India: ABG Shipyard to Invest USD 300 Million into Owning and Operating Ships

Indian shipbuilder ABG Shipyard is planning to invest up to $300m to venture into owning and operating ships, the company’s senior official said. ABG Shipyard has started taking orders to build ships from its own ship operating affiliates, and established four dedicated companies – three in Singapore and one in Norway – in the past 12 months to own and operate ships.

ABG Group, controlling company of ABG Shipyard, already operates 10 ships currently chartered out to different clients. “We plan to invest as much as $300m to buy fleet,” said Dhananjay Datar, cfo at ABG Shipyard. The yard is capable of constructing offshore support vessels, oil drilling rigs, crude oil tankers and bulk carriers. The venture by ABG Shipyard follows a lost takeover bid early last year for offshore vessels owner Great Offshore to smaller rival Bharati Shipyard.

(seatrade-asia)

[mappress]

Source: seatrade-asia, June 23, 2011; Image:abgindia