon Holdings, through which he was formerly the controlling shareholder of container line ZIM Integrated Shipping Services before selling down his stake by the end of 2024. Since 2026 he has also expanded into New York real estate, partnering with developer Nathan Berman's Metro Loft on office-to-residential conversions of two Manhattan office towers.
He is the younger son of shipping magnate Sammy Ofer, and inherited half his father's fortune after Sammy Ofer's death in 2011.
Business Relationships
Ofer's 2026 New York real estate push runs through a partnership with Nathan Berman, whose Metro Loft Management firm has jointly acquired and is converting two Manhattan office towers with Ofer's Quantum Pacific Realty.
Ownership
Ofer is the controlling shareholder of Israel Corporation, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's largest holding company, which held approximately 43.9% of the voting rights of fertilizer and chemicals producer ICL as of the end of 2025; ICL's Rotem and Dead Sea Works units feature below. Israel Corp fully exited its former one-third stake in Oil Refineries (Bazan) in stages between late 2021 and February 2023, when it sold its remaining shares. He also controls Kenon Holdings, a Singapore-based company spun off from Israel Corp in 2015, in which he held a 58% stake as of 2018; through Kenon he formerly held a controlling position in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services before fully divesting by the end of 2024. Separately, through Quantum Pacific Group, Ofer owns Eastern Pacific Shipping and holds a 33% stake in Spain's AtlΓ©tico Madrid and an 85% stake in Portugal's FamalicΓ£o football club. Since early 2026, his Quantum Pacific Realty arm has partnered with Nathan Berman's Metro Loft Management to acquire and convert 845 Third Avenue and 1 Whitehall Street into rental apartments.
Family & Heirs
Ofer is the younger son of Sammy Ofer and Aviva Ofer; after his father's death in 2011, the family shipping and business empire was divided between Idan and his elder brother Eyal Ofer. He is married to Batia Ofer, and the couple's charitable giving is carried out jointly through the Idan and Batia Ofer Family Foundation.
Evidence
2011-12-20 - π - Sammy Ofer Heart Building opens at Ichilov Hospital, funded by the Ofer family
2013-05-26 - π - Better Place, the electric-car venture chaired by Idan Ofer and backed by his Israel Corp, shuts down after burning through $850 million
2013-08-03 - π - Idan Ofer gift establishes Sammy Ofer Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School for Israeli and Palestinian students
2013-10-01 - π - Idan Ofer donates $40 million to London Business School, funding the Sammy Ofer Centre
2014-05-27 - π - Report finds Zim paid over $1 billion in inflated lease fees to shareholder-controlled XT Group, co-owned by Idan Ofer, who simultaneously controlled Zim
2016-02-15 - π - Idan Ofer petitions court to block liquidators' investigation into his culpability for Better Place's collapse
2017-07-05 - π - Haifa's Oil Refineries (Bazan), one-third owned by Idan Ofer's Israel Corporation, again tops Israel's worst environmental offenders list
2018-01-10 - π - Chinese tycoon bails out Idan Ofer's Kenon Holdings from failing $200 million Qoros carmaker investment
2021-01-05 - π - Ashalim stream ecosystem still reeling three years after ICL's toxic chemical spill
2021-04-12 - π - Idan and Batia Ofer Family Foundation funds expanded EPS Scholarship Fund for Singaporean maritime students
2021-04-21 - π - Idan and Batia Ofer Foundation gives $15 million for public park and amphitheater at National Library of Israel
2021-10-13 - π - Pandora Papers name Idan and Eyal Ofer among Israelis with offshore holdings, including a BVI company tied to a yacht used as loan collateral
2021-10-17 - π - Israeli Justice Ministry wipes out NIS 65 million debt owed by Idan Ofer's Dead Sea Works for natural saltwater use
2022-06-06 - π - Eastern Pacific Shipping orders ammonia-fuel-capable gas carriers, a first for the industry
2022-10-02 - π - Bazan Group (Oil Refineries) and senior executives indicted on air pollution offenses dating to 2017
2022-12-15 - π - ICL agrees to record NIS 115 million ($33 million) settlement over 2017 Ashalim Creek chemical spill
2024-10-10 - π - UK Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick took GBP 70,000 from Idan Ofer's Quantum Pacific Corporation, a 'family friend' whose firm ships arms to Israel
2024-12-18 - π - Idan Ofer named TradeWinds Person of the Year 2024, recognized for crew welfare investment across his fleet
2025-08-15 - π - Bezalel Academy launches Idan and Batia Ofer International Hub for art and design
2025-09-03 - π - ICL's Amsterdam fertilizer plant, 44%-owned by Idan Ofer's Israel Corporation, ordered to pay a EUR 250,000 penalty for excessive hydrochloric acid emissions
2026-04-14 - π - Idan Ofer's Quantum Pacific Realty buys a second Manhattan office tower for conversion to rental housing, adding to New York City's rental supply
2026-04-24 - π - Ofer Family Foundation gift advances aging research (BIO-VITAL) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Analysis
Two of Ofer's business interests drew scrutiny for financial self-dealing years apart. In 2014, a report commissioned by the Israel Maritime Officers Union found that Zim had paid more than $1 billion in above-market lease fees to XT Group, a ship-owning entity Ofer co-controlled while he simultaneously controlled Zim through Israel Corporation; the report was sent to the Knesset Finance Committee. In 2019, an investigative television report found that Ofer had hired private intelligence firm Black Cube in 2014 to dig up personal information on then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid and a tax-policy advisory panel, in an effort to head off higher taxes on his natural-gas and shipping interests; Ofer's spokesman confirmed a brief Black Cube contract but said the intelligence gathered was not used, while Black Cube denied any such engagement.
Ofer's Israel Corp affiliates have also drawn sustained environmental-regulatory scrutiny. While Israel Corp still held a stake, Oil Refineries (Bazan) repeatedly topped Israel's worst-environmental-offenders list and was indicted along with senior executives in 2022 over air-pollution violations dating to 2017, before Israel Corp fully exited the refiner in February 2023.
ICL's Rotem plant caused a 2017 toxic spill into the Ashalim stream that killed protected wildlife and, three years on, still had not fully recovered; ICL ultimately paid a record NIS 115 million settlement for the damage. More recently, Dutch regulators found ICL's Amsterdam fertilizer plant emitting hydrochloric acid at dozens of times its permitted limit, and in September 2025 rejected the company's objection to a EUR 250,000 penalty.
Separately, Ofer personally chaired Better Place, the electric-car venture that burned through USD 850 million of investor money before collapsing in 2013; its liquidators sought NIS 200 million from former directors including Ofer, who petitioned the court to block their investigation into his culpability for the losses. Ofer's name also surfaced in the 2021 Pandora Papers leak over an offshore company tied to a yacht used as loan collateral, and Israel's Justice Ministry separately wrote off a NIS 65 million debt his Dead Sea Works subsidiary owed for saltwater extraction rather than risk losing the case in court. In the UK, his Quantum Pacific Corporation donated GBP 70,000 to Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick, a self-described "family friend," who spoke out against suspending UK arms sales to Israel days after receiving the second donation.
Set against this, Ofer's family foundation has funded major philanthropic gifts across education, medicine and the arts for more than a decade, including the Sammy Ofer Centre at London Business School, the Sammy Ofer Heart Building at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, a fully funded Harvard Kennedy School fellowship for Israeli and Palestinian students, an expanded maritime scholarship fund for Singaporean students, and a 2026 aging-research gift to Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His shipping operations have also invested in decarbonization, ordering some of the industry's first ammonia-fuel-capable gas carriers, and TradeWinds credited him with investing more in crew welfare than the average shipowner. In New York, his office-to-residential conversions of 845 Third Avenue and 1 Whitehall Street add nearly 1,000 rental apartments to a city that has actively encouraged such conversions to expand its housing supply.
Questions
How much personal responsibility Ofer bears for environmental violations at Bazan, a one-third-owned affiliate he no longer holds and never majority-controlled, versus a company where he holds a clearer controlling stake, is not fully resolved by the public record. The Zim self-dealing report and the Black Cube episode are both unadjudicated allegations rather than court findings, and Ofer's side disputes or denies key elements of each; how much weight either should carry absent a formal finding is a genuine open question. Similarly, whether Ofer's Better Place role reflected active mismanagement or a passive investor's exposure to a founder-led venture's failure remains an open question that the liquidators' investigation, which Ofer fought to block, was meant to settle.