Norway’s Kleven shipyard will now be chasing new investors to replace Hurtigruten as part of a restructuring.
The effort comes as Hurtigruten, the Norwegian cruiseship and ferry owner, gears up to pull out as a shareholder in the yard group once once it receives second of its exploration cruiseships, the 20,900-gt Fridtjof Nansen, from Kleven around the end of this year.
The arrangements are part of a restructuring plan that will allowed the shipyard to survive after delivery of the vessel.
The shipbuilder's activities will continue under an entity known as New Kleven, which is a co-operation between the yard, banks, the Export Credit Norway (GIEK) and Hurtigruten. The new company will over all yard facilities, debt and employees.
The staff will however be cut from some 250 to 150.
Kleven delivered the first exploration cruiseship, the 20,900-dwt Roald Amundsen, to Hurtigruten this summer. It was a year late, due to technical problems. The ships reportedly had a price tag of $130m each.
Initially Hurtigruten will supply New Kleven with various repair jobs until it pulls out as shareholder at the end of this year.
Ulsteinvik-based Kleven is one of the larger shipyards in Norway and was originally family owned.
