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Aker Philadelphia Shipyard to change name and exit shipowning investments

Oslo: Aker Philadelphia Shipyard (AKPS) has announced that it plans to change its name to Philly Shipyard, provided it receives shareholder approval in October. The name change comes as the company revealed in its latest set of quarterly results that it plans to exit its shipowning investments, via its interest in the AKPS-Crowley joint venture and investment in Philly Tankers.

AKPS said it has been evaluating potential transactions related to its shipping assets for quite some time, and it is engaged in negotiations with a third party to buy-out its interests in the four-ship AKPS-Crowley joint venture, while Philly Tankers is also currently engaged in negotiations to sell all four of its product tankers. The company said it hopes to finalised both potential transactions by the end of September.

Kristian Rokke, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard’s chairman, commented: “The planned divestment of our shipping assets will show that we have created significant shareholder value and will greatly focus the business going forward. While we will remain opportunistic in our investment approach, the name change comes at a natural time and will better illustrate how the shipyard connects with its stakeholders as a strong, stand-alone, Philadelphia-based company.”

The company posted second quarter revenues of $83.7m compared to $60.3m in the same period of 2014 , with an adjusted EBITDA of $9.5m up from $4.4m.

Grant Rowles

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.
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