Johnson Marine merges with Gripship A/S

Establishing AquaShip.
The Norwegian wellboat company GripShip AS (“GripShip”) and the Shetland-based wellboat, harvest and service vessel company Johnson Marine Ltd (“Johnson Marine”) have decided to combine their businesses through a jointly held parent company to be named AquaShip. The entities will be combined after a capital raising process, to be managed by SpareBank 1 Markets, which is expected to be completed by July 3, 2018. The new holding company, AquaShip, will subsequent to the fund-raising, apply for listing at the Merkur Market with the aim of a successive listing at the Oslo Axess, during second half of 2018.

AquaShip will hold 18 vessels, with a combined value of appx NOK 725 million, all vessels on TC contracts with reputable fish-farmers in five countries. The combined company will have 8 live-fish carriers, 4 harvest vessels and 6 service vessels. The combined EBITDA for the company was NOK 92 million for the fiscal year 2017.

Both Johnson Marine and GripShip will continue as independent operative units and companies, with its local offices in Shetland, Kristiansund and in Chile.