The Univan Group and Anglo-Eastern Group ship management companies have managed to reach an agreement for a subsequent merger. The deal in question is to serve as the biggest merger regarding independent, third party ship management companies and is going to lead to the forming of an all new entity in the face of Anglo-Eastern Univan Group.
Anglo-Eastern is currently among the top three global ship management companies, and it comments that the merger is going to provide additional scale advantages that shipowners are to benefit from.
The Anglo-Eastern Group was founded back in the year 1974. It soon took off as a third party manager after the young Belgian executive Peter Cremers who had a degree in the field of Naval Architecture joined the company in 1985. Peter was soon joined by Marcel Liedts and under their collective leadership, the fleet demonstrated quite a steady growth. The company became well-known for its top-notch class safety and eco standards. It 1998 it went through a management buy-out, and in 2001 it merged with Denholm Ship Management, thus gaining further ground in Europe.
As to Univan Ship Management – it was founded by the late Captain C.A.J. Vanderperre, who is regarded by many as the father of ship management, and under the guidance of which a large number of successful ship management executives managed to establish their careers. In 2012, former Maersk Captain Bjorn Hojgaard was appointed to the position of CEO and has been responsible for some serious changes to the company. In the last couple of years, Univan has been able to refocus its efforts regarding its first class shipowner customer service and has recorded significant fleet growth percentages.
Peter Cremers will be appointed to serve the role of Executive Chairman of the new merged business, Bjorn Hojgaard is going to be Chief Executive, Marcel Liedts respectively Chief Operating Officer and Mark Stevenson will be operating as Chief Financial Officer. The company is quite proud that the top three members have an established professional background in sea or in the field of naval architecture, which are the two essential shipping skillsets that the two groups were founded on.
The all new merged Anglo-Eastern Univan group is backed up by some of the ship management industry’s long-term shareholders. It is to place its efforts towards maintaining as well as improving its operating standards, as stated by the company via a press release.
The merged company is going to have over 24,000 seamen, 1,700 shore based staff members, 100 vessels under crew management and 600 vessels under full management at its disposal.
The merged group is going to continue operating as separate entities, from their current offices. The Univan and Anglo-Eastern tanker fleets are to continue operating under their current management and from their Hong Kong and Singapore –based offices.
The board of the group is to consist of: Executive Chairman, Peter Cremers, Kannika Thasak, John Denholm, Marcel Liedts, Bjorn Hojgaard, Richard Wong, Mark Stevenson and Richard Hext.