London maritime shipping company Borealis Maritime Ltd. and German ship managers Reederei NORD GmbH and Bernhard Schulte GmbH & Co. KG have entered into an agreement to combine their chartering activities in the container and dry bulk segment.
Under the deal, Borealis will become a partner in the joint venture “O&S Chartering” which Reederei Nord and Bernhard Schulte founded in 2013. As a result, O&S Chartering will change its name to “Hanseatic Unity Chartering”.
The present fleet of O&S Chartering is 112 ships strong. Following its acquisition of Hanseatic Asset Ship Management from Commerzbank, Borealis will add 35 ships to the joint fleet, which will then comprise 119 container vessels from 700 to 9,400 TEU and 26 bulk carriers from 37,000 to 77,000 DWT including newbuildings. The average age of the ships in water will be 7 years.
“Being one of the fastest growing shipowners, Borealis will contribute a modern and financially sound fleet which will complement the existing vessels in our fleet. This will allow the three partners to offer a further enhanced fleet of vessels to our Charterers in the Liner Industry and Dry Bulk Chartering,” said John Freydag, Managing Director Container & Bulk Chartering of Bernhard Schulte and O&S Chartering.
“Hanseatic Unity Chartering combines Borealis Maritime’s chartering activities with two of the industries most recognised and respected owners, and it consolidates a large and homogenous modern fleet with particular focus on the container feeder segment. This combination gives us a chartering platform run by a highly qualified team in Europe and Asia and allows us to provide best in class commercial management services for our expanding fleet,” adds Christoph Toepfer, CEO of Borealis Maritime.
According to the joint statement, it is the long term strategy of Hanseatic Unity Chartering to grow further and the joint venture encouraged further suitable vessels/owners to join.
-Source: worldmaritimenews.com