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Hamburg shipowning and management group Bernhard Schulte is expanding its management services for LNG carriers with the takeover of specialist service provider PRONAV.<\/p>\nHamburg shipowning and management group Bernhard Schulte is expanding its management services for LNG carriers with the takeover of specialist service provider PRONAV.<\/p>\n
A purchase agreement was signed just before Christmas and is still subject to approval by the German antitrust authority.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
PRONAV was established in Hamburg in 1995 with a clear focus on project development, full technical management, and crew management for LNG carriers.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Its acquisition adds major competence to Bernhard Schulte in a business area destined for significant growth.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
source: fairplay.ihs.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hamburg shipowning and management group Bernhard Schulte is expanding its management services for LNG carriers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritimes-news"],"yoast_head":"\n