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Israeli real estate and shipping magnate (born 1950)
Eyal Ofer is an Israeli billionaire, philanthropist and art collector, based in Monaco. Born in Israel, he is involved in real estate, energy, technology and shipping. Ofer is the chairman of Ofer Global, Zodiac Group and Global Holdings. As of March 2026, his net worth is estimated by Forbes at US$33.6 billion.
Ofer was born in 1950 in Haifa, Israel. His father, Sammy Ofer, was a Romanian-born Israeli shipping magnate and once Israel's richest man. Ofer graduated from Atlantic College, an international boarding school affiliated with the United World Colleges, based in St Donat's Castle, Wales. 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. He served as an intelligence officer in the Israeli Air Force from 1967 to 1973. He then studied Maritime Law at the University of London.
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. Ofer is chairman of the Foundation. Ofer was one of the donors to the Gloriana during the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012. 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.
He is married to Marilyn Ofer, and they have four children. They reside in Monte Carlo, Monaco. In 2008, they resided in west London and had a home in Herzliya Pituah near Tel Aviv. 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.
Ofer's business interests are separate from those of his brother, Idan Ofer, operating independently, and are concentrated in shipping, cruise lines and global real estate within the Ofer Global group, 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. 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. Other recipients of this award have included the Duke of Edinburgh, Winston Churchill, and Maersk Mc-Kinney. 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, including as tenth in 2016, and seventh in 2014, 2021, and 2022. He has spoken at industry events, including at the Milken Institute Global Conference in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Ofer also regularly attends the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. In 2018, Ofer joined the Advisory Board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum. In November 2024, Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported his net worth to be US$26.5 billion.
Biographical detail compiled from Wikipedia and Wikidata, which are edited openly and may be incomplete or out of date. Fleet data is our own. Source →
