One of shipping’s greatest consolidators, BW Group, has made Hafnia Tankers its latest target. BW has entered into a definitive agreement to buy a 36.3% stake in Hafnia Tankers. The majority of the shares will be acquired through BTS, a collaboration between Blackstone-managed funds, Tufton Oceanic and Hartmann, and the balance purchased directly from certain Blackstone-managed funds. Combined with recent purchases from other shareholders, BW Group will own 43.5% of Hafnia Tankers.
Carsten Mortensen, CEO of BW Group commented, “BW Group is pleased to acquire this shareholding in Hafnia Tankers with its strong operational platform and quality fleet. We look forward to discussions with the other shareholders about the future strategy. We see a good cultural fit between the organisations, as well as the opportunity to further integrate the fleets and provide even better service to customers in the product tanker markets.”
BW Tankers currently owns and operates a fleet of 55 product tankers in the LR2, LR1 and MR segments including newbuildings. Hafnia Tankers owns and operates a fleet of 47 product tankers in the LR1, MR and SR segments including 4 newbuildings and the company’s common shares are traded on the Norwegian OTC market.
Across many shipowning sectors BW has sought mergers in recent years – in VLCCs with DHT, in LPG an ongoing pursuit of Dorian LPG.
