Greater ChinaOperations

EXCLUSIVE: Anglo-Eastern merges with Univan

Univan Ship Management has merged with fellow Hong Kong manager Anglo-Eastern, Splash can exclusively reveal.

The deal would add around 100 ships to the Anglo-Eastern fleet, putting it close to the top of the global shipmanagement rankings.
Describing it as “the largest ever merger of independent, third party ship management companies,” Anglo-Eastern said in a release provided early to Splash the merger would create “significant scale advantages”.

Univan was founded by the late Capt Charles Vanderperre, the self-styled father of shipmanagement. Vanderperre, after a stint with Wallem Shipmanagement in early 1970s, founded Univan in 1973.

When he died at the age of 87 in 2009, his wife decided to continue to run the Univan brand, installing well-known Hong Kong shipping personality Richard Hext at the helm who then poached shipmanagement veteran Bjorn Hojgaard from Singapore’s Thome to take the ceo role.

Anglo-Eastern, founded in 1974 and led by Peter Cremers (pictured), is no stranger to mergers, having taken over Denholm Ship Management in 2001.

The newly merged business will be led by Peter Cremers as executive chairman with Bjorn Hojgaard as chief executive.

“Today, the newly merged Anglo-Eastern Univan group, backed by long term shareholders in the ship management industry, has recommitted itself to serving its shipowner clients through its commitment to safety both at sea and ashore and to maintaining and improving its operating standards,” the merged group said in the release.

 

Comment: Is this the start of consolidation in the shipmanagement sector?

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

Comments

  1. I have doubt where angloeastren ship mangment will be able to get experienced people as the fleet size is incresaed the wage scale is comparable to other company is less or u can say very low in angloeastren ship management god can run this company

  2. May I add clarity to one part of your article.
    Capt Vanderperre was employed by Wallem in 1971 to head up Wallem’s EXISTING third party ship management business that operated in Shanghai from about 1909 and in Hong Kong from the early 1930’s. Wallem managed ships for a host of Chinese and Norwegian ship owners and the fleet grew to about 40 ships by 1965. In 1971 Wallem had a sizeable modern fleet under management and thus decided to set up a separate company to handle this business – Wallem Shipmanagement Ltd.
    Captain Vanderperre was employed by Wallem MD Anthony Hardy (who also set up the HK Maritime Museum) in 1971 to manage the ship management unit until he resigned to set up his own ship management company in 1973/74, which later became Univan.

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