Frontline Ltd. (Frontline) (NYSE:FRO) today announced that it has entered into memorandum of agreement (MOA) to acquire a 20% ownership interest in Feen Marine Scrubbers Inc., a leading manufacturer of exhaust gas cleaning systems (FMSI). Pursuant to the MOA, Frontline and certain entities affiliated with Hemen Holding Ltd, Frontline’s largest shareholder, have agreed to order FMSI exhaust gas cleaning systems for 14 vessels, with options to order an additional 22 systems at fixed prices.
Robert Hvide Macleod, CEO of Frontline Management said: “The economic case to install scrubbers is very compelling, particularly for larger vessels. Scrubbers installed on existing vessels provide the same benefit as those delivered from the yard on newbuildings and our solution comes at a much cheaper cost. Additionally, this transaction allows Frontline to secure the capacity to source a large volume of scrubbers, which we believe will present a challenge to many owners as the deadline for Sulphur emissions compliance approaches. Our relationship with Feen Marine has been structured in a manner that will be beneficial to both parties and would not have been possible absent our significant commercial scale and long-standing industry relationships.”
Bjørnar Feen, Founder of Feen Marine Scrubbers Inc., said: “We are extremely pleased to establish a partnership with Frontline, one of the world’s most prominent shipping companies. We believe that this memorandum of agreement is indicative of both Frontline’s industry-leading approach to managing its fleet as well as the high quality EGCS systems Feen Marine produces. We are proud that some of the world’s largest shipping and trading companies, including Frontline, Navig8 Group and Trafigura have chosen Feen Marine as their main provider of EGCS systems.”
Source: Frontline