Senior management have bought out a shareholding in salvage company Ardent with help from an alternative finance company.

The stake — the size of which was not identified — was purchased from Ardent's co-owners Svitzer and Crowley Holdings, part of Crowley Maritime Corp.

Financing for the buy-out was provided by Aurelius Finance Company, an alternative direct lender based in London.

"Following the deal, Ardent will have expanded financial resources to help develop its position at the forefront of both the emergency management and off-shore decommissioning industries whilst in addition expanding its offering of select sub-sea services," the company said in a news release Thursday.

Svitzer and Crowley have refocused their businesses away from the salvage sector in recent years.

Ardent, which specialises in salvage, wreck removal and offshore decommissioning, was established in 2015 following the merger of Svitzer Salvage and Titan Salvage.

The road ahead

Chief executive Peter Pietka will continue to lead Ardent with the same team, assets and growth plan, according to a release on Thursday.

“Over the past four years, Ardent has successfully evolved from a provider purely focused on emergency management to one that is also an established player in the fast growing off-shore decommissioning market," Pietka said.

The company will also continue to cooperate with Svitzer and Crowley Maritime Corp on what Ardent described as "unchanged terms".

“I believe that we have found the right partners for the next stage in Ardent’s development," said Knud Winkler, Svitzer's global chief financial officer.

Over its 185-year history, Svitzer has moved away from its roots in salvage and today focuses on mainly on towage and other marine services, he added.

"To allow Ardent and Svitzer to continue growing within their respective business areas, we decided that this is the right time to restructure its ownership arrangements and we are very happy with the partnership between Ardent and Aurelius, which brings new significant firepower to the business," Winkler said.

Dan Warner, senior vice-president and treasurer of Crowley Maritime, said the Ardent buy-out was a good fit with Crowley’s growth plans away from the salvage sector.

"The deal will enable Crowley to continue its successful focus on services that add superior value for government and commercial customers, including non-asset-based solutions that complement our transportation services on land and sea," Warner said.

Ardent's main operational hubs are in Houston in the US; Ijmuiden, Netherlands; Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

The financial terms of the buy-out were not been disclosed and closing the transaction is subject to approval by German anti-trust authorities.