John Fredriksen’s private family investment vehicle Hemen Holding has bolstered its stake in new merged OSV firm Solstad Farstad.
Hemen has bought 1.5m shares for $1.7m taking Fredriksen’s stake in the venture to 17.2%. Fredriksen is the second largest shareholder in the company, which launched last month and is the result of the merger of Solstad, Farstad and Fredriksen’s own Deep Sea Supply.
Norway’s biggest maritime magnates first announced this dramatic merger in February this year.
Aker tycoon Kjell Inge Røkke and John Fredriksen agreed a restructuring plan of beleaguered Farstad Shipping as well as inking plans to merge their own OSV entities with Farstad to create one of the biggest fleets in the sector with Røkke’s Solstad as the lead stakeholder.
“As repeatedly expressed by a range of industry experts, the fragmented Norwegian OSV industry requires consolidation,” the three parties said in a release when first announcing the merger.
The merger has created the largest company in the high-end global OSV industry with a fleet of 154 vessels.
