Dry CargoEurope

Golden Ocean Group’s shares jump around on Oslo debut

Oslo: John Frredriksen’s latest stock gamble had quite a bumpy ride on making its Oslo debut today. Bermuda-domiciled Knightsbridge Shipping announced on Tuesday the completion of its merger with Bermuda-registered, Norway-based Golden Ocean Group.

The two firms, both dry bulk carrier operators and both part of Norwegian magnate John Fredriksen’s empire, when combined will be known as Golden Ocean Group and be traded on the NASDAQ and the Oslo stock exchanges. The combined entity will operate a fleet of 72 vessels, about half of which will be newbuildings and including 46 capesizes.

With Golden Ocean Group making its debut on the Oslo exchange this morning, after a bright opening it sank to NOK38.50, down almost 5%, before settling around NOK39.10 at 10am.

Knightsbridge has been a significant firm in the capsize sector while Golden Ocean has a fleet encompassing a variety of ships from supramaxes to capesizes.

Prior to the completed merger a joint statement from Fredriksen and Knightsbridge CEO Ola Lorentzon read: “By combining Knightsbridge and Golden Ocean we seek to create a company with a unique fleet and strong balance sheet and build one of the world’s leading dry bulk shipping companies. With the current weakness in the dry bulk market, we believe there will be attractive consolidation opportunities going forward.”

With additional reporting by Hans Thaulow

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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