BW acquires Genmar shares

Bergesen Worldwide Group (BW), one of the world’s largest closely held shipping companies, has bought 12% of New York-based General Maritime Corp (Genmar). A merger would create the world’s second-largest oil tanker company by capacity. The block of Genmar shares previously held by Frontline was acquired by (BW) at a cost of $154 million. Andreas Sohmen-Pao, managing director of BW Shipping (Singapore) commented: “We are pleased to be acquiring this significant stake in Genmar, a company with a high quality tanker fleet. The company has been successful in modernizing and de-leveraging over the past twelve months, and as a shareholder we look forward to participating in the company?s future development.”

“There’s no question we are in a fragmented industry,” Sohmen-Pao said at his Singapore office. “If you compare the leaders in shipping with the leaders in other industries, there’s still a very long way to go.” Frontline, which sold the General Maritime shares to BW, owns 8.7% of the ships able to carry more than a million barrels of oil, more than double the share of BW Group.