TransAtlantic Enters Partnership Agreement with AtoB@C Shipping

Rederi AB TransAtlantic has entered into an agreement with AtoB@C Shipping AB where TransAtlantic effectively outsources all the commercial activities of its Short Sea Bulk division, starting September 1, 2013. Additionally, the agreement sets the terms for the chartering out all of TransAtlantic’s short sea bulk vessels to AtoB@C. TransAtlantic will continue to have ownership of its current short sea bulk fleet and also continue the current charters of short sea bulk vessels. AtoB@C will charter in these ships from TransAtlantic.

This partnership enables AtoB@C to gain more scale and efficiencies than TransAtlantic and AtoB@C have previously had separately. It effectively creates a Nordic top player in the Baltic short sea bulk market. This has obvious benefits for the customers of both TransAtlantic and AtoB@C.

TransAtlantic’s strategy is to become a more dominant player in key markets by focusing on the Baltic RoRo and Container segments. Entering into the agreement with AtoB@C fits very well with this strategy and is part of TransAtlantic’s restructuring and repositioning program.

”Short Sea Bulk is no longer part of our core business. The agreement with AtoB@C enables us to intensify our activities in our two key segments, RoRo and Container. At the same time, it removes around SEK 100 million of unprofitable quarterly revenue”, says Heléne Mellquist, President TransAtlantic Industrial Shipping division. ”Overall, this transaction should be accretive to the Industrial Shipping division’s earnings from day one.”

As a result of this partnership, TransAtlantic will make reductions in staffing in order to reflect the decreased commercial workload. This will affect around 20 people. Negotiations with the appropriate unions have been initiated.

[mappress]

TransAtlantic, August 23, 2013