Dutch maritime giant Royal Boskalis Westminster has expanded its US salvage footprint with a deal to buy Ardent Americas.
Boskalis, which also has towage, heavylift and dredging interests, did not reveal any financial details.
The company said Ardent is a leading player under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90) for the provision of marine emergency response services in the US.
Under OPA90, the US Coast Guard requires shipowners trading in US waters to have an agreement in place with approved companies for salvage and marine firefighting services.
Ardent Americas' OPA90 programme covers 500 shipowners and more than 4,000 vessels.
"Through this acquisition Boskalis further strengthens its existing position in the US maritime salvage market," the Dutch outfit said.
The group is already active in the same OPA90 market through its subsidiary Smit Salvage, which has a joint venture in place with Donjon Marine.
Formed by merger in 2015
Ardent Americas was established in 2015 following the merger of Svitzer Salvage and Titan Salvage, and operates from Houston and Fort Lauderdale.
It was until now a subsidiary of Ardent Global Marine Services, headquartered in Ijmuiden in the Netherlands.
The idea of the 2015 merger was to diversify from traditional salvage to a full range of emergency management services, project related work, offshore decommissioning and underwater services.
The takeover move comes a little over a year after Boskalis cut back its towage operations, leaving it with cash to spend.
Last March, Boskalis and co-shareholder Kotug International agreed to sell Kotug Smit Towage to Spain's Boluda Group in a deal valuing the company at €300m ($340m).
Boskalis expected to receive €90m in cash for its 50% holding in the joint venture, which operates more than 70 units.
The month before, Boskalis said it was selling its stake in SAAM Smit Towage in a deal valuing the company at more than $500m.
Boskalis and SAAM formed the joint venture in 2014, but SAAM struck a deal to pay $201m in cash for sole control.
The Boskalis group still has a fleet of more than 700 vessels.
It has partnerships in harbour towage and terminal services through Keppel Smit Towage and Smit Lamnalco.
