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BERGEN BOYS
MERGER • STOLT-NIELSEN IS PLANNING TO TAKE OVER THE JO TANKERS CHEMICAL TANKER FLEET, EXPANDING ITS OWN OPERATIONAL FOOTPRINT
STOLT-NIELSEN LTD has agreed to acquire Jo Tankers and its chemical tanker fleet in a $575m deal. The transaction involves 13 wholly owned chemical tankers plus a 50 per cent share in a joint venture that has eight 33,000-dwt stainless steel chemical tankers under construction at New Times Shipbuilding in China, the first of which was delivered in June. The existing Jo Tankers fleet includes eight
stainless steel tankers ranging from 19,000 dwt to 38,000 dwt and five of around 37,000 dwt with a mixture of coated and stainless
THE PLANNED MERGER OF THE STOLT TANKERS AND JO TANKERS FLEETS SHOULD BE GOOD FOR SHAREHOLDERS OF BOTH COMPANIES, THEIR RESPECTIVE CLIENTS, AND SUPPLIERS OF YELLOW PAINT
steel cargo tanks. Stolt Tankers has had six of these on timecharter for the past five years. The deal will also see Jo Tankers’
organisation merged with that of Stolt-Nielsen. The transaction remains subject to approval by competition authorities.
RATIONALE FOR THE DEAL Both companies have a shared heritage that began in Bergen on Norway’s west coast, although there is more to the deal than that. Niels G Stolt-Nielsen, CEO of Stolt-Nielsen Ltd, says: “The transaction covers the tonnage replacement needs of our current chemical tanker fleet for the next several years. While giving us some operational savings, it adds new trade routes to our service offering, thus expanding our presence on key trade lanes and enabling us to better serve the needs of our global customer base.
“With the expanded fleet we will be
better positioned to serve our customers with the quality, reliability and flexibility they require from their logistical provider,” Stolt-Nielsen continues. “Because Stolt Tankers and Jo Tankers share similar approaches to ship management and trading, we will be able to quickly, cost effectively and synergistically integrate these ships into our worldwide operations.” For its part, Jo Tankers was seeking a buyer and says that Stolt-Nielsen emerged as the best candidate after an open international process. That does not mean everyone is totally happy, as Johan Odvar Odfjell says: “With four generations of shipping and three generations of chemical tankers this decision does not come easy. We are a company with a proud history, a company with dedicated employees and a company with high performance. We are a company which is offering high quality transportation, able to meet stringent customer requirements. Despite our size we have been able to be in the forefront delivering results.” More dispassionately, Jo Tankers’ CEO
Nils-Petter Sivertsen says: “The business environment requires economy of scale, global capacities and increased service flexibility. In each of these areas Jo Tankers
HCB MONTHLY | SEPTEMBER 2016
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