The German shipowners Schües and Bunnemann have agreed to the sale of Gram Car Carriers. However, their involvement in Global Auto Carriers remains.
MSC, the shipping company led by Gianluigi Aponte and based in Geneva, wants to take over Gram Car Carriers from Norway. A purchase offer worth a total of 700 million dollars is on the table. [ds_preview]
All important shareholders, including F. Laeizs and the AL Group, the two major shareholders from Germany, have already agreed to a possible takeover of GCC by the Italians. As they now emphasise, their involvement in Global Auto Carriers is not affected by this.
Four new buildings for Global Auto Carriers
Both shipping families also have a significant stake in this second company in the car carrier segment. In addition, the Steensland family (owner of Solvang ASA) and Morten Astrup (owner of the investment company SurfSide) are among the founding shareholders.
GCC and GAC are closely intertwined not only in terms of personnel, but also through a commercial management contract. On behalf of GAC, four dual-fuel car carriers with 7,000 CEU each are currently being built at the Jinling Weihai shipyard in China, with F. Laeisz initially taking over the construction supervision and later also the technical management of the newbuildings.
The GAC shareholders now emphasise that GAC will remain independent as ship owner and tonnage provider and is not part of a possible deal with MSC. There is also no exclusive contract with GCC.
The shareholders’ strategy has always been to secure long-term employment relationships with first-class charterers. This will not change with the forthcoming change of ownership at Gram Car Carriers.
