Tidships $32m offer to take over fellow Norwegian bulker owner Belships represents a circle being closed in the family history of the Tidemand family.
Splash reported yesterday on the offer. Tidships is controlled by Caroline Figenschou Tidemand (pictured), CEO of shipbroking firm Lorentzen & Stemoco, and her sister Kristin Tidemand Eckhoff, who is a director at Eastern Bulk. It mainly operates in the supramax and ultramax segment and today owns six and operates around 30 bulkers.
The majority shareholder of Belships is another Tidemand family company, Sverre Tidemand’s Sonata, and currently operates a fleet of six bulkers with one newbuilding set to be delivered this year. Sverre is the uncle of Caroline and Kristin. Sverre and his brother Otto, Caroline and Kristin’s father, split up the family shipping empire six years ago, and now he is understood to be looking at pushing back from the day to day running of his shipping business.
On the possible Belships acquisition, Caroline Figenschou Tidemand told Splash: “The company is a strategically good match for our group and we wish to optimise profits. We have been shareholders in the company for generations. The main shareholder has announced that his is strategically considering his ownership and given the strategic match, we decided to give an offer on all the shares in the company. We know the company very well and our goal is to continue to develop the company with our current operations with all our owned companies.”
The offer is set to expire on September 20.
