Viking Cruises is primarily owned and controlled by its founder, Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen, and his family, even though the company is now publicly traded.

Who owns Viking Cruises?

  • Viking (the parent company for Viking River Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, and Viking Expeditions) is majority-owned by founder Torstein Hagen.
  • Hagen founded Viking in 1997 and has built it into a large river, ocean, and expedition cruise brand.
  • The company went public in 2024 via an IPO, so there are now outside shareholders, but the Hagen family retains controlling ownership and voting power.
  • Torstein Hagen serves as chairman and CEO, and his daughter Karine Hagen holds a senior executive role and shares in the controlling stake.

Is Viking part of another cruise group?

  • Viking is not owned by Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or any other big cruise conglomerate; it operates under its own Viking corporate umbrella.
  • Viking’s three divisions—river, ocean, and expedition—sit under the same brand and company, rather than being split among different parent groups.

Where is Viking based and how big is it?

  • Viking is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with key marketing operations in Los Angeles, California.
  • The company operates a large fleet (90+ ships, depending on how counted) across rivers, oceans, and expedition routes worldwide.

Quick HTML summary

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<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Question</th>
    <th>Answer</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Who owns Viking Cruises?</td>
    <td>Majority owned and controlled by founder Torstein Hagen and his family, with outside shareholders after a 2024 IPO.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Is Viking part of Carnival or Royal Caribbean?</td>
    <td>No, Viking is an independent company, not owned by the major cruise conglomerates.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Can you buy stock in Viking?</td>
    <td>Yes, Viking became publicly traded after its 2024 IPO, though the Hagen family retains control.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Where is Viking based?</td>
    <td>Headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, with a major marketing office in Los Angeles.</td>
  </tr>
</table>

TL;DR: Viking Cruises is an independent cruise company whose founder, Torstein Hagen, and his family still control it, even after it became a publicly traded company in 2024.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.