With the merger news between OSM Maritime and Thome being among the biggest shipping news stories of the year to date, attention is turning to where consolidation will take place next in the shipmanagement sector.
Yesterday Splash broke news of the creation of OSM Thome, a shipmanagement giant with around 1,000 ships on its books including 450 under full technical management, as well as a global workforce of more than 32,000 people.
The new entity, which still has to pass regulatory hurdles, will be headed by OSM Maritime’s CEO Finn Amund Norbye, who told Splash yesterday: “Further consolidation is expected, and we will play a role.”
OSM, in which private equity firm Oaktree has a sizeable stake, is the largest shipmanager in Norway.
Splash understands private equity is increasingly looking to back consolidation within the shipmanagement sector, with active discussions ongoing among many of the top names of the sector. In October last year, New York-based private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners bought into Singapore shipmanager Synergy Marine Group, one of many ship manager brands identified by Splash as seeking merger opportunities.
The topic of consolidation will be one of many dissected in Splash’s forthcoming Shipmanagement Market Report, an 80+-page magazine gauging the views of managers, owners and tech providers. For more details on this publication, contact victor@asiashippingmedia.com.
