Splash247: Golden Ocean name consigned to history after CMB.TECH takeover

One of the world’s most famous names in shipping has disappeared following a shareholder vote yesterday in Bermuda. 

Golden Ocean Group, originally founded in 1978 by Fred Cheng before being sold under Chapter 11 protection to John Fredriksen’s Frontline in 2000, has now been folded into Alexander Saverys-led CMB.TECH with its shares delisted in New York and Oslo. 

Fredriksen exited his 40.8% Golden Ocean holding earlier this year in March following a cash offer from CMB.TECH. The Golden Ocean fleet is heavily skewed towards larger vessels like newcastlemaxes and capesizes.

Following the merger with Golden Ocean, dry bulk will be CMB.TECH’s largest exposure followed by crude tankers, which form the Euronav VLCC and suezmax fleet. CMB.TECH also has a handful of chemical tankers, containerships, general cargo vessels and offshore wind installation vessels.

The combined CMB.TECH fleet now numbers around 250 vessels, making it one of Europe’s largest shipowners. The fleet has a fair market value of $11.1bn, and is young, with an average age of just 6.1 years.

CMB.TECH’s dry division, Bocimar, previously collaborated with Golden Ocean in Capesize Chartering Limited, a pool. 

Speaking on the Vonheim Show podcast earlier this week, Saverys noted that while some perceived the Golden Ocean deal as highly favourable for Fredriksen, and Norwegian media described CMB.TECH as “crazy,” he said he considered it a positive, intrinsic-value-driven acquisition.

In a release today, Saverys commented: “In less than 18 months, we have transformed a pure play crude oil tanker company into a large and leading diversified and future-proof maritime group.”

Saverys highlighted CMB.TECH’s growing fleet of alternatively fuelled vessels, stressing the goal to “decarbonise today to navigate tomorrow”.