Global aquaculture shipping services company Aquaship AS/Intership AS through its majority owner American Industrial Partners (AIP) has acquired FSV Group AS. Together, the companies form one of the world’s largest maritime service providers for the aquaculture industry, offering a suite of services and vessels tailored to meet the industry’s needs, including transportation, treatment, feed distribution, harvesting and site services.
“We are an excellent match as our companies share a similar mindset and are built around a culture of innovation, creativity, and solving real-world challenges and opportunities for the industry. At the same time, we each specialise in different segments of the service industry and global markets. Now combined, we are able to deliver even more vessel types and services while maintaining the same high quality,” Aquaship/Intership CEO Ole Peter Brandal said.
The group will maintain its main bases in Hareid, Molde, and Kristiansund, located in Norway’s Møre og Romsdal region.
More than 1,000 employees will work across Norway, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the Faroe Islands. The combined companies will also operate a fleet of 60 vessels, with eight additional vessels also being built.
“We are positioning ourselves for growth across the full spectrum of innovative technology and know-how across each of the critical services that the aquaculture industry increasingly demands worldwide. With global innovation hubs continuing to develop solutions to improve aquaculture vessel operations and resulting farmer production volumes and yields, but now with one of the industry’s largest network of vessel types and geographies to collaborate across, we will keep striving to anticipate and exceed customer expectations. This combination moves us still farther ahead of the curve,” FSV CEO Arild Aasmyr said.
FSV has developed a new concept for premium service vessels and operates a world-class, modern fleet. Intership has built one of the world’s most advanced wellboat fleets and has positioned itself as an innovative player through the use of fish-friendly freshwater treatments for sea lice and gill diseases.
Aquaship merged with Intership a year ago.
“Over the past year, the team at Aquaship and Intership have worked closely to deliver exceptional service for our customers. Now, we look forward to collaborating with the FSV team to create a highly complementary combination that will enable us to further support our customers as a key infrastructure partner in all manners of their aquaculture operations. This is an exceptional global platform in a rapidly growing and evolving industry,” AIP Partner Alex Schukin said.
“We have grown to a size where taking the next step requires even greater resources, capacity, and expertise. After thorough evaluation of different options, we believe this is the optimal way to offer our customers an even broader and better range of services while ensuring our employees have exciting career opportunities and room for growth,” FSV Chairman and Co-founder Per Olav Myrstad said.
Brandal will continue as CEO of the group, while Aasmyr will remain CEO of FSV.
The three companies are also seeking more employees, both onshore and at sea.
“There are synergies and economies of scale that strengthen our competitiveness. But this isn’t about reducing headcount. Quite the opposite – we need more people both in Norway and globally. The main reason for joining forces is to provide customers with a better offering. Additionally, this creates many more exciting career opportunities for our employees,” Aasmyr said.
Arctic Securities acted as financial advisers to the sellers, while DNB Markets acted as financial advisor to AIP in connection with the transaction.
