Schulte Group acquires LNG ship manager PRONAV

Hamburg shipowning and management group Bernhard Schulte is expanding its management services for LNG carriers with the takeover of specialist service provider PRONAV.

A purchase agreement was signed just before Christmas and is still subject to approval by the German antitrust authority.

Closing of the transaction is expected by the middle of February, a representative of Bernhard Schulte told Fairplay, explaining that the deal put the group in a “top position to exploit further shipowning and ship management potential in the booming LNG market”.

PRONAV was established in Hamburg in 1995 with a clear focus on project development, full technical management, and crew management for LNG carriers.

According to IHS Markit data, it currently has management responsibility for six vessels, four of them operated by Qatargas Liquefied Gas and two of them by Rasgas: Al Ghariya, Al Ruwais, Al Safliya, Duhail, Milaha Qatar, and Milaha Ras Laffan.

The two operating companies under the PRONAV brand, Consulting/Crew Management and Ship Management, were sold for an undisclosed sum by their managing owners Karl-Wiegand Braun, Jan Karl Themlitz, Kai Ramming, Klaus-Peter Stahl, and Vili Vrenko.

The Schulte Group representative told Fairplay that PRONAV would continue operating with about 30 shore-based staff as an independent entity within the group for the time being. Strategic options including integration with the group’s third-party management division, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), are going to be reviewed over time.

PRONAV says on its website that it performed more than 2,100 LNG carrying voyages, with 4,200 cargo transfer operations during the first two decades since its launch.

Its acquisition adds major competence to Bernhard Schulte in a business area destined for significant growth.

Schulte already provides various third-party management services to 23 LNG tankers and has invested in one owned LNG bunker vessel and one owned LNG carrier with a capacity of 174,000 m³. Both are still under construction.

source: fairplay.ihs.com