Sir Yue-Kong Pao, Sohmen's father-in-law, owned World-Wide Shipping Group, one of the largest shipping companies in the world. In 1970 Sohmen moved with his family to Hong Kong in order to join the family Business. After periods working in Bermuda (1974) and London (1977), in 1981 he finally settled in Hong Kong. With advancing age Pao gradually stepped back from day-to-day management and in 1986 Sohmen was appointed chairman of the World-Wide Shipping Group and Pao's ownership was passed to Sohmen's wife in 1989. In 2003 World-Wide completed the takeover of Norway's Bergesen fleet to become Bergesen Worldwide Ltd., since then renamed BW Group. The group includes 140 tankers and more than 4500 employees (2010).